Are you religious?

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R66r_XMoDkk[/YOUTUBE]

 

Being gay has no bearing on whether someone will be religious, except that some religions discriminate against gay people. There are other religions that don't. So, what exactly is it about being religious that you think is incompatible with being LGBT?

 

Not at all and I love it.

 

This video sums up my exact feelings.

[YOUTUBE]1IAhDGYlpqY[/YOUTUBE]

 

I am not religious at all really, I have a vague scientific pantheist philosophy, but that isn't really a religion.

On the subject of religion and LGBT, Christianity and Islam are the twin cores for worldwide homophobia today. Homosexuality was tolerated in Rome before they became Christian. The influence of Islam in China and India destroyed the once-tolerant-towards-homosexuality cultures there. The rise of Islam and Christianity in the Americas and Africa wrecked many native cultures and religions that had no problems with homosexuality.

 

Religion isn't the problem. It's the people practicing the religion that are the problem. You cannot shift blame from the individual to the insitution to prove a point. At no point in the Bible does it explicitly ban homosexuality- it isn't even mentioned. Therefore it is the interpretation by certain people that are homophobic, and therein the blame lies- the individual, not the institution.

I am a recent born-again aetheist. I was religious up until a few months ago. I left the Church because I couldn't handle being around such closed-minded people (who were in a minority, but they were a powerful minority).

 

Religion is very destructive and stifling to the individuality of all human beings, not just LGBTQ people. So to answer your question, no, of course not, although I was raised Catholic.

 

I'm Jewish, and go to services weekly at an Orthodox synagogue. Yeah, it can feel pretty conflicting at times.. But it's my choice.. My parents aren't that religious at all.


:/

 

Though I am an atheist, I don't think religion is completely destructive. It does have (few) some positives.

 

The Torah being not exactly the most sympathetic religious text in regards to condoning same-sex relations.


Honestly, I think it's easier to be a gay Christian than a gay Jew in terms of being able to rationalize your orientation with your religious scriptures. (but not in day-to-day life however) I dont want to be a Christian, but I understand how in the New Testament there are barely if any references to homosexuality, and none at all by Jesus.

 

Why? Religion can be beautiful. It can be a motivation to lead a good life and help others. It can be a supporting community. Yeah religion is often related to homophobia, but it does not require it, so it is possible to be gay and religious. Some people take their religion to mean they need to be intolerant of others and unfortunately those are the people who make the news. There are lots of people though who's religion leads them to help others and make the world a better and more accepting place.
As for the bible, there is very little in there that actually mentions homosexuality (I think it's just the one verse). Open it to any random place though and you will read of horrible rules about all sorts of things that nobody these days would ever suggest we should follow. For example, the bible says that if a woman is raped and she fails to cry out then she should be stoned. When it comes to the bible, even the strictest believers pick and choose. Don't blame religion in general or the bible. People who use religion as an excuse for intolerance do have a choice.

 

What positives does religion have? And do they outweigh the terrible negatives?

 

I've noticed that threads similar to this one have been started quite a bit in the last year. Off the top of my head there is
http://emptyclosets.com/forum/chit-chat/66291-poll;-whats-your-religion.html
http://emptyclosets.com/forum/chit-chat/59737-what-do-you-guys-think-religion.html
http://emptyclosets.com/forum/chit-chat/55830-religion-among-lgbt-people.html

The first link is fairly recent. From what I've noticed, roughly half (maybe slightly more) of those on EC that respond to these threads are either an Atheist or Agnostic. The other half are religious with Christianity being the most popular

 

I think it says more when someone leads a good life for its own sake, rather than someone living a good life just out of a selfish fear of punishment and spending eternity being tortured in Hell.

Also, there is a pretty big gap between what religion considers a "good life" and an actual good life. Many religious people have throughout the centuries engaged in very bad lives. The worst part is that religion even makes otherwise good, well-intentioned people do bad things. The parent that sincerely believes that God hates homosexuality as a sin, and that his gay kid will go to Hell if he doesn't change, will think he is doing a good deed by sending the kid off to psychologically damaging "ex-gay therapy"

 

I don't think I said that religion's positives outweigh its negatives.

But religion and churches have created soup kitchen's, founded universities (I currently attend a Catholic one, and it's just like any other university), and hospitals. You could argue that those things can be founded without religion. But they were still founded by religious institutions and that should be commended.