Why are so many Christians so obsessed with homosexuality?

[Fast Walker 52]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204640124230999&set=a.2172334675875.2102509.1472037248&type=1&theater

I really don't understand the reason for the extreme level of hate and obsession. I can understand a little of it, but not the depth and degree. Anyone know what this is about?

[marym625]

1. They're all gay and can't come to terms with it.

Kidding

[Nye Bevan]

20. Offensive. Not alerting but please consider self-delete (nt)

[marym625]

45. Why is this offensive?

There is much truth to the fact that many gay people had "protested too much" prior to accepting themselves for who they are. And more power to each and every single one that overcame that hurdle and admitted it.

Look at how many people in office that have preached against equal rights for the LGBT community that eventually came out or were outed.

I don't believe that every Christian that is so interested in the serial activities of those of us in the LGBT community are actually gay. Hence the "kidding." But I bet dollars to doughnuts, more than a few are.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

59. What do you make of these guy Mormon husbands

Some of whom filed an amicus brief opposing SSM at SCOTUS? I know that they are not representative of all Christians but it is a real phenomenon

[Botany]

26. not all but some sure are ...

.... especially the ones who want to talk about the mechanics of gay sex.

[marym625]

46. yep.

Thanks

[Botany]

71. As a straight guy when I hear a born again right winger going on and on about .....

..... then they do this and then they do that and then the really disgusting thing is ....
my gaydar goes off big time.

However some of them are just bigots who think that their belief in God allows them to
act as God and tell the rest of America what they can and can't do, what can be taught
in public schools, and how a woman needs to use her "lady bits."

My late Uncle was an Episcopalian rector in a small town in S.W. Ohio and both he
and my late Aunt devoted their lives to helping all people in need and the public
schools and library and when their oldest son came out as gay they late him know that
they loved him and that he was family.

What my late Aunt and Uncle left to their community

http://samaritanoutreachservices.com/

I am so damn proud of them!

[backscatter712]

79. Yeah. Not all anti-gay bigots are closet-cases, but there are some of them out there...

Sorry, but there is truth to Haggard's Law.

Look at this super-hateful asshole, Stephen Anderson. Every time I see him, my gaydar goes off the scale.

(WARNING, EXTREME BIGOTRY!)

[JonLP24]

85. Have you seen or heard of recent events in Uganda

the full thing is on HBO but VICE recently aired a very disturbing report, out of all things I couldn't think of one that disturbed me as much as this one.

(What they covered immediately after that was a horrifying "corrective rape" of a Lesbian that was very depressing well because she had a child and her partner left her (can't remember reason) she saw a blessing that with the kid people won't ask her why she isn't married but didn't know if she should ever tell him or not and worried if he'd grow up to hate her as well.)

(There is a very offensive and graphic demonstration in front of children that is factually incorrect simulating anal sex with the male walking away with a bloody diaper)

In the VICE episode, [Member of Parliament David] Bahati refuses to name any one of his American partners, but [U.S. Senator James] Inhofe is clearly one. Also among Bahati’s supporters and partners are Scott Lively, Pastor Rick Warren, Sharon Slater, and the World Congress of Families. And Bahati makes clear he and his country support the culture these American Christian extremists have brought to Uganda — one that teaches, falsely, that gay people are all pedophiles, homosexuality is a choice, it is evil, and children must be protected from it at all costs.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/05/17/hbos-vice-goes-to-uganda-to-witness-u-s-evangelical-led-homophobia-in-action/

I'll keep the details short on this one but one thing that was an interest while all TCNs were used and abused and treated like potential terrorists Ugandan TCNs were given a rifle, bullet proof vest and was guarding checkpoints like Baghdad International Airport. Paid more too and I imagine not "watched" all the time.

This is one whose activities should be closely monitored
The Fellowship (Christian organization)

e Fellowship, also known as The Family,[2][3][4] and the International Foundation[5] is a U.S.-based religious and political organization founded in 1935 by Abraham Vereide. The stated purpose of the Fellowship is to provide a fellowship forum for decision makers to share in Bible studies, prayer meetings, worship experiences, and to experience spiritual affirmation and support.[6][7]

The organization has been described as one of the most politically well-connected ministries in the United States. The Fellowship shuns publicity and its members share a vow of secrecy.[8] The Fellowship's leader Doug Coe and others have explained the organization's desire for secrecy by citing biblical admonitions against public displays of good works, insisting they would not be able to tackle diplomatically sensitive missions if they drew public attention.[8]

Although the organization is secretive, it holds one regular public event each year, the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C. Every sitting United States president since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, including President Barack Obama, has participated in at least one National Prayer Breakfast during his term.[9][10][11][12]

The Fellowship's known participants include ranking United States government officials, corporate executives, heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and ambassadors and high-ranking politicians from across the world.[2][13][14][15][16] Many United States Senators and Congressmen who have publicly acknowledged working with the Fellowship or are documented as having worked together to pass or influence legislation.[17][18]

In Newsweek magazine, Lisa Miller wrote that rather than calling themselves "Christians," as they describe themselves, they are brought together by common love for the teachings of Jesus and that all approaches to "loving Jesus" are acceptable.[18] In contrast, Jewish writer[19] Jeff Sharlet wrote a book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,[3] as well as an article in Harper's[20] magazine, describing his experience while serving as an intern in the Fellowship. He opined that the organization fetishizes power by comparing Jesus to "Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden" as examples of leaders who change the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their "brothers".[16][18]

<snip>

The Fellowship and Uganda

The Fellowship, through Representative Joe Pitts (R.-Pa.), redirected millions in US aid to Uganda from sex education programs to abstinence programs, thereby causing an evangelical revival, which included condom burnings.

In a November 2009 NPR interview, Sharlet alleged that Ugandan Fellowship associates David Bahati and Nsaba Buturo were behind the recent proposed bill in Uganda that called for the death penalty for gays.[81] Bahati cited a conversation with Fellowship members in 2008 as having inspired the legislation.[82]

Sharlet reveals that David Bahati, the Uganda legislator backing the bill, reportedly first floated the idea of executing gays during The Family's Uganda National Prayer Breakfast in 2008.[83] Sharlet described Bahati as a "rising star" in the Fellowship who has attended the National Prayer Breakfast in the United States and, until the news over the gay execution law broke, was scheduled to attend the 2010 U.S. National Prayer Breakfast.[83]

Fellowship member Bob Hunter gave an interview to NPR in December 2009 in which he acknowledged Bahati's connection but argued that no American associates support the bill.[84]

President Barack Obama, in his address to the Fellowship at their National Prayer Breakfast in early 2010, directly criticized the Uganda legislation targeting gay people for execution. In calling for a renewed emphasis on faith and civility, Obama stated, "We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary [Clinton] mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda."[85]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_%28Christian_organization%29#The_Fellowship_and_Uganda

[Fast Walker 52]

88. thanks-- definitely very disturbing, scary stuff

[BlueJazz]

38. Change it to: They're all very, very, very, very happy and they can't come to terms with it.

[marym625]

47. LOL!

[Angry Dragon]

2. Because they believe the words of Paul and think it is god speaking

and they feel if they do not follow a god then they would turn into a heathen

[Arugula Latte]

63. But why the laser-like focus on that one thing, while ignoring scads of other things?

The Bible says no tattoos nor shellfish, but those rules are just fine and dandy to ignore.

[Angry Dragon]

94. The Bible also says to stone adulters

I was not in the mood to list all the things wrong with the Bible
It also has two different Ten Commandments
How did we end up with two when the first set was destroyed??

[el_bryanto]

96. People know the answer on Shellfish/Tatoos so i'm not going to waste time on that

As for the other; I would say that it comes down to empathy and market pressures. If you don't know any Gay People (because the ones you do know hide it from you) - than you don't have any empathy for them; it's easy to demonize them. If you are a paid minister than Homosexuality is way more enjoyable to rail against than other sins - not that large a population are actually Gay. If you rail against Masterbation or Fornication than your audience will get annoyed; because they might well be committing those sins and they don't want to hear about them.

Bryant

[cheapdate]

3. Not a clue.

[Fast Walker 52]

5. was wondering if there were any serious studies on this

[shenmue]

10. I think they believe they will be punished

for what other people do.

[Mojorabbit]

40. That might be it! nt

[TexasProgresive]

4. I'm Christian and have no clue why

so claim to be Christian and yet are so fill of hate.

[virtualobserver]

6. they are filled with fear, it undermines their simple and easy to understand world

if you have to re-evaluate one rule you have to re-evaluate them all,
which scares the hell out of them.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Some historians would argue that Judeo-Christianity never *really* conquered paganism.

And paganism.... with it's acceptance of and , indeed celebration of , sexual variation, variety and freedom .....lingers on in and manifests itself in art, pop culture, , secular culture and philosophy, etc.

I'd include Islam in that tradition, as well, of course. They all derive from the Abrahamic, monotheistic tradition.


Alas, paganism.... and of course nature itself.... is a lot older.


And a lot more powerful, I reckon.


ETA: So they feel ( probably unconsciously) that it ( homosexuality) represents a threat to Christianity itself.

[randys1]

8. Maturity. They did not have healthy sex lives when they were in high school or college.

The men or boys learned to mistrust and hate Women because they (the boys) were too immature to create sexual relationships.

Sex becomes a contest and they have to trick Women into it or use alcohol, etc.

Sex is a funny subject to them and one of great anxiety, the very idea of a non traditional sexual situation, such as two Gay men, makes their heads explode in extreme confusion.

this confusion is reacted to with fear and hate because they are too immature to do anything else

[patricia92243]

9. Uninformed or informed and do not believe the information. 1. Gay and pedophilia are NOT

the same thing. 2. Being gay is not a choice.

If people really and truly understand and believe those two truths, there would be no problems for anyone concerning being gay.

People hate and therefore fear - for their children.

[Facility Inspector]

11. I don't think it is obsession

as much as it is pure hatred.

It's not even that they fear anything, they just simply hate.

[Hydra]

13. Hatred is based on fear

And the ones who are out there and being loud are a bit obsessive.

[Facility Inspector]

14. Hatred is a devoid emptiness

These people hate enough to kill.

You can hate without being afraid of something.

That kind of hate scares me.

With hatred that is based in fear, it seems like you could at least teach the hater, or that they are capable of emotions other than ethnic cleansing level hatred.

[Hydra]

24. Actually, hatred is a swampy bog, full of icky things

I've been checking on the reactions to the wonderful SCOTUS position, and the message is clear among the haters- they are terrified. They're terrified that the Gs and the Ls will gain legitimacy, that they will have equal status, that safe birth control will be easily available and stds will be eradicated. They are afraid their kids will be gay, they are afraid that they will become the minority and "oppressed&quot "Gay Mafia&quot . They are afraid Poly marriage and other things are coming.

They basically think the whole world they tried to build is disappearing. And it is.

They would happily kill all the gays, non-believers, lefties, scientists and everyone else who dares to say and do things that they don't approve of...for "the good of everyone."

Good thing they are the vocal minority, despite what they think.

[RKP5637]

81. In short, IMO, they are very frightened individuals striking out at anything they believe

threatens their very insecure world on shaky piers. And, they are filled with irrational hatred conditioned and often, according to studies, predisposed to irrational fear through the structure of their brains. Often that irrational fear could be tempered through life experience, but IMO it is often reinforced by family, societal ties and culture. There are many forces willing to cultivate that fear to bring them into their midst. It is sad to live ones life IMO filled with irrational fear and hatred.

And often religious and hate groups, sometime the same, see them as a source of revenue, as well as some MSM. It's a horrible vicious circle often feeding on itself.

[niyad]

34. welcome to du

[Fast Walker 52]

50. ok, so why do they hate it so much?

any ideas?

[Facility Inspector]

51. Generational?

Ignorance? Just pure evil?

I have no idea fundamentally, I just know when I see it and when I see it, it sickens me.

[Runningdawg]

12. I think it has to do with the way they were raised

I will use my dad and a good friend as examples.
Dad was born in 1924, he lived his whole life within 30 miles of his home. He dropped out of school during the depression to work. He didn't travel, he had no TV and news papers were luxuries. The most social contact he had was at church.
My friend was born in 1966. Her parents are Christian "preppers". She lived 15 miles from the nearest paved road, never went to public school, consequently has about a 10th grade education. Her family/church didn't allow any unapproved music or books, there was no TV. She wasn't allowed to have friends outside the church and was never allowed to date. Instead she was encouraged to begin her life as a wife an mother early.
She has since come to her senses, and has tried to make amends with her children, who were raised the same. Her boys have adapted, her girl choose the life her mother left behind.
When you live your life that sheltered, a glimpse at normal life is like looking into hell. Everything scares them.

[RKP5637]

82. I think that has to do with a lot of it, basically raised and living in closed circles to the

outside world for the most part. Exactly as you say in your last sentence; "When you live your life that sheltered, a glimpse at normal life is like looking into hell. Everything scares them."

I also think this is a component of it as I mentioned in a response http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6966070

[Wise Child]

15. More than thirty years ago, (and more recently than that)

it was an easy issue when the Religious Right wanted to look like defenders of morality. Until a few years ago, they were confident that the majority held a similar opinion. A similar opinion that the average American may not necessarily have wrapped their discomfort in piety. The "ick factor" was still in play.

The Abortion issue was something they really had to struggle against.

[redstateblues]

16. Fear. I am a member of a progressive evangelical church in TN

That became inclusive this past year. Quite a few of my friends left the church after the pastor performed a same sex marriage. I met with them as they were leaving and listened to their reasons and I don't think any were honest about their homophobia. There was a lot of "I've got gay friends" or "the bible says blah blah blah". It was very discouraging to see how closed their minds were. The Pastor came from a background of an extremely backward, conservative church and it it is been amazing to see his transformation. There is hope.

[QC]

17. It's an easy, safe "moral issue" for them to take a stand on,

unlike, say, divorce. Few gay people are hanging out in fundy churches, whereas conservative evangelicals have the highest divorce rate of any religious demographic in the country.

That county clerk in Kentucky who made the ugly scene with the gay couple? She's been married four times.

[treestar]

29. Exactly

so many of them have been divorced. But considering what is in the old and new Testaments, they should be crying more about divorce. It's clearly wrong as Christ directly said it. So they point fingers at others. Oddly, people who want to get married.

[Nye Bevan]

18. I know, it's weird, since Jesus Christ never uttered a single word that criticized homosexuality,

according to every one of the Gospels, but did urge people to treat others as they would wish to be treated.

[closeupready]

19. Bashing gay people from the pulpit is good for $$$.

That the congregations take that talk seriously is where we run into real trouble.

Suffice it to say I'm no longer religious at all.

[Hydra]

21. The Christian "Values" people and the Right want to control everyone's behavior

I call it, "Making the world smaller." They want everything easy to understand, predictable and exactly a certain way. Anything outside of that makes them confused, uncomfortable and scares them. It's one of the reasons they are anti-science.

I didn't really understand this until one of my co-workers I was friendly with spit out that she felt all the problems in America were coming out of Berkley. She felt that if we all acted the same, thought the same, and believed the same things, everything would be perfect.

Once I could see that point of view, everything else fell into place. The desire for a clear gender differentiation, all men to have short hair, "christian" or "family" values, no "sexual deviancy," no science to tell them that all of that is artificial.

They just want to be able to wake up in the morning, know exactly what they are seeing and doing, and to have someone reassuring in positions of power to tell them that they are going to be safe.

For those people, we are dismantling their "safe" world, tearing down their illusions and making them cope with things they would really rather not.

Being in just about every category they hate, it's hard for me to have sympathy for them...especially since they make people suffer to accomplish their aims of enforcing conformity. That said, I do pity them for being afraid to come out of their belief built cages to see the wider and more amazing universe.

[Starry Messenger]

22. They believe the patriarchal nuclear family is the backbone of capitalism

https://books.google.com/books?id=6GI7ME7Wgg0C&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=christian+family+capitalism&source=bl&ots=LZqTiBkUYM&sig=mYwWiOUT3d-57zAG5SbL1GGcClY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEGhVerrFojxoATCvISQAg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=christian%20family%20capitalism&f=false

[marginlized]

23. When you consider the 50's witch-hunts

and employee purges through the 60's were instigated by closet cases like J. Edgar and Citizen Cohn, that alone is quite a legacy.

In the 70's, the FBI was thought to have infiltrated most gay rights organizations.
Sure it sounds paranoid, and it was, but the fear was very real.

[Hydra]

27. Yes, and the J. Edgar and other cases were no accident

Last edited Sat Jul 11, 2015, 01:16 PM - Edit history (1)

The GOP has an unwritten policy that if you are a person in power, you are allowed to do all the things the "family values" crowd says are wrong. Basically, if you're a 1%er, God loves you and you allowed to do anything.

We're trying to get it to the point that everyone has a right to do those things as long as it's not abusive. We're having to attack an entire system of privilege to do so.

You could say, in essence, the people against these things are hypocrites- they have no problem with their leaders doing it, they just don't want some "normal" person to have the right to it.

[AZ Progressive]

41. Yes, these people are not for freedom, they are for power and control

They don't believe in the values of America.

[Smarmie Doofus]

84. That's true of Hoover; I'm not so sure about Cohn.

Cohn seemed to maintain a judicious and uncomfortable silence when McCarthyism ebbed over the wall to start including gays as well as reds. There's a snippet of the Army-McCarthy hearings ( I'm pretty sure it's on youtube) where the army lawyer.... Jos. Welch.... brings up the topic of gays in defense plants via use of the slam ,"pixies".

You can almost see Roy squirm while the senators.... DEM and GOP.... snicker and her-haw and have a lot of fun w. that.

[pamela]

25. Other people's "sin"

Let's say you have a list of "sins" and there is only one on that list you have no desire to do and, to your knowledge, no one in your family is so inclined either. How convenient it is to think of that as the absolute worst and to obsess over it. You can pat yourself on the back for not doing this thing you don't even want to do. You can rant and rave about it without condemning yourself or those closest to you.

You can go shopping on Sunday (breaking a commandment to keep the Sabbath holy,) post a clearly false rumor about the President on Facebook (bearing false witness) and then make an excuse not to help your Mom out with something she has been asking you to help with (not honoring your parents) all for a big ol' commandment breaking trifecta before lunch. But hey, you didn't have homosexual sex!

[arely staircase]

30. best post in this thread. nt

[Fast Walker 52]

54. Ha! Yes, I think that is definitely part of it

It's the easy "outsider" to cast accusations of evil at.

But the histrionics point to something else at play as well.

[treestar]

28. No. And they can't seem to get as worked up about

fornication and adultery of which there is plenty and that should be equally upsetting to them. And divorce. You'd think that crisis would be much huger to literal interpretations. Christ himself was totally no-divorce. For homosexuality they are reaching back to the old Testament, which is supposed to be overcome by the New. By those lights, they should be just as much for polygamy as they are against homosexuality.

[tymorial]

31. It isn't just a Christian problem

It is an Abrahamic religion problem.

[Marrah_G]

32. Exactly!!!!!!

[Nye Bevan]

35. +1. Certainly, a long, long way from being just a Christian problem.

Today in most of the Islamic world homosexuality is not socially or legally accepted. In some of these countries, Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, homosexual activity carries the death penalty.[4][5][6][7][8] In others, such as Somalia and Malaysia, it is illegal.[9]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_in_Islam

Three Iranian men have been executed after being found guilty of charges related to homosexuality, according to a semi-official news agency.

The men, only identified by their initials, were hanged on Sunday in the south-western city of Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's Khuzestan province.

"The three convicts were sentenced to death based on the articles 108 and 110 of Iran's Islamic penal code, for acts against the sharia law and bad deeds," the Isna agency quoted a judiciary official in Khuzestan as saying.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/07/iran-executes-men-homosexuality-charges

[Fast Walker 52]

56. true

though if you watch "Game of Thrones", it is also an obsession and great evil in their 7-faced god religion.

[hifiguy]

62. Indeed. That is it in a nutshell.

The Abrahamic "religions" are profoundly anti-human in most ways.

The more human the behavior the more evil it is, in that view. They hate their own humanity because it "separates" them from their imaginary skydaddy.

[Turin_C3PO]

33. I know,right?

There's so many other sins to focus on, why single out one? (I don't think it's a sin, just saying what they should be thinking according to their beliefs). Greed, Wrath, Pride, etc., those would be better for Christians to focus on, the big 7.

[procon]

36. Promoting fear, suspicion, hate and bigotry is a good marketing strategy

if you're in the salvation business and trying to continually drumm up new customers. If peace, love and charity were the real focus of faith, religion would soon wither away, so it is a matter of ecconomic survival that intolerance has always been the bread and butter of organised religions.

[Bigmack]

37. I think they are afraid of sex as recreation...

They don't like the fact that homosexuals do things they think are icky - anal and oral sex - because it's just fun. Fun is bad, so therefore recreational sex is bad.

Their sex lives must be awful. Lots of heterosexuals have anal and oral sex. The anti-sex folks appear not to realize that heterosexuals do that sort of thing, too. Missionary-style sex on Saturday mornings, under the covers, and quickly gotten over.

[safeinOhio]

39. Until 1980 they hated and condemned divorce in the same way.

Then came St. Ronnie Reagan and that all changed. Great article in LA Times.




More telling, the "family values" movement, which took off in 1980, largely ignored this once crucial subject. Jerry Falwell and other conservative preachers attacked abortion, feminism and homosexuality, but they rarely mentioned divorce.

What happened? In a word (or two words): Ronald Reagan. When leaders of the religious right decided to embrace Reagan as their political messiah, they had to swallow hard.

Not only was Reagan divorced, he was divorced and remarried, a clear violation of biblical teaching. As governor of California, moreover, Reagan signed the nation's first no-fault divorce law in 1969. Having cast their lot with Reagan in the 1980 election, evangelical denunciations of divorce all but disappeared.

If evangelicals can alter their attitudes toward divorce, they can do likewise with homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Indeed, views may soften as LGBT evangelicals come out of the closet and, like divorcees, make their communities confront their existence.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0705-balmer-evangelical-divorce-20150705-story.html

[Hydra]

42. Moral of the story, and the conclusion I came to after SCOTUS ruling

Last edited Sat Jul 11, 2015, 04:21 PM - Edit history (1)

They will be upset about it, but their leaders will give them new marching orders and they'll forget all about how much they cared about the issue after awhile.

[Fast Walker 52]

57. how convenient!

thanks for the link

[redstateblues]

65. Great post. Check out my post #16

[johnnypneumatic]

43. Christianity has mostly been patriarchal and authoritarian

Christianity has mostly been patriarchal and authoritarian vs matriarchal and egalitarian. Authoritarian idealogies need internal and external enemies and need stark good vs evil black vs white dichotomies to focus their thought patterns to enhance their power. Thus Satan, who can be the external force always to beware of, but also one who can corrupt individuals and be the internal enemy, such as through demon possession, and cause disrespectful disobedient children who threaten the authority and moral values of the parent, and gasp! gay children(oh horror).

And for American Christianity and conservatism at least, the hated others, blacks, jews, communists, disobedient children, liberalism, sexual nonconformity, etc, have all been useful to focus attacks on as internal and external threats. But as society has changed, women getting the vote and some equality with men, anti-semitism being no longer acceptable especially after the holocaust, racism being no longer openly acceptable with the rise of civil rights for blacks, etc., the fall of soviet Russia, then the demonization of homosexuality has become the last acceptable phobia to focus hate and fear upon. And they desperately need to hold onto their enemies, or lose their power and purpose. Without Moby Dick, Ahab is a nobody with nothing to do.

Also, religion has in some ways evolved to function as a breeding strategy, and is useful for influencing and manipulation of the sexual behavior of children. A parent's success comes from many children and many more grandchildren. Large families and unlimited reproduction have been encouraged, while birth control, abortion, and unmarried children and homosexuality are the enemy to that goal. And to some extent, religion encourages reproduction to create more followers, and some of them attempt to outbreed other religious denominations that they don't regard as 'real Christians'.

They don't understand evolution however, and don't realize that homophobia is counter-productive to the degree that being LGBT is inborn or genetic. By forcing everyone to be good 'one man one woman' breeding units, they only produce more and more LGBT children, raising those gene percentages in the overall gene pool.

(yes, I can't help sarcasm creeping into everything I write)

[I_Like_Hammers]

44. Most humans NEED something to hate

Or else they just can't make it through the day.

[sendero]

48. Because they think it is a sin...

.. and not something you are born to. The fact that most people no longer agree with them has them scared. What if many more of the church's teachings are found wanting? They don't like change. They don't like their dogma being discarded, even if they have to dig deep in the Old Testament, which is full of ridiculous edicts that no one believes in, to justify it.

Remember, even though they claim the "word of god" is inerrant and eternal, they once used it to justify slavery. All of their pillars are crumbling.

[Bagsgroove]

49. It's all a misunderstanding

"And when he (Jesus) saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away."

[Fast Walker 52]

55. if only!

[orpupilofnature57]

52. Fundies, not Christians, who wants war ? Fundies not Christians, who brings guns to church ?

[Arugula Latte]

66. Not just fundies, many "mainstream" Christians, too.

[HooptieWagon]

53. They're conditioned to be controlled by fear.

Fundamentalism in all religions is fear-based.

[rock]

58. It keeps them busy and off the streets

(Think hard now!)

[Turbineguy]

60. They can pretend

they have no interest in the Kardashian family.

[Jane Austin]

61. That kind of "Christian"

is running out of ways for them to feel superior to others.

Their game of More Holy than Thou always has to have an identifiable enemy.

[hifiguy]

64. I can't add much to what has been said above.

I know that when I found out that there were gay and lesbian people in the world, and what those words meant, sometime in my teens, I thought no more about it than I did about the existence of left-handed people. It always seemed to me like a perfectly normal variation on the basic riff of humankind.

[Initech]

67. Christianity can't survive without a boogeyman.

[kydo]

68. Hatred is an easy way to come to terms with an uncomfortable issue.

And it is not just Christians that have this fear hatred thing going on. Pretty much every religion and or society has had issues with homosexuals and people that are left handed for that matter. It is just you probably know more people that associate themselves as Christian. Nazi's hated gays too and they were not Christian.


People tend to like to have everything fit neatly into little labeled boxes. Anything that disrupts this is feared, hated and despised. So it was easier to claim things were an abomination before God then to except that we are all different.

[Bluenorthwest]

69. It's not just Christians, they are not even the most obsessed and punitive of the religions

they are just more popular locally, but a stroll around the globe gives perspective to many matters. The Muslim world codifies it's hate of LGBT people and enforces harsh penalties. They make the Baptists look like Woodstock Nation.

[udbcrzy2]

70. Because the Bible tells them so?

I dunno, but gosh they are so hateful. I cannot believe they are actually claiming to be Christians. I'm not religious, but I thought they were suppose to love thy brother or something like that.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

73. It's only mentioned in the old testament, IIRC. Which forbids and condones a lot of crazy shit,

But they are only concerned with the homosexualality part, and not the part that condones killing disobedient kids, people who work on Sunday, or supports slavery.

[kwassa]

74. Don't lump all Christians together. Some welcome gay people.

Most of the gay people I currently know are openly gay Christian clergy in the Episcopal church.

There are a number of denominations welcoming to gay people , and more are doing it all the time.

[B Calm]

75. Because their preacher's told them it's in the Bible to hate gays.

Where in the bible?

[RandySF]

76. Fundamentalists of all religions have one thing in common;

Last edited Sun Jul 12, 2015, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Control over everyone's personal sexuality, especially women.

[whathehell]

77. Why are so many Muslims obsessed with it?

[Fast Walker 52]

86. as someone noted above, anti-gay sentiment is an Abrahamic tradition

so it's part of Judaism, Christianity, Islam. I don't know if Hindus have much against gays. No idea what Buddhism says.

It does seem like most modern cultures have shunned homosexuality.

But still, I don't get the overriding obsession of so many Christians with homosexuality.

[backscatter712]

78. Religion makes bigotry easy.

As Bill Maher put it, it enables them to launder their hate.

"I don't hate queers. God does."

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

80. How are gays treated under Shinto, Hinduism, ...

... no need to ask about Islam.

Extremists will hate.

[Fast Walker 52]

87. I don't know-- how are they treated?

it's definitely related to religious extremism though

[JonLP24]

83. I just think the religion is used as a vehicle for their hate

Don't know if they genuinely feel righteous because he goes to church but Monday through Saturday just a hateful bigot. His girlfriend says something nice about a convenient store worker he says "fuck that towel head". I'm not religious but know there is a right or wrong to this here life but the person who stopped giving him rides to church was said to be falling away from god and an accusation he is gay because he has a male visitor. Person that lives around here I'm thinking of.

[jwirr]

89. They have been taught that it is wrong for their entire life. But there are also Christians who do

not believe that. So the change is going to come.

[lunatica]

90. the word homophobic itself tells you why (it's a phobia)

The word phobia has been watered down a lot in it's overuse so that it now seems to be a mild thing that is something one chooses to feel. Phobias are about irrational fears. It's also not just one religion or belief system. But religions do seem to exploit these fears, though not all do.

I'll bet that fear is underlying all forms of knee jerk reactions. Why do men claim women are inferior? Because they fear powerful women, and they fear that which attracts them because it has some sort of power over them that they can't control. They can't just 'turn it off'. I think there might be some deeply buried kind of attraction to same sex people and the thought of it makes them take their religious teachings seriously enough to fill them with terror at 'being caught' by God. I think most so-called religious people's feelings are the same as when they were children. Fearful of ever lasting hell and punishment. Those feelings are many times too powerful to be able to examine rationally. So they're stuck at their childhood levels of faith and fear.

I believe we're all attracted in some way to people of our own sex, even if it falls under the description of envy of their beauty. Most of us (at least I think it is most of us) can deal with such feelings quite easily. We can tell the difference between sexual attraction and other kinds of attractions.

[Betty Karlson]

91. Christians define themselves by whom they love.

On the other hand, "Christians" define themselves by who they hate and how hard they work to exclude them.

[Vinca]

92. They seemed obsessed with any form of sexuality they deem "eeeeeeevil."

That's why the thought of providing birth control to women who enjoy sex seems to blow their minds.

[lindysalsagal]

93. Because desire and guilt are powerful forces to control people.

Religions always control procreation for many reasons, not the least of which is the amazing power of guilt, fear, and shame.

That's where the eternal burning in hell comes in so handy: It might keep you on the reservation, so that you won't be tempted by others who might show you the lunacy of your own dogma.

[Takket]

95. it didn't used to be such a big deal

The GOP turned it into a wedge issue by fanning the flames of homosexual hate for their own gain. It is a lot easier to screw the common man out of his home and livelihood when you have him convinced it is gays and not your policies that are the reason for it.