Why do conservative religions think the way they do?

Well firstly I'd say that 'established' religion and 'conservative' religion are not necessarily the same thing. So which one are you asking about?

Conservative religions (or conservative almost any other social construct) tend to look to the past and some (usually mythical) ideal period in the past when people behaved in some (imaginary) perfect fashion. The conservative mindset is aimed to get back to or hold on to this supposed perfect past.

Established religions have been around a long time but may or may not be 'conservative' in regards to various things. For that matter even 'conservative' entities may or may not be 'conservative' in regards to all things or may be inconsistent in how they define 'conservative'. Some established religions take a conservative view on sex and some don't.

Finally, there is the basic issue that many cultures seem to be rather self-contradictory or hypocritical when it comes to matters of sex, not just orientation or identity but all kinds of things. Calm, rational thinking often goes out the window where sex is concerned.

I don't know that this necessarily answers 'why' but it's my take on things.

Todd

 

That is because if they were to condemn extramarital sex and other 'bad' heterosexual acts, they would be targeting themselves. It's much easier for them to gloss over those subjects, pretend they are infallible, and then focus on torturing other groups that they aren't a part of.

 

Good point

There's also the issue of 'keeping market share' (because these groups are essentially businesses after all). If they were to go around condemning (or at least seriously condemning) something that a big chunk of their potential 'customers' have done/like to do/might like to do someday then folks would just blow them off and they would lose followers and their money. Consider divorce as an example of this. With something like half of all marriages ending in divorce, condemning it in the same way being gay is condemned would cost them dearly. But being gay has enough social stigma around it that they can still get away with it (although that is steadily changing, much to their chagrin).

I wouldn't be surprised if eventually condemning gay people will lose its attraction because they are losing money on the idea and they'll turn their attention to somewhere/someone else (unfortunately).

Todd