how come so many gay people are religious? I thought church forbids homosexuality.?

Question

by the way I am not religious.

Answer 1

I dunno. All of the straight people I know sin a hell of a lot more than I do, and they're the religious ones. That makes zero sense.

Answer 2

Ah, we've run into a couple of problems.

First, the definition of "church". This, depending on context, can mean any of a half dozen different things. When used by a Catholic, "The Church" refers specifically to the Roman Catholic denomination of Christianity. In other circles, it can refer to one's specific Christian denomination, one's local congregation, Christianity as a whole, or, erroneously, any religion or religious belief as a whole.

I prefer to use specific definitions. Christianity is a religion. It is split into various denominations, with the largest division being between Catholicism and the various Protestant denominations, which are themselves further divided, sometimes multiple times. "Church" in this paradigm would then refer to the primary organizing body for one's particular faith. For some, this would be the world wide organization, as with the Catholic Church; for others, it would encompass only the local congregation, as with the Churches of Christ. Most others have organizing bodies somewhere between those in size.

Many of these see their path as the one and only true path. Others see their flavor of Christianity as the only "real" Christianity.

In any case, what you say is only partly true; many churches do have dogma (core beliefs regarding the religion specific to that church) that forbids homosexuality. Southern Baptist churches, for example. This, however, should not be confused with the religion of Christianity; the doctrine of some churches condemns homosexualiy, but the Christian religion does not.

The Bible does place restrictions on when male homosexual acts may occur, but it places many similar restrictions on heterosexual acts. In neither case is the prohibition of the specific act a general prohibition of all acts, nor is it a prohibition of the status; orientation is not addressed at all.

So why do some homosexual people still have religious beliefs? In some cases, their religions do not address homosexuality in any way. Many Christian churches do not have any doctrine that forbids homosexuality and a few even embrace homosexuals as worthy of religious inclusion and guidance.

Many gay Christians see no contradiction between their orientation and their spiritual beliefs. Others struggle with it.

Religious beliefs form separately from sexual feelings. It should come as no surprise that some Christians are gay, or that many homosexuals are Christians.

I'm a Unitarian Universalist. We'll take anybody.

Answer 3

I think that because there are so many different religions, different ways of practicing them, a gay person can be religious. Myself, for example, I'm Jewish. Whereas Judaism is a lot more accepting that some religions, I'm still lucky. I don't actually go to Synagogue as often as I should, but when I do I'm accepted.

If you're talking about church, Christianity and Catholicism, whereas I don't know much about either religion, I have some gay friends who are both, and they attend church. They are simply not 'out' at church. Those who are, luckily, haven't been asked to leave. I think it's the radials who give other Christians a bad name, so we make assumptions and judge them because they are radicals making extremist comments.

Cheers!

Answer 4

Church forbids a lot of different things that religious people do, that doesn't stop people from loving god, now does it? The church cannot and must not forbid someone from reading the word of christ.

Answer 5

Church generally does forbid homosexuality, but organized religion isn't the only way for a person to celebrate their faith.

Answer 6

Not every church forbids it. Maybe it's a source of comfort. So many christians are all love, love, love until it comes to the topic of gays. Maybe these religious practicing gays are comforted knowing that they are following the greatest two commandments of all. To love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Answer 7

Gay people may be more spiritual than religious. Religion after all is a creation of man, not God and as such is prone to error!

Answer 8

It's all about principals. People waste there time diving into it. Just take what you want and leave the rest. What arrogance for one two think the religion he or she was brainwashed with is the Right one. If people just strive to live by the principals of most religion, there lives we be fantastic.

Answer 9

I am a Bi Christian. And I know the Bible pretty good. Good enough to defend Christianity from the Fundies. They don't own it. They have no corner on God. Jesus said that whosoever wills may come to him. He also said that none come to him except that the Father draws them nigh.

So I'm willing. And they can't take it away from me.

Answer 10

Well religion is orginazed faith = church where as Spirituality = personal beliefs systems and No one can take your beliefs or say what you can or can't believe in- Hope that helps-

Answer 11

Depends on the church, I guess.