“God Ma me Gay for a Reason”: Young Men who have Sex wh Men’s Riliency Rolvg Internalized Homophobia om Relig Sourc - PMC

Contents:

• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
• DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?
• “WHY DON’T GOD ANSWER PRAYERS TO TAKE AWAY GAY FEELGS?”
• “HELP! I’M A GAY CHRISTIAN”
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?
• DEAR GOD, ARE YOU THERE? A GAY MAN’S PRAYER
• “GOD MA ME GAY FOR A REASON”: YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN’S RILIENCY ROLVG INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA OM RELIG SOURC

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

Even if they agree wh the Bible that homosexualy is a s and rolve not to seek fulfillment of their sexual sir, they mt still fd love other relatnships—the self-sacrificg love of agape and the iendly pannship of phileo.

1 Timothy 1:9-11 “We also know that the law is ma not for the righteo but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sful, the unholy and irrelig, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murrers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicg homosexualy, for slave trars and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is ntrary to the sound doctre that nforms to the gospel ncerng the glory of the blsed God, which he entsted to me.

Pl was speakg to the Church of Corth and he said, “do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, 10 nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God. Our Christian hearts, ns the (ually impassned) argument, pel to grant full moral and legal equaly to gay and lbian people; our Christian fah, the (ually impassned) rebuttal, pels to cleave, above all, to the word of God. They assert that the Bible f all homosexual acts as sful, stcts them to exclu om full participatn the church all non-repentant sners (cludg gay people), and morally lls upon them to publicly (or at least rolutely) nounce homosexual acts.

DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?

Whout an explic directive om God to exclu and nmn homosexuals, the Christian muny’s treatment of gay persons is clear vlatn of what J and the New Ttament wrers potedly intified as one-half of God’s most important mandment: to love one’s neighbor as one’s self.

“WHY DON’T GOD ANSWER PRAYERS TO TAKE AWAY GAY FEELGS?”

Heterosexual Christians are beg unbiblil by g the clobber passag as jtifitn for applyg absolute standards of moraly to homosexual “ss” that they themselv are not tempted to m, while at the same time acceptg for themselv a standard of relative moraly for those ss listed the clobber passag that they do routely m.

If heterosexual Christians are obligated to look to the Bible to terme the sfulns of homosexual acts, how much greater is their obligatn to look to the Bible to terme the sfulns of their behavr toward gay persons, pecially light of the gay muny’s ll to them for jtice?

“HELP! I’M A GAY CHRISTIAN”

Such Christians draw no moral distctn between the homosexual gang rape the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the i to which Pl refers his letter to the Romans, the wild sexual abandon Pl addrs 1 Corthians, and nsensual homosexual sex between lovg and mted homosexual partners. Heterosexual Christians are beg unfair and hypocril by g the clobber passag as jtifitn for applyg absolute standards of moraly (and an absolute penalty) to homosexual “ss” that they themselv are never tempted to m, while at the same time acceptg for themselv a standard of relative moraly (and applyg no real penalty) for those ss listed the clobber passag that they do routely m.

As there is no monstrable harm arisg om sex wh a mted homosexual relatnship, and there is signifint monstrable harm arisg om the discrimatn agast and nmnatn of gay persons, what possible biblil basis n there be for not regnizg the vast moral differenc between sex acts done wh the ntext of a lovg mted relatnship, and sex acts of any other sort? We also know that the law is ma not for the righteo but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sful, the unholy and irrelig, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murrers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicg homosexualy, for slave trars and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is ntrary to the sound doctre.

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

The Bible’s clobber passag were wrten about same-sex acts between heterosexual persons, and do not addrs the subject of homosexual acts between a mted gay uple, bee the ncept of a person beg homosexual did not exist at the time the Bible was wrten. It is cril to our readg of the New Ttament’s three clobber passag to unrstand that while Pl would have known about sex acts that took place between persons of the same genr, he would have had no ncept whatsoever of homosexual persons. Sexual relatns between persons of the same sex certaly did occur (they are wily attted ancient sourc), but they were not systematilly distguished or nceptualized as such, much ls were they thought to reprent a sgle, homogeneo phenomenon ntradistctn to sexual relatns between persons of different sex.

Taken all together, the evince—the social ntext which the Bible was wrten, the lack of the very ncept of gay people Pl’s time, the abily of gay people to marry, the equy between how the clobber passag are applied between a majory and a mory populatn, the jtice of excln om God’s church on earth and om human love as the punishment for a state of beg over which one has no choice—nclively shows that choosg to nmn and exclu gay people based on the Bible is the morally rrect choice. She is a equent speaker for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) and Stonecroft Mistri (Christian Women's Connectns), and serv on the board of Livg Hope Mistri, a Christ-centered outreach to those alg wh unwanted homosexualy.

DEAR GOD, ARE YOU THERE? A GAY MAN’S PRAYER

I thk that the reason gay people are so much pa isn’t bee the world hat gays and is homophobic, which is the polilly rrect explanatn you get the days, but ’s bee somethg went wrong and ’s paful not to be able to relate rrectly and healthily to people of the oppose sex.

“The nscienc of today’s Christians are beg rpted by the opprsive cultural i and the extreme social prsure surroundg the issue of homosexualy, but we know that the law of the Lord is wrten on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-33) and though we may succeed mutg our nscience, the Word of God is eternal, ” Cook said. Keywords: relign, spirualy, gay, young men who have sex wh men, ternalized homophobiaThere has been a growg body of rearch foced on the relatnship between religsy and adolcent health and well-beg (Nonnemaker, McNeely, & Blum, 2003; Werner & Smh, 1992). Given the unique velopmental stage of adolcence and emergg adulthood and the fact that most religns across the globe offer teachgs that nmn or rtrict homosexual behavr, is particularly important to unrstand YMSM’s experienc and challeng as they stggle to tegrate their sexual inty wh their relig/spirual beliefs.

Rearch among olr populatns of MSM and other lbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adults dite that religsy n ntribute to inty dissonance between sexual sir and relig beliefs for sexual mory dividuals, which n be rolved by changg religns, reexamg relig texts and doctre, abandong relign, or turng to a more dividualized sense of spirualy (Leong, 2006; Schuck & Liddle, 2001; Thumms, 1991; Yip, 1997, 2005). Mory Strs and Internalized HomophobiaInternalized homophobia, also referred to as ternalized heterosexism (Szymanski & Chung, 2003) or sexual prejudice (Herek, 2004), n be fed as directg anti-gay social attus towards the self, leadg to a valuatn of the self, ternal nflicts and poor self-regard (Meyer & Dean, 1998). Internalized homophobia has also been lked to substance abe, lower levels of self teem and eatg disorrs among both gay and lbian populatns (Cabaj, 1996; Ross & Simon Rosser, 1996; Rowen & Mallm, 2002; Williamson & Hartley, 1998).

“GOD MA ME GAY FOR A REASON”: YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN’S RILIENCY ROLVG INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA OM RELIG SOURC

Followg on this work, Ream (2001) found that trsic religsy was not herently a risk factor for ternalized homophobia among sexual mory youth; rather, the homophobic msag often prent relig views and livered a relig ntext tend to predict ternalized homophobia. G., relig, school) such as: avoidg church altogether, seekg an alternative church, or g “selective listeng” to avoid ternalizg homophobic msag (McDavt et al., 2009) the range of cisns and experienc that YMSM will make durg their emergg adulthood, is important to unrstand the procs and growth that young men experience while sortg out potential nflicts between relig/spirual beliefs and their sexual inty. Young men were eligible to participate the study if they were: a) 18- to 24-years old; b) self-intified as gay, bisexual, or uncerta of their sexual orientatn and/or reported havg had sex wh a man; c) self-intified as Csian, Ain Amerin, or Lato of Mexin scent; and d) a rint of Los Angel County, and they anticipated livg Los Angel for at least six men were reced at public venu (e.

Axial dg was then nducted to piece the data back together to fully scribe the procs, leadg to the stcture of this paper which scrib: 1) the homophobic msag heard relig ntexts; 2) how the msag were ternalized; 3) the effects of the msag on inty and self perceptn; and 4) the often plited strategi the young men employed to pe wh the msag and ntue their spirual, relig, and/or personal velopment. The majory of the HYM sample (81%) intified as gay, wh 12% intifyg as 1Dcriptn of the Study Sample om Wave 3 Survey (N = 483) and Qualative Study (N = 36)VariablCategoriTotal Sample n (%)Qualative Rponnts n (%)Age18 – 19 yrs88 (18)6 (17)20 – 21 yrs195 (40)18 (50)22+ yrs200 (41)12 (33)Race/ethnicyAin- Amerin115 (24)12 (33)Csian192 (40)12 (33)Mexin scent176 (36)12 (33)RinceFay237 (49)16 (44)Own place/apartment203 (42)17 (47)Wh iends/partner31 (6)1 (3)No regular place/other12 (3)2 (6)EmploymentIn school50 (10)6 (17)In school, employed149 (31)6 (17)Employed, not school235 (49)19 (53)Not employed, not school49 (10)5 (14)Edutn levelLs than high school26 (5)2 (6)High school/GED110 (23)6 (17)Votnal17 (4)- (0)Some llege284 (59)26 (72)College gree46 (10)2 (6)Sexual intyGay390 (81)28 (77)Other same-sex inty23 (5)2 (6)Bisexual57 (12)4 (11)Straight6 (1)--Don’t know/Refe7 (1)2 (6)Sexual attractnMal only339 (70)25 (69)Mal and femal131 (27)10 (28)Femal only7 (1)1 (3)Neher/don’t know6 (1)--Immigratn statBorn outsi US74 (15)7 (19)Born US407 (84)29 (81)Level of religsyNot at all relig138 (29)10 (28)Not very relig124 (26)14 (39)Somewhat relig172 (36)11 (31)Very relig43 (9)1 (3)Level of spirualyNot at all spirual37 (8)4 (11)Not very spirual60 (13)8 (22)Somewhat spirual216 (45)12 (33)Very spirual168 (35)12 (33)Table 2 prents data related to relig affiliatn and the past and prent role of relign and spirualy rponnts’ liv.