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

Contents:

• CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
• CAN A PERSON BE GAY AND STILL BE A CHRISTIAN?
• CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FIR GAY SOCCER COACH OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
• CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
• SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• HOW TO BE AN OPENLY GAY CHRISTIAN
• ARE GAY CHRISTIANS GENUE CHRISTIANS?
• CAN CHRISTIANS BE GAY?
• CAN A GAY OR LBIAN PERSON GO TO HEAVEN?
• IS IT A S TO BE GAY?

CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

Romans 1:26-27 not gay activy as "unnatural" while 1 Corthians 6:9-10 lists same sex activy as somethg done by those who will "not her the kgdom of God. In fact, Pl's list clus, "the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers" (1 Corthians 6:9-10).

Do not be ceived; neher fornitors, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemate, nor homosexuals, nor thiev, nor the veto, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers, will her the kgdom of God” (1 Corthians 6:9-10). While is unniable, biblilly speakg, that homosexualy is immoral and unnatural (Romans 1:26-27), no sense do the Bible scribe homosexualy as an unfivable s. It is nsistent, for example, to clare those guilty of pre-maral sex as “disobedient Christians, ” while clarg homosexuals fively non-Christians.

However, the scriptn “gay Christian” is not accurate for such a person, sce he/she do not sire to be gay, and is stgglg agast the temptatns. Such a person is not a “gay Christian, ” but rather is simply a stgglg Christian, jt as there are Christians who stggle wh fornitn, lyg, and stealg.

IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

If the phrase “gay Christian” refers to a person who actively, perpetually, and unrepentantly liv a homosexual liftyle – no, is not possible for such a person to tly be a Christian. Some morn Bible translatns say that “homosexuals” will not her the kgdom of God, but neher the ncept nor the word for people wh exclive same-sex attractn existed before the late 19th century. Requirg that all gay people rema celibate is at odds wh the Bible’s teachgs on celibacy, which are ground Scripture’s re affirmatn that God’s physil creatn is good.

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

Matthew V is the thor of God and the Gay Christian and is the founr of The Reformatn Project, a Bible-based non-prof anizatn that seeks to reform church teachg on sexual orientatn and genr inty.

However, to bate the issue serly and tthfully, we mt seek an hont picture of what our opponents actually believe — workg om what we thk they believe is neher helpful nor there are people of many diverse beliefs and nvictns — cludg gay and lbian people — who oppose same-sex marriage, here are 10 foundatnal tths that rm the tradnal, orthodox Christian belief. (Photo: Shane Idleman)Many "Christians" are now suggtg that those who embrace the homosexual liftyle n live harmony wh biblil Christiany. When children stggle wh s, parents should pot them to the those who fend homosexualy, or who say nothg, tly lovg the homosexual, or are they simply seekg to avoid nflict?

For stance, if they are more worried about beg liked than beg tthful, do they really re for homosexuals more than those who are willg to risk their reputatn, and que possibly their safety, orr to speak the tth love? Homosexuals who rema monogamo are also outsi of God's will bee the entire relatnship is wrong—the unn of two men or two women is not God's plan.

CAN A PERSON BE GAY AND STILL BE A CHRISTIAN?

Those who would exclu homosexuals om God’s kgdom choose to ignore J, turng stead to the Old Ttament – most particularly to Genis 19, the stctn of the ci of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Levic 18:22 and 20:13, for example, are not about “homosexualy” as we now unrstand – as the rg, lovg and sexual relatnship between people of the same sex. “Warng: Don’t take your dghter to see Barbie, ” the headle parents will wrongly believe Barbie is a kid-iendly film due to the film’s ti to the popular Barbie doll anchise, Moviegui film “fets s re dience of fai and children while terg to nostalgic adults and phg lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr character stori, ” Moviegui add. Geneva College, a Christian llege Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, has reportedly fired a gay soccer ach for Instagram posts she ma, the Beaver County Tim reported Thursday.

“She intifi as gay but remas celibate keepg wh the school’s , which forbids sex outsi of heterosexual marriage…she posted ‘Queer people offer prec gifts to the church: Don’t miss out’ and ‘J is radilly clive.

CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FIR GAY SOCCER COACH OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

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.

This is so clear that a number of leadg gay and lbian theologians acknowledge that they n only jtify “gay Christiany” by rejectg the full thory of Scripture. First, they claim that the vers have been mistranslated, misterpreted, or mised, and so, realy, the Scriptur do not prohib monogamo, mted, homosexual relatnships. To the ntrary, was so important that every sgle recipe the book mak no mentn of is exactly the same when to the Bible and homosexualy.

CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?

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?

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

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. ”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.

Majori now say homosexualy should be accepted by society (63%) and that the sexual orientatn of a gay or lbian person nnot be changed (60%). Though the vast majory of Amerins say they know gays or lbians, jt over a quarter (28%) say they know “a lot” of people who are gay or lbian, while 43% say they know some and 17% say they only know one or two gays or lbians.

While large majori of almost all mographic and partisan groups say they know someone who is gay or lbian, there are differenc both the number of gay and lbian acquatanc people have and whether people say they have close fay members or iends who are gay.

HOW TO BE AN OPENLY GAY CHRISTIAN

Millennials are among the most likely of any mographic or partisan group to say they know a lot of people who are gay or lbian: Nearly four--ten (38%) say so, pared wh fewer Gen Xers (28%), Boomers (22%) and Silents (15%). Millennials and Xers are also somewhat more likely than Boomers – and particularly Silents – to say they have close fay members or iends who are gay.

Fully four--ten (40%) of those who are not affiliated wh a relign say they personally know a lot of gays and lbians, while 8% say they know none. There are also siar — if somewhat more most — differenc across relig groups those who report havg close iends and fay members who are gay. There are also divis by muny type: People who live urban areas (32%) are more likely to know a lot of people who are gay and lbian than those who live suburban (27%) or ral (20%) muni.

About three-quarters (73%) of those who know a lot of gays and lbians – and two-thirds (66%) of those who have gay or lbian close iends or fay members – say they support same-sex marriage. And nearly half (48%) of Amerins wh many gay acquatanc, and 38% of those who have close iends or fay who are gay, strongly favor allowg gays and lbians to marry legally.

ARE GAY CHRISTIANS GENUE CHRISTIANS?

There is far ls support for same-sex marriage among those wh few or no gay or lbian acquatanc, as well as among those who do not have close iends or fay members who are gay or lbian. Jt 32% of those who do not have any gay or lbian acquatanc favor allowg gays and lbians to marry and 58% oppose (30% say they strongly oppose same-sex marriage). Conflict between relig beliefs and homosexualy is felt particularly strongly by whe evangelil Prottants, about seven--ten (72%) of whom say there is a nflict, cludg 64% who say there is “a lot” of nflict.

Six--ten black Prottants say there is eher a lot (48%) or a ltle (12%) nflict between their relig beliefs and homosexualy, while 53% of Catholics feel that their relig beliefs and homosexualy are some nflict (38% say there is a lot of nflict). Among those who go to servic at least weekly, 61% say there is a nflict between their beliefs and homosexualy (51% perceive “a lot” of nflict). When asked about possible reasons why people are gay or lbian, 47% say people are born gay or lbian, while slightly fewer (40%) say ’s jt the way some people choose to live; relatively few (7%) say beg gay or lbian is a rult of a person’s upbrgg.

CAN CHRISTIANS BE GAY?

About half of Millennials (51%) say people are born gay or lbian pared wh 47% of those Generatn X and the Silent Generatn, and 44% of Baby Boomers. College graduat are far more likely than those wh ls tn to say that people are born gay or lbian: 61% of llege graduat say this, pared wh 46% of those wh some llege experience and 39% of those wh no llege experience.

Comparable percentag of Democrats (55%) and pennts (53%) say people are born gay or lbian; about four--ten each group say ’s jt the way some people choose to live (37% of Democrats, 35% of pennts). The reverse is te among Republins: 50% say beg gay or lbian is jt the way some people choose to live, pared wh 34% who say people are born homosexual.

A majory of Amerins (60%) say they do not thk a gay or lbian person’s sexual orientatn n be changed; about half as many (33%) say they thk n be changed. The share sayg a gay person’s sexual orientatn nnot be changed has creased 18 pots sce 2003 (om 42%), and ne pots the past three years alone (om 51%).

CAN A GAY OR LBIAN PERSON GO TO HEAVEN?

Overall, 70% of Democrats and 62% of pennts say they do not thk a gay or lbian person’s sexual orientatn n be changed, up ne pots and 14 pots, rpectively, sce 2012. By ntrast, about as many Republins say a gay or lbian person’s sexual orientatn n be changed (45%) as say nnot be changed (47%); views among Republins are ltle changed sce 2012. Adults wh no relig affiliatn are among the most likely to say that a gay person’s sexual orientatn nnot be changed: 79% exprs this view, while jt 18% say homosexualy n be changed.

Most Amerins (57%) say they would not be upset if they had a child who told them he or she was gay or lbian; 39% say they would be upset about this, cludg 17% who say they would be very upset. A 1985 Los Angel Tim poll found fully 89% said they would be eher very upset (64%) or somewhat upset (25%) if their child told them he or she was gay or lbian.

IS IT A S TO BE GAY?

By 2000, the share sayg they would be upset about havg a gay child had fallen to 73%, and by 2013 jt 40% said they would be upset if a child of theirs said he or she was gay. For stance, 77% of those who say that homosexuals are born gay or lbian would not be upset if they learned that their child was gay or lbian.