(:title Christianity and Homosexuality:) (:description Christianity is unfairly blamed for creating a homophobic environment that leads to the victimization of homosexuals. Disgust at homosexual behaviors is largely innate.:) (:keywords Christianity, sinners, homophobia, feminists, hypocrisy, gluttony:) Does Christianity give rise to so-called homophobia? !! Christianity and so-called homophobia In the West, major opposition to the demands of homosexuals comes from organized Christianity. Homosexual activists often blame Christians for creating a so-called homophobic environment that results in their victimization and increases the prevalence of mental problems among homosexuals. On the one hand, Christianity certainly does not look favorably upon homosexual behavior. On the other hand, in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, homosexuals enjoy the best societal acceptance anywhere in the world. In addition, Scandinavian or Dutch Christians who publicly criticize homosexuals or oppose their demands, face prison. However, Dutch homosexuals manifest elevated mental problems, like their American counterparts.[^Sandfort TG, de Graaf R, Bijl RV, et al. Same-sex sexual behavior and psychiatric disorders: findings from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS). Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58(1):85-91.^] Likewise, homosexual Norwegian adolescents manifest elevated suicidality compared to their heterosexual counterparts, which can hardly be blamed upon a homophobic environment.[^Wichstrom L, Hegna K. Sexual orientation and suicide attempt: a longitudinal study of the general Norwegian adolescent population. J Abnorm Psychol 2003;112(1):144-51.^] Surely, it would be premature to conclude that the elevated mental problems of homosexuals entirely result from so-called homophobia. Christians often make atheists miserable. Yet, atheists do not manifest the range of [[Sexuality/HomePage|unusual sexual behaviors]] and [[Psychiatry/HomePage|elevated mental problems]] characteristic of the homosexual community. A brief examination of the sexuality and mental health aspects of homosexuals casts serious doubts on the claim that so-called homophobia is the major factor behind the mental problems of homosexuals (see [[Psychiatry/Victimization|this page]] in particular). It is curious as to why a number of homosexuals and homophiles fail to see the obvious in that people typically dislike homosexuals because of their sexual behavior, not because the Bible tells them to dislike homosexuals. In a debate on homosexual issues, a Christian may quote the Bible in an attempt to offer a rational argument as to why he or she opposes some demands of homosexuals. However, in almost all such cases, Biblical quotations are simply masking the true reason for opposing various demands of homosexuals, i.e., extreme disgust at their sexual behavior. Rarely would one come across a lifetime-exclusive heterosexual Christian who started out not disgusted in the very least by the sexual behavior of homosexuals, but acquired a strong dislike of homosexuals and ended up opposing their demands solely as a result of coming across the relevant Biblical passages. One may come across an atheist who happens to be a former Christian and claims that his animosity toward homosexuals has lessened or disappeared after he gave up Christianity. Does this prove that Christianity is responsible for hatred of homosexuality in some individuals? Someone who gives up his Christian beliefs and becomes an atheist likely harbors a grudge against Christianity, and is probably open to ideologies that are opposed to the Christian worldview, i.e., such an individual will likely adopt a favorable stance toward several un-Christian or anti-Christian beliefs. This would not mean that his prior beliefs were solely conditioned by his Christian upbringing. Christian upbringing or not, one likely finds hypocrisy disgusting. The Bible condemns hypocrisy with greater authority than it condemns homosexual behavior; yet would an ex-Christian somehow find hypocrisy more palatable after giving up his Christian beliefs? An individual with a mildly unfavorable attitude toward homosexuality but nevertheless no clear attitude toward various demands of homosexual activists, if a Christian, will incline toward the expected stances after coming across the relevant Biblical passages. Yet, if this individual were to give up his Christian beliefs, given that individuals that are undecided on several social issues are easier to sway than those with hard-set attitudes, he may adopt an un-Christian or anti-Christian stance toward homosexuality, and perhaps delude himself into believing that he harbored a more negative view of homosexuals when he was a Christian than his actual view of homosexuals then. On a more formal note, let us consider some studies that have attempted to address the determinants of so-called homophobia. For instance, in a national survey of adolescent heterosexual men, 15- to 19-years-old, 89% found the sexual behavior of homosexual men “disgusting,” 59.2% could not even be friends with a male homosexuals, 28.6% had low confidence that they could befriend a male homosexual, and only 12% were certain they could befriend an openly homosexual male.[^Marsiglio W. Attitudes toward homosexual activity and gays as friends: a national survey of heterosexual 15-to-19-year-old males. J Sex Res 1993;30:12-7.^] In this sample, age, ethnicity, geographical residence, quality of residential neighborhood, parental education, religiosity, religious affiliation, school grades, worry about AIDS, and attitudes toward sex-roles could collectively explain less than 8% of the variance in intolerance of befriending a male homosexual, and almost no variation in disgust at homosexual activity (see Table 1). (:html:)
Table 1: Bivariate and Regression Analysis of the Intolerance of Befriending a Male Homosexual, Displayed by 1,297 Heterosexual Men Aged 15-19.3 | ||||
Variable | b | B | r | |
Ethnicity | White (reference) | |||
African-American | .07 | .02 | .09** | |
Hispanic | -.26* | -.06 | -.04 | |
Age | ||||
Neighborhood quality | -.01 | .01 | -.08** | |
Parental education | -.05** | -.12 | -.14** | |
Southern residence | -.00 | -.00 | .06* | |
Urban residence | -.06 | -.03 | -.04 | |
Religiosity | .02 | .02 | .05* | |
Religious Affiliation | Non-fundamentalist | .08** | ||
Fundamentalist | .15* | .05 | .08** | |
None | -.04 | -.01 | -.04 | |
School grades | -.06 | -.05 | -.09** | |
Worry about AIDS*** | -.01 | -.01 | .02 | |
Traditional male role attitudes*** | .06** | .20 | .24** | |
intercept = 3.22, adjusted r-squared value = .075 | ||||
Notes: *p < .05, **p < .01, ***the only significant predictors of greater likelihood of finding homosexual behavior disgusting were: those who reported more traditional male role attitudes (p < .01) and less worry about AIDS (p < .05). Note that although the correlations are in the expected direction, they hardly explain the outcome. |