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How did religion ruin homosexuality?
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[edit] Views of specific religious groups
[edit] Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, traditionally forbid sexual relations between men and teach that such behaviour is sinful. Religious authorities point to passages in the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), the New Testament (Romans 1:26-27, I Timothy 1:9-10, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) and the Qur'an (7:80-81, 26:165), for scriptural justification of these beliefs. The first recorded law against homosexuality is found in the holiness code of Leviticus. Among many other acts, sexual intercourse between men is a capital offense.
Today some major denominations within these religions, such as Reform Judaism and the United Church of Christ, have accepted homosexuality, arguing that it was originally intended as a means of distinguishing religious worship between Abrahamic and pagan faiths, specifically Greek (Ganymede) and Egyptian (see Torah or Old Testament) rituals that made homosexuality a religious practice and not merely human sexuality, and is thus no longer relevant. Christian denominations such as Unitarian Universalism and some Presbyterian and Anglican churches now welcome members regardless of sexual orientation, and perform same-sex marriages, as do Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism.
[edit] Judaism
Main article: Homosexuality and Judaism
“ ...If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.... ”
—Leviticus 20:12-14, NIV
The Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) is the primary source for Jewish views on homosexuality. It states that: "[A man] shall not lie with another man as [he would] with a woman, it is a toeva ("abomination")" (Leviticus 18:22). Like many similar commandments, the stated punishment for willful violation is the death penalty, although in practice rabbinic Judaism rid itself of the death penalty for all practical purposes 2,000 years ago.
Rabbinic Jewish tradition understands this verse to specifically prohibit a man from having anal sex with another man. However, rabbinic Judaism also creates "fences" around the commandments of the Torah (see Halakha.) As such, rabbinic prohibitions were made against all forms of homosexual contact between men. Rabbinic works ban lesbian acts of sex as well. What people today describe as a biological or psychological homosexual inclination is not discussed among classical rabbis. The sources only discuss specific acts.
Orthodox Judaism views all homosexual sex as sinful. Many Orthodox Jews view homosexuality as a choice; some sources claim it to be a deliberate deviance. A trend of studying the issue of homosexuality has recently begun to occur, with a view towards understanding and reaching out to religious homosexual Jews, but no Orthodox rabbinical body has advised changing Jewish law. Orthodox groups hold that any change in law on this issue is absolutely impossible.
Conservative Judaism, like Orthodoxy, views Jewish law as normative, but has a historical, more flexible understanding of how it should be interpreted. As such, it has engaged in an in-depth study of this issue since 1990, with various rabbis presenting a wide array of responsa (papers with legal arguments) for communal consideration. The official position of the movement since 1990 has been to welcome homosexual Jews into their synagogues, and also campaign against any discrimination in civil law and public society, but also to uphold a ban on homosexual sex as a religious requirement. However, a recent split decision of the movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, in January 2007, has significantly reinterpreted the issue, and now allows homosexual men and women to become rabbis or cantors. Some form of commitment ceremony is now also viewed as legitimate. Conservative rabbis who voted on this change used the issue of Kavod HaBriyot, honoring a person's dignity, as honor for someone's rights may override rabbinic restrictions. See Conservative Halakha for a full discussion.
Progressive forms of Judaism, including Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism in North America and Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom, view homosexual practices to be acceptable on the same basis as heterosexual practices. Progressive Jewish authorities believe either that traditional laws against homosexuality are no longer binding or that they are subject to changes that reflect a new understanding of human sexuality. Some of these authorities rely on modern biblical scholarship suggesting that the prohibition in the Torah was intended to ban coercive or ritualized homosexual sex, such as those practices ascribed to Egyptian and Canaanite fertility cults and temple prostitution.
[edit] Christianity
Main articles: Homosexuality and Christianity, List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality, and The Bible and homosexuality
“ ...God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another... ”
—Romans 1:26-27, ASV
Throughout all of Christian history, the Catholic Church and, later, Protestant authorities have been explicitly condemnatory of same-sex sexual relations, namely, "man lying with man as one lies with a woman" and men "burning with lust toward one another." Where the Catholic view is founded on a natural law argument informed by scripture, the Protestant view is based more directly upon scripture. Nevertheless, there is a broad consensus among Christian organizations that the Bible, as in Leviticus, denounces same-sex sexual relations between men as sinful and, in the eyes of God, an "abomination". In Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem commanded Gentile convert to eschew “sexual immorality.” In the Epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul describes “men, leaving the natural use of the woman, [burning] in their lust one toward another” as a consequence or punishment for the sin of idolatry. In several of his other epistles, Paul echoes the command in Acts, that Christians are to "avoid sexual immorality." It is clear that “men burning with lust toward one another” and acting on that lust is, along with other offenses, considered to be “sexually immoral.”
Along with passages in the Bible, we see denunciations of same-sex sexuality in the earliest writings, such as in the Didache and in the writings of Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, Eusebius, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine of Hippo, and in doctrinal sources such as the Apostolic Constitutions — for example, Eusebius of Caesarea's statement which condemns "the union of women with women and men with men.” While same-sex sexual behavior is rejected to the present day by most Christian denominations, contemporary guides to pastoral care reflect an ethos informed by compassion and respect of the sanctity of other. [1][citation needed]
In the 20th and 21st century, a few historians and theologians have challenged the traditional understanding and argue that passages have been mistranslated or that they do not refer to what we understand as “homosexuality.” [2]
The Roman Catholic Church requires homosexuals to practice chastity in the understanding that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and "contrary to the natural law." It insists that the only appropriate expression of sexuality is within the context of marriage, which by definition is permanent, procreative, heterosexual, and monogamous. The Church describes homosexual tendencies as "a trial" and stresses that people with such tendencies "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity."[3] In reference to the possible ordination of homosexuals to the religious life, distinguishing between "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" and those that are "only the expression of a transitory problem", the Vatican requires that any homosexual tendencies "must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate."[4] Many prominent Christians have been critical of homosexuality throughout the religion's history. Thomas Aquinas denounced sodomy as second only to bestiality as the worst of all sexual sins, and Hildegard of Bingen's book "Scivias", which was officially approved by Pope Eugene III, condemned sexual relations between women as "perverted forms."
Some Christians do not condemn homosexual acts as bad or evil. Many liberal Christians are open and affirming to active homosexuals. Indeed, there is even an entire denomination, the Metropolitan Community Church, devoted to being open and affirming to active homosexuals.
[edit] Islam
Main articles: Homosexuality and Islam and Pederasty in the Middle East
“ What! Of all creatures do ye come unto the males, and leave the wives your Lord created for you? Nay, but ye are froward folk. ”
—Quran , 26th sura, trans. Pickthal
All major Islamic sects disapprove of homosexuality,[5] and same-sex intercourse is an offence punishable by execution in six Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.[6] It also carried the death penalty in Afghanistan under the Taliban. In other Muslim nations, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria, Pakistan the Maldives, and Malaysia, homosexuality is punished with prison, fines, or corporal punishment.
Islamic teachings (in the hadith tradition) presume same-sex attraction, extol abstention and (in the Qur'an) condemn consummation. In concordance with those creeds, in Islamic countries, male desire for attractive male youths is widely expected and condoned as a human characteristic. However, it is thought that restraint from either acting on, or revealing, this desire is rewarded with an afterlife in paradise, where one is attended by perpetually young virgin lovers, women and men, houri and ghilman. (Al-Waqia 56.37, Qur'an) Homosexual intercourse itself has been interpreted to be a form of lust and a violation of the Qur'an. Thus, while homosexuality as an attraction is not against the Sharia (Islamic law, which governs the physical actions, rather than the inner thoughts and feelings), the physical action of same-sex intercourse is punishable under the Sharia.
Same-sex relations between adult males are segregated in a manner analogous to the segregation between the sexes. Thus, the passive role is generally taken on by an underclass of males, often transvestite or transgender who routinely would be entertainers by profession and who would be both despised for their submissive sexual role and admired for their skills. In earlier years these would have had their start through the traditional bacchá or köçek roles. The active role is played by men who do not self-identify as homosexual, who typically conform to societal expectation to marry and have children and view their homosexual adventures as further confirmation of their masculinity. While this construction reflects the way Muslim men generally represent the culture to themselves, actual practices may vary a great deal.
The discourse on homosexuality in Islam is primarily concerned with activities between men. Relations between women, if they are regarded as problems, are treated akin to adultery, and al-Tabari records an execution of a harem couple under Caliph al-Hadi.
Islam tolerates same-sex desires by viewing them as a temptation; sexual relations, however, are seen as a transgression of the natural role and aim of sexual activity.[7]
Youth seeking his father's advice on choosing a lover
From the Haft Awrang of Jami, in the story A Father Advises his Son About Love; See Homosexuality and Islam; The Smithsonian, Washington, DC.Historically, and with exceptions, punishment for male same-sex relations has been less severe compared to its Abrahamic counterparts: Judaism and Christianity. The Qur'an states that if a person commits the sin they can repent and save their life. Many Islamic cultures, early ones such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Canaanites, where homosexuality was well documented to be entrenched in many aspects of their culture by exposure to Hellenistic culture, as well as later cultures such as the Abbasid caliphate and Safavid Persia, were renowned for cultivating a sophisticated homosexual aesthetic reflected in art and literature. They reconciled their love life with their religion using a hadith, from a collection of quotations ascribed to Muhammad: "He who loves and remains chaste and conceals his secret and dies, dies a martyr". However, later hadiths are harsher: "When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shakes... Kill the one that is doing it and also kill the one that it is being done to." Both ancient and modern fundamentalists have interpreted these injunctions literally, with resulting loss of life.
The result is a religion that allows love between those of the same gender as long as they do not have sexual intercourse. Ibn Hazm, Ibn Daud, Al-Mutamid, Abu Nuwas and many others used this edict to write extensively and openly of love between men while proclaiming to be chaste. Furthermore, in order for the transgression to be proven, at least four men or eight women must bear witness against the accused, thus making it very difficult to persecute those who do not remain celibate in the privacy of their homes.
The teachings of Islam have themselves been used to justify love and sexual expression between males. As for bearing witness, it takes emotional considerations into the subject. See Qur'an, iv. 38; Qur'an, ii. 282; Qur'an, iv. 175), and thus, by a process of induction, they must be worthier objects of desire as well. Debate Between the Wise Woman and the Sage
