Religion No Tolerance for Homosexuality

Homosexuality is surely a hot-button topic these days. It has caught the attention of almost everyone throughout the world today. A large percentage of the world’s population is spilt on whether or not homosexuality is acceptable. Those that believe that sexual orientation can not be controlled feel that gay people should not be treated any differently. The many that believe homosexuality is perverse argue that this is not what God wanted and therefore, it is sinful. Many religions, including Catholicism, have openly stated that they believe that homosexually is unnatural and wrong. The moral teachings of the Catholic religion promote intolerance against homosexuals.

Being gay or homosexual has been wildly discriminated against in the past, and it still is today. But this in it of itself posses a question: what makes someone homosexual? Science defines homosexuality as “attraction or sexual behavior between people of the same sex, or to a sexual orientation.” Although this concept is clearly defined explaining what makes someone so it makes it more complicated. Although there has been extensive research on the topic no one has pin pointed an exact reason behind Homosexuality, but that does not mean there have not been scientific findings on the matter. “Most scientist today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors.

Although homosexuality does not appear to be adaptive from an evolutionary standpoint, because homosexual sex does not produce children, there is evidence of its existence through human history. Although a number of biological factors have been considered by scientists, such as prenatal hormones, chromosomes, polygenetic effects, brain structure and viral influences, no scientific consensus exists as to how biology influences sexual orientation.” This conferments there although there is no concrete evidence supporting either side, making a claim that sexuality be controlled is unrealistic due to the scientific evidence out there. Pinpointing a specific cause of sexuality is not accurate rather understanding that the cause of homosexuality is most likely based on many factors and can not be easily controlled.

Homosexuality is a wildly talked about and debated topic in the United States and across the globe; however, it is still fairly new in terms of the legalization of gay marriage and in terms of people coming out. A large percentage of the population now believes that accepting gay rights is the correct thing to do and that discriminating against them in considered to be morally wrong and should be condemned. In a historic Supreme Court ruling, same-sex marriages was made legal nationwide in 2015. Many people in this era are now taking to the streets and fighting for equal rights for gays and those with different sexual orientations.

More and more we are seeing the acceptance level rising throughout the United States as well as the world. Years ago, not accepting homosexuals would have been considered the norm. People would use words such as fag, homo, and dyke to describe homosexuals. Gay people were ostracized and physically abused because of their sexual orientation. While acceptance of homosexuality in today’s society is on the rise, it is far from being completely embraced. In fact, it is still criminalized in 72 countries, and in eight of those countries it can result in the death penalty (theguardian.com). Many groups and religious institutions do not believe that homosexuality is what God intended or how people should behave and have very negative attitudes towards homosexuals.

The teachings as well as the moral teachings of the Catholic Church as well are mostly dictated by the Bible, which is the holy scripture of Christianity. In the Bible a wild rage of topic are discussed as well as what is considered right and wrong in those specific situations. Much of what is considered “right and wrong” has been determined by the Bible and the teaches that are derived from it. Many Christians quote the Bible to argue that being homosexual is wrong. In Leviticus Chapter 18 line 22 the Bible states that: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. The bible is explicitly saying that homosexuality is wrong an is there for a sin.

The bible then goes on to say in Leviticus Chapter 20 line 13 that if a man being with another man is punishable by death. “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Not only is the Bible saying that being homosexual or gay is wrong, but it is puniable by death. While that is outdated in todays terms it shows that being a homosexual in the eyes of Christian is a very bad sin that could be deadly. The very scripture that teaches people morals tells Christians that being gay is wrong in the eyes of God.

As with many institution the history is key to understanding how a church will act in the future. The church did not always have this view on homosexuality, in fact their view changed very rapidly. In “As late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there appears to be no conflict between a Christian life and homosexuality. Gay life is everywhere in the art, poetry, music, history, etc. of the 11th and 12th centuries. The most popular literature of the day even heterosexual literature, is about same­sex lovers of one sort or another…. After the twelfth century Christian tolerance and acceptance of gay love seems to disappear with remarkable rapidity. Beginning about 1150, for reasons I cannot adequately explain, there was a great upsurge in popular intolerance of gay people. There were also at this time violent outbursts against Jews, Muslims, and witches. Women were suddenly excluded from power structures to which they had previously had access-no longer able, for example, to attend universities in which they had previously been enrolled. double monasteries for men and women were closed.” Many people think that the church starting off being intolerant of gay people, and are now slowly being more accepting, this is not true. A strange unexplainable turn at the end of the 12 century century is responsible for this new behavior.

Many people can attest to discrimination inside of church today, and it is say that, “parishes have denied membership to LGBTQ individuals and families. There have also been recent instances of LGBTQ employees in the United States being dismissed from Catholic schools and parishes following the celebration of a same-sex couple’s marriage.” The church has show a backwards change in terms of how they look at homosexuality. It talks about acting on homosexual thoughts as sinful. On of the arguments that the church uses to explain why homosexuality is wrong is the family argument. The Church explains that the goal of marriage, and after that sex is for procreation and therefor natural. Homosexual relationships can not lead to children and since that is the bibles reason for having sex it is not natural and therefore wrong.

Growing up homosexual and Catholic can be challenging due to what the Bible says about homosexuality. Many people have experienced similar problems including Caroline Gasparini who attended Smith College. She talks about her fear coming out to her Catholic family because of their non-accepting religion. “I was raised Catholic in an overwhelmingly Christian, conservative rural area, something that theoretically wouldn’t cause much issue, if it weren’t for the fact that I am gay. I knew from the age of nine, but I remained closeted, terrified of how both my classmates and, more importantly, my family would react. Despite how open-minded, kind, and liberal the majority of my family is, I was still raised in a faith that firmly believes both in “traditional” values of marriage and that homosexuality is a sin, and while many Catholics would tell you that they don’t personally align with anti-LGBTQ ideologies, the Church continues to teach those principles.”

The Presence of gay men in the roman Catholic priesthoods is a long debate that was sparked when allegations came out that ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had engaged in sex with another man within the church. This upset man people, and made them want to remove all gay priests from the church entirely. Many believe that this task would be impossible due to the fact that few are open when it comes to their sexuality. Many people believe that trying to build a bridge between the catholic church and the homosexual is the best thing for both groups.

The Catholic branch of Christianity, as well as Christianity as a whole is based of the teaching that are derived from the Bible which directly casts about homosexuality as a whole in a negative light. In addition, many anecdotal claims have reinforced the notion that Catholic religion does in fact promote intolerance against homosexuals.

Cite this page