Homosexuality and Religion

No topic is more mutually divisive and binding in the religious world today than the issue of homosexuality. The status and level of inclusion of gays and lesbians in communities of faith and what rights should be afforded homosexuals is a question of debate in many major denominations and religious groups. For the three Abrahamic Religions...Christianity, Judaism and Islam, homosexuality has provided a rare example of a true common cause - the harsh and virulent condemnation of homosexuality by religious authorities.

Old Testament views on sexuality was based on the fear of assimilation into the neighboring cultures, which prompted the prohibition of many sexual practices associated with outsiders. In Jewish History the hostility to foreign religions focused on the temple prostitutes, male and female, prominent in Middle Eastern Societies. In later periods of Jewish History, widespread fear of assimilation into Greek Culture led to greater hostility toward homosexuality. These condemnations were absorbed into, and amplified by early Christianity.

When the case is made for the legitimacy of same-sex love, critics rush in with three main defenses. Homosexuality is contrary to nature; Homosexuality is condemned in Scripture and t hat the acceptance of Homosexuality would ruin society. The most interesting thing about these three arguments is that they have been used in the past to defend what is now universally regarded as evil. In American history, slavery, segregation, and the denial of the vote to women all illustrate the point. In each of these instances nature and God were said to authorize a practice vital to the good of society.

When the analogies of the present controversy over homosexuality with the past are called to mind, the response is predictable. The issue of Homosexuality is different. It is sad that General Colin Powell, himself a distinguished Black Man of great ability, associated himself with the view that overcoming the segregation of the races in the military was different from removing the ban against gays. Homosexuality is the same as either of these past issues in that they all have the common element of oppression.

The slavery and segregation of African Americans, the subjugation of women, and the persecution of homosexuals are alike in that they all deny dignity, equality, and the full rights and privileges of citizenship to human beings for reasons that have no basis in fact or in sound moral reasoning.

Nearly all Americans now recognize that slavery, racial segregation, and the denial of the ballot to women were not good for society. They were not based on natural law. They were not ordained by God. No one who wishes to be taken seriously quotes the Bible to justify slavery, segregation, or the exclusion of women from holding public office. Now the time has come to say forthrightly that the condemnation of Homosexuality is no more a social necessity nor a mandate of nature and God than slavery, segregation or denial of the ballot to women.