How much longer will it take mainstream and conservative Christianity to accept homosexuals?

Question

It seems like it will happen soon... this century I hope. Less than a hundred years ago a majority of Christian churches including the Southern Baptist convention still supported segregation and Jim Crowe laws. It was considered an abomination for a mixed race couple to marry and have children, and fifty years before that slavery and disallowing negroes from having marriages or living together as families was justified and sanctified by scripture from some of the same books and letters that modern day Christians use to marginalize and villify homosexuals. How much longer do we have to graciously tolerate and forgive your spiritual blindness and bigotry guys? Ten, twenty years? Another century, a few more millenia? Oh, who cares. It doesn't really matter in the end. God can do anything.

Answer 1

Interracial marriage was still against the law in sixteen states in 1967. The first law in America against interracial marriage was in 1664. If this is any indication how long it takes people in this country to come around to common sense, my guess would be we can expect the legalization of gay marriage in about 300 years.

Christians believe Jews are sinners who are going to the same hell as homosexuals, but it's not fashionable to metaphorically burn crosses on Jewish lawns these days. However gays are a such a small minority with not much political voice - like blacks were a minority in the good old days of religion-justified segregation - so Christians prefer to talk about hell for homosexuals rather than hell for Jews.

The Ku Klux Klan echoes what self-righteous Christians raged on and on about in years past: "Interracial marriage is a violation of God’s Law.” In 1967 a Virginia judge sentenced to jail an interethnic couple who got married in Washington, D.C. with the following explanation: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Think "Bible Belt" and evangelical zealots as you ponder the list of states that did not legalize interracial marriage until a court decision in *1967* invalidated their bigoted laws: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. (Delaware was the only northern state that fell in line with the evangelical fanatics.)

And South Carolina and Alabama had written laws against interracial marriage into their state constitutions, which weren't changed until 1998 (SC) and 2000 (AL).

Regardless of how the uberChristians try to justify their intent to deny a basic human freedom to persons they condemn, it all comes down to their own intolerance, bigotry and injustice (which is not very Christ-like of them, is it?)

What opponents of gay marriage can't seem to grasp is that marriage is NOT required to be a religious institution, therefore religious restrictions (if any truly exist) have no part in the matter of gay marriage.

It does not matter in the least how the bible, Dr. Seuss or Fredrich Nietzsche define marriage. Marriage is a civil institution open to atheists, agnostics, and the lunatic fringe, regardless of whether or not they believe in a god, in a bible, or Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin.

Even their bible-based bigotry can't support the Christian prejudice against gays, but it should make them wonder why they themselves break so many Old Testament laws that were never modified or deleted by God. Could it be that some 'laws' pertained to a certain time or a certain people? Could it be that some 'laws' were deliberately tampered with in translation and interpretation? In a word, YES.

< The meaning of the Greek words arsenokoités and malakos (translated simply as "homosexuals" in most modern versions; as "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind" in the King James Version of the Bible) used in Corinthians 6:8-10 has been a hotly contested matter. Conservative Christians and some moderates view the passage as specificially referring to homosexuals. However, liberal and some moderate Christians see these passages obscure in meaning and do not believe that these passages refer to homosexuality, since the word "homosexual" wasn't coined until 1892]. They find the view that these words refer to homosexuality as a contemporary interpretive bias that wasn't intended by the original author(s) of the text.>

Answer 2

There will always be people who disapprove of homosexuality on religious grounds. However, the following would irreparably damage the religious sect reducing it to almost nothingness: 1. Science finding proof that sexual orientation is genetic/biological. 2. A vaccine and cure for HIV/AIDS. 3. Aliens visiting earth. Point 1 would wipe out any theories of homosexuality being a choice, or caused by bad childhood. Also, more people would then believe that God actually made some people homosexual. Point 2 would wipe out the belief that HIV/AIDS is God's judgement on homosexuality. The fact that straight people can get these diseases should have been sufficient, but it may take something a bit bigger. Point 3 isn't really relevant to sexuality, but it would create an interesting dilemma for traditional religion.

Answer 3

I think you are mis-understanding history. The underground railroad was primarily run by Christians. Christian ideals were those that lead to the abolition of slavery. That doesn't mean all Christians were against slavery, and some of them used a few passages that allow for a specific type of slavery (a different type than what was being practiced in America) to justify American slavery of the African races. Those who denounced slavery in America did so on Christian ideals. Martin Luther King Jr. was actually Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a preacher. Those who followed him were Christians. He was a Baptist. The Christian stand against slavery goes back and is seen in every era, at least as far back as St. Patrick, who was also against slavery. The idea that slavery was okay was the "new" Christian thought, and very short lived if you look at the history of it. (Yes, three or four generations is a short time compared to the four or five hundred years they were against it.)

Look into the abolition of slavery in England. In fact, it's one of the reasons that Quakers were founded, to oppose slavery in England. The Quakers are a Christian group.

On the other hand, the stand against homosexuality has been a constant in the Christian faith as far back and in any direction one looks in history. The few churches who have come to accept it are the ones who are "new." They are the ones, in terms of historical development, that are more like those who supported slavery: they have a stance which has historically been considered un-Christian but are trying to dress it up in Christian-like talk. That's not to say who's right or wrong, it's just to say your understanding of the history of the relationship between Christianity and slavery vs. the history of Christianty and homosexuality is based on a false premise.

Answer 4

Only equality is equality, I don't think any religious beliefs should come in the way of equality and equal treatment for all citizens, discrimination on grounds of sex or sexuality is a human rights abuse.

I don't so much care about acceptance, I care about legal standing and legal equality.

In Britain religious schools are not only fighting to get state funding but also for further special exemptions from anti-discrimination laws so that they can continue to defame gays in the classroom and bar gay teachers. This is unacceptable discrimination and a human rights abuse that cannot be excused by obscure biblical texts and Christianist obsessions with sex acts and bodily functions. Homosexuality is not just a sex act any more than is heterosexuality, physical love is a valid way to express and communicate loving emotion between two people and gay sex is no different in that respect.

There are those who find gay sex repulsive and equally there are those who find str8 sex repulsive, this comes from focussing on genitals, bodily functions & sexual acts too closely, If you don't like it don't do it.

Join the American Episcopal Church, it encapsulates all the best Christian virtues.

Answer 5

I'd have to begin with "what do you mean by accept" ??

Are you asking when Christians are going to "change the Bible" and re-write it so that homosexuality is no longer considered a sin, or are you asking when Christians are going to stop thinking that homosexuality is much worse than all the other sins and should be handled differently through intolerance?

Answer 6

Christians are starting to accept anything and everything to show love and tolerance. However God never changes. God said in the book of Romans, "Man shall not lie with man as with woman. That is an abomination."

Answer 7

The final sentence adds the perfect twist to your question. Isn't it odd (not to mention unseemly) how the God of Love encourages his friends to interfere in everybody else's love-life?

Making sure that women can't get contraceptives easily so they can't have sex without fear of pregnancy;
Making sure women can't get an abortion no matter how urgently they need it;
Being shocked (shocked!) over interracial marriage, and common-law marriage;
Trying desperately to brush aside the unforgivable fact that young people actually LIKE sex, and lying to them about the effectiveness of contraceptives (among other things) in hopes of scaring them away from sex;
And the prudishness goes on and on and on.

I suspect some of these buffoons are still not happy over women getting the vote, or blacks moving into their neighborhoods and their workplaces, or who knows what; in any case, their pathetic argument that homosexuality is "unnatural" is the same argument they used to try to stop those things from happening. That argument always fails; it's merely a matter of time.

Answer 8

You provide a strong argument but mainstream America is a Bible believing bunch.....I, too, wish it weren't so taboo because it would lose much of its curiousity. I wonder really how many truly gay people are out there? I think a lot people are confused. I think we are all loving human beings and we were designed to love and be loved. A friend of mine who dated a young man for years (and planned to marry) broke up. He was chasing other skirts. She was devestated...and lonely for a long time. A woman offered her love, acceptance, companionship and affection . She lives with this woman.....I know my friend very well.....she's not bi, or gay or anything....she was hurting and someone loved her. I think a lot of people think they are gay or bi because lovemaking (physically) is such a different experience for men and women and men "understand" about the prostrate gland and women "understand" about their female complexities....I wonder how many people would remain heterosexual if they found opposite sex partners who would be willing to work out their sexuality together. You know, the marriage bed is undefiled. (that's from the Bible, too). While I agree, true gayness really exists....but just how many people are gay and just how many are confused. Lastly, why would anyone want to be "accepted" legally speaking in a world where people are not open minded?

Answer 9

I believe it will be 20 + years before homosexuals are truly accepted by mainstream , middle America and it may well be 100 or more years before they a re accepted by most of the religious community

Answer 10

the days of "if you can't beat them join them" are over. At one time those challenging the christian views were put to death. but today we have freedom of religion in north america to prevent that. When will people learn that if you have to constantly battle to change the religion in order to produce justice then it doesn't come from god. change the laws in governments for that is where man made laws belong. and leave the religions die.

Answer 11

I can't speak for all Christians but I can tell you that the Catholic Church will never accept them as we believe what the Bible says. "Man shall not lie with man as with woman. That is an abomination." pretty clear wouldn't you say.