Knowg Gays and Lbians, Relig Conflicts, Beliefs about Homosexualy | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• CAN YOU BE GAY AND RELIG
• CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
• LETTERS TO THE EDOR: I’M GAY AND DON’T WANT TO PATRONIZE BIGOTS. THANKS, SUPREME COURT
• SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

CAN YOU BE GAY AND RELIG

Feelg the tensn between his unrstandg of the Bible and the realy of his same-sex orientatn, V voted years of tensive rearch to what the Bible says about homosexualy. Unique s affirmatn of both an orthodox fah and sexual diversy, God and the Gay Christian has sparked heated bate, scere soul searchg, and wispread cultural change on the issue of what means to be a fahful gay Christian. In this groundbreakg book, Lee rells the events–his g out to his parents, his experienc wh the “ex-gay” movement, and his -pth study of the Bible–that led him, eventually, to self-acceptance.

But more than jt a memoir, TORN provis sightful, practil guidance for all mted Christians who wonr how to relate to gay iends or fay members–or who stggle wh their own sexualy. Convced that “ a culture that se gays and Christians as enemi, gay Christians are a unique posn to brg peace, ” Lee monstrat that people of fah on both sis of the bate n rpect, learn om, and love one another. A spate of books and vios and article and blogs would tell that, ed, that is not the gospel and that the good news of J is that you n follow Him and enjoy a mted, homosexual relatnship too.

4:12-13) we will humble ourselv before the Lord, keepg our foc on J and askg the Father to give His heart for those who intify as LGBT, lettg the unequivol ttimony of Scripture gui , we will fd, what do the Word of God say about homosexual practice? The ttimony of Scripture remas unchanged: The Bible forbids homosexual is clear that the vast majory of those who have changed their views on what the Bible says about homosexualy and now believe “gay Christiany” have done so based on eher their own same-sex sir and attractns or their teractn wh “gay Christians” (or wh any gay or lbian person who challeng their assumptns) other words, they have not changed their thkg based on study of the Scriptur alone sce no new textual, archaeologil, soclogil, anthropologil, or philologil disveri have been ma the last fifty years that would e to read any of the biblil texts another way, is not that we have gaed some new sights to what the biblil text means based on the study of the Hebrew and Greek texts. This is the guaranteed path to Word of God, which reprents His heart and will for His creatn, is absolutely clear on the subject, prohibg all forms of homosexual practice.

CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?

First, they claim that the vers have been mistranslated, misterpreted, or mised, and so, realy, the Scriptur do not prohib monogamo, mted, homosexual relatnships.

There are a few, very strong, very clear, referenc to homosexual practice—every one of them cidly negative—and then not a sgle reference to homosexual practice throughout the rt of the Bible. Throughout the Word, the only relatnships that were acceptable God’s sight or nsired normal for society were heterosexual relatnships, and so homosexual practice was eher irrelevant (bee had nothg to do wh the God-ordaed relatnships of marriage and fay and society) or, if mentned, explicly give jt one example out of hundreds, when a gay uple reads the Word and they e to Pl’s words Ephians 5:22, 25, “Wiv, subm to your own hbands, as to the Lord.... A man pl a man or a woman pl a woman nnot possibly share the same unn as a man and a woman sce they do not share the sential of fundamental samens and rephrase the famo axm of John Gray, namely, that men are om Mars and women are om Ven, Mars + Mars or Ven + Ven nnot ever equal Mars + the words of a man who has lived as a homosexual all his life (he’s now past 70) but has recently found the Lord, “Even an atheist n unrstand the lack of anatomil plementary and therefore blogil purpose male-to-male or female-to-female sexualy.

”To everyone who profs to be a gay Christian, I ask you to get alone wh God and ask yourself, “Did God create and sign me to be wh the same-sex or the oppose sex? What the biblil thors rejected, we are told, was man-boy relatnships, or male prostutn, or homosexual the sful practic were certaly rejected, but biblil thors like Pl were certaly aware of long-term, male-male importantly, Hebrews 4:13 stat that “no creature is hidn om [God’s] sight, but all are naked and exposed to the ey of him to whom we mt give acunt.

LETTERS TO THE EDOR: I’M GAY AND DON’T WANT TO PATRONIZE BIGOTS. THANKS, SUPREME COURT

”And are they willg to say that the Lord J, who lerally looked to the hearts and souls of human begs—John 2:25 says that He knew what was man—didn’t unrstand that certa people were “gay? The gospel brgs good news to homosexual men and theologians tell that the tradnal gospel msage is a “bad tree, ” brgg forth the bad u of prsn, apostasy, and even suici among gay men and the ntrary, the msage of the gospel brgs fivens, eedom, hope, and liverance, as untls thoands of ex-gays n attt, by which I mean followers of J who no longer practice homosexualy.

The Orlando shootg was a hate crime agast gay people – even if, once emerged that the attacker had been a Mlim, many people claimed this as a terrorist attack rather than a hate crime. Sce the massacre there has been a lot of speculatn about Islam and homosexualy and there are fears that one man’s spible act of terrorism uld fan the flam of Islamophobia and other forms of social excln, leadg to disrd and unrt an era of elevated Islamophobia. They tend to draw on the story of Lot the Koran (also the Old Ttament) which reunts the stctn of the tribe of Lot allegedly due to their engagement homosexual acts as “evince” for God’s nmnatn of homosexualy.

SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

Although rearch to attus towards homosexualy the general populatn pots to mographic variabl, such as age and level of tn, as key termants of the nature of attus, this has not been the se my own work wh Brish Mlims. Moreover, there was a fundamental rejectn of sentialist arguments ncerng the origs of sexual orientatn – that people are born gay and that they do not “choose” to be gay – and terviewe often argued that people had “chosen” to be gay.

Some people spoke fondly of their LGBT iends, neighbours and acquatanc, suggtg that first-hand ntact may challenge homophobia which exists at an abstract, nceptual level. In view of the generally negative attus towards homosexualy Mlim muni and the silence that n surround discsns of sexualy, most of my Mlim gay terviewe have manifted a poor self-image and low psychologil well-beg.

It is easy to see how belief the negativy of homosexualy om the perspective of one’s fah (which, untls studi has emerged as an important inty among Brish Asian Mlims) uld e some gay Mlims to velop ternalised homophobia and, some s, to doubt the thenticy of their Mlim inty. Ccially, makg sense of the “” unrlyg their sexual orientatn, some gay Mlims were of the view that they had “bee” gay as a rult of their social environment and nsequently blamed Brish society:. I’m gay bee I was brought up here [ Bra] but I reckon if I’d been brought up Pakistan then I would have turned out straight bee this don’t happen that much there.