News from the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples Alliance

Contents: February 2007

Does Religion Turn People Into Gay Haters?

I recently read a blog by Bill Tammeus, KC Star Faith Columnist , in which he wrote: “ singer Elton John was just quoted as saying religion turns people into gay haters.”

Now that got my attention, so I looked to see why EJ felt that way; he says, “I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. But there are so many Christian people I know who are gay and love their religion ...”

I also have been following the stories of Ted Haggard’s “fall from grace,” as conservatives have termed it. Bob Allen, EthicsDaily.com , quotes Haggard as saying, “I am a deceiver and a liar,” Haggard said. “There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.”

I can’t help thinking, how sad. I keep wondering does Haggard hates gays? And I wonder if that make his own self acceptance even more unbearable. The Reverend Renée Miller says, “In the face of our enemies, we see the darkened parts of our own souls that we have hidden from ourselves.”

There seems to be such irony between the two stories. I wonder, if Haggard's faith convictions had allowed him to be the man God created, encouraged his self-worth and dignity, might he have been able to embrace who he was rather than sneaking into hotels to hide and diminish the moral values of the remainder of his character. If we are not taught we are an abomination to God, how different might we be? What wonderful gifts might we (Haggard) have to bring to a table of grace from the fullness that God created?

Addressing the question of whether sexual orientation is chosen, Dr. Gregory Herek, Ph.D., associate research psychologist at the University of California at Davis and a national authority on heterosexuals' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men said, "Regardless of whether they are homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual, people generally experience their sexual orientation as an essential part of their core identity -- their sense of who they are, sexually. Scientific research has not established why anyone develops a particular sexual orientation. But we do know that people generally do not choose their sexual orientation. Rather, they discover it and come to understand it through a long developmental process."

Dr. Herek suggests that there is a chain of connection between the belief of ‘choice’ and prejudice. “After all,” he says, “conservative Christians base their attitudes on the argument that homosexuality is sinful. To be a sin, homosexuality has to be a choice. Otherwise their antigay hostility looks less like moral rectitude and more like bigotry. So perhaps many heterosexuals with antigay attitudes say homosexuality is chosen as a way of justifying their preexisting prejudice.”

Maybe Elton John is right - religion immeasurably contributes to the hatred of gays. Even people who are not particularly religious take their cues from “what the Bible says” and respond in a similar manner, believing the good folks ‘must know’ what they are saying.

The Reverend Professor Peter Gomes, an ordained American Baptist minister, who has served in the Memorial Church, Harvard University since 1972 and has been on the faculty of Harvard University for many years, ostensibly agrees with Elton John. In 1999, in an address to the American Psychiatric Association, he lamented, “It falls to me as a Christian minister and a practitioner of religion to indicate that in the matter of sexual prejudice, religion is fundamentally a part of the problem and one can only hope that by acknowledging that, it may well indeed become part of the solution as well . . . we find that the first and the last resort used to justify a prejudice is the fact that the Bible tells me so.

There seems to be another problem that co-exists with the prejudice that abounds; it is silence. Those of us, whose faith values and beliefs differs from the more vocal conservative folks and especially, the gay-bashers, have not been willing to stand and be counted, to suggest that our God is filled with unfailing love and grace for each of us, regardless of our sexuality. Our silence has helped to maintain the prejudice and hatred that fills our nation. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

So, what if we stopped trying to judge and just began to love in a capacity greater than we have ever imagined? What if our value and worth to God was not dependent on our sexuality, or for that matter, our skin color or our age or our net worth. . . . ?