Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Sexuality and Religion


In today's world, especially in America, religion is beginning to take a significant role in our lives. However, whether or not one is a religious person does not matter. Because of the fact that the majority of those living in the western and southern states practice some form of Christianity, our government is controlled by those who focus mainly on "moral values" rather than serious internal problems in the country.

The one item which appears to be the top priority of many Christian groups today is homosexuality. Recently, many people have been claiming that the Bible condemns gays and lesbians, due to a few lines of text scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments. I shall cite a few stories or passages where the Bible does in fact, make a reference to homosexuality, but does not explicitly condemn it (click on the link to view the text):

1. The Story of Sodom and Gomorrah
A story from the Old Testament, this story describes two cities which have become extremely corrupt, and are eventually destroyed by God. The cities had given "themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion" (Jude 7).
Many conservatives interpret this to mean that all those who lived in the cities were homosexual. However, a brief examination of this argument will reveal its impossibility. If everyone in the cities were gay, how would they reproduce? The cities would have eventually died out on their own had everyone been gay.
In addition to this, even if everyone was gay, the story tells us that nobody in the city had monogamous relationships. According to the Bible, even heterosexuals who are not monogamous are sinners. Thus, this story does not tell us that monogamous homosexual relationships are immoral in any way.

2. The Issue of Adultery
In the Bible, adultery is defined as having sex before marriage or having sexual relationships before marriage. Conservatives argue that because homosexuals cannot be married, that sex between them is forbidden.
However, with same-sex marriage and unions now in existence, this passage becomes irrelevant. And in regards to those who cannot obtain a marriage or a union, if the relationship remains monogamous, there should be no significant problem.

3. Romans 1:26 - 27
"For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."
Conservatives believe that this statement classifies homosexuality as unnatural. However, the person writing this found heterosexuality natural to him. Therefore, a homosexual would find gay sex natural to him. The real statement that is trying to be made is that one should not try and be something that they are not.

4. Leviticus
I'm not going to go into too much detail here. Basically, the book condemns homosexuality, but it condemns several other things we typically do today as well. Simply put, the teachings of this book have been mostly disregarded in today's society.

However, just because some sects of Christianity condemn us does not mean that all of them do. There are several sects which are very accepting and supportive of homosexuals. And not every member of these un-accepting sects hates homosexuals. Making generalizations about religion is just as unfair as society making generalizations about us.
We must make an effort to sit down and discuss our differences with these people, rather than going on angry rants about them. We must first accept them before they can accept us.

[Note: All information is from Wikipedia]