Comments on: God Hates Fags

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2007-06-28T09:41:18Z

Read Growing Up Mormon: Alma the Lamanite Part Five, though it’s better if you read from the beginning.

Comment by: Kullervo

2007-06-29T06:27:01Z

I really was raised by my TBM family to be accepting and loving, and to think that things like racism and homophobia were completely ridiculous. In fact, that atitude, especially with regards to homosexual people, was one of the pieces of grit that rolled around, irritating my testimony more and more toward the end. I ultimately thought that the Church’s policy towards homosexuals was not Christlike, and that the Church was simply dead wrong for engaging in politics to ban gay marriage.

I’m not trying to be self-congratulatory or anything. just saying that I somehow managed to duck the homophobia implants or something.

Comment by: Kullervo

2007-06-29T06:28:03Z

Also, God hates the world because it doesn;t do whatever he says? What is God, five years old? Come on. Grow up, Fred.

Comment by: Kullervo

2007-06-29T07:45:03Z

You’ve been tagged!

http://byzantium.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/eight-random-facts/

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2007-06-29T09:50:30Z

My wife also pointed this out to me that I shouldn’t paint all Mormons or even all of Mormonism with too broad a brush. Some Mormons certainly lack prejudice against homosexuality. I think younger Mormons see less and less of the hatred that characterized Mormon culture in the past.

At the same time, I wasn’t an isolated bigot. Some members still hate homosexuality. Some members are bigots but feel justified by their religion. The church’s official policies are bigoted. I feel justified in calling the church and its attendant culture bigoted (even though there are exceptions and things seem to be improving).

Comment by: Stephen Merino

2007-07-02T07:07:40Z

I think I have to agree with your wife here. I certainly never “hated fags” growing up, even though I was in a very conservative, active LDS household. I really believed that the “hate the sin, love the sinner” thing was possible. And I still think it is an important way to separate people from their actions. I don’t anymore believe that homosexuality is a sin. I recently devoted an entire blog post to this topic, including LDS perspectives of homosexuality.

The lame thing about that video is that they actually sing pretty well! What a waste of talent. Look, this a pretty extreme group. Most religous Americans would not go to anywhere near those lengths. And I disagree that belief in God and condemnation of gays go hand in hand. I am personally not a believer, but I know that there are Christian denominations in the U.S. today that are very accepting of gays, especially the United Church of Christ.

But the church really has put itself in a bind. With no apparent intention to budge on homosexuality, and with the tremendous emphasis placed on the traditional husband-wife family, the church will have a very difficult time as the surrounding society becomes more accepting, as gays get more marriage rights, and as scientific evidence mounts. It’s going to get tough.

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2007-07-02T07:52:49Z

It’s not so much that belief in God goes hand-in-hand with hating homosexual people. My belief in God allowed me to rationalize my hatred. It wasn’t a cause; it was an enabler.

Lest anyone get any extreme ideas about me, I wasn’t a frothing lunatic or even as gleefully bigoted as the people in the video. It’s only now when I see the contrast between my present beliefs and my former beliefs that I see my hatred. I really tried to hate the sin and love the sinner, but my personal religion prevented me from seeing that it was impossible to separate the behavior from the person. Asking a person to deny their sexuality when that sexuality does no one harm is hateful.

As far as the LDS church goes, I think they’ll manage OK on this score. They managed to transition from the “mixed race marriages are cursed” attitude to the current tolerance. It just takes time and forgetfulness (and some convenient revelation).

Comment by: Stephen Merino

2007-07-02T08:54:23Z

I don’t know, this is one area where I just don’t see the church budging. They seem to have budged a little already, especially by saying that gays can be in the church as long as they don’t act on it, but marriage between a man and woman is so incredibly central to LDS doctrine that I just don’t see anything changing anytime soon (or not so soon). I think this will turn many away from the church, but there are enough homophobic beliefs and practices in our society that I think the church will still be attractive.