"How Religion Is Killing Our Most Vulnerable Youth"

[Rainbow Mage]

Anglican tradition isn't clearcut that homosexuality is immoral. For hundreds of years Christianity had absolutely no problem with homosexuality, it was quite common in Christian Europe, tell that to someone who hasn't read history. Traditional Christian sects are now starting to develop a stigma toward homosexuality because of evangelical influence and wanting to kiss up.

 

[Smoke]

[youtube]AomC-tu02OI[/youtube]

KETK in Tyler, Texas, asks if acceptance of homosexuality will bring about the fall of America.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Anglican tradition isn't clearcut that homosexuality is immoral. For hundreds of years Christianity had absolutely no problem with homosexuality, it was quite common in Christian Europe, tell that to someone who hasn't read history. Traditional Christian sects are now starting to develop a stigma toward homosexuality because of evangelical influence and wanting to kiss up.

Kiss up to whom?

And these stigmas are nothing new.

 

[EverChanging]

With all due respect, Wessexman, tradition can not morally trump basic moral decency. To hold tradition over one's obvious moral duty is IMO a betrayal of one's own religion. If tradition must be defied to allow for respect and compassion, then so be it.

I agree. Christian tradition, like other traditions, has been in a constant state of evolution for centuries. Tradition is supposed to make a faith relevant to our time and place, which is why reason (and increasingly experience) is a part of interpreting tradition. (Traditional Christians base their faith on Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.) It's not static. Churches have changed their positions on many other issues, including segregation and slavery, like the Roman Catholic Church has. And faith communities will continue to change, as well they should....

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Kiss up to whom?

And these stigmas are nothing new.

The point is that traditional Christianity isn't as phobic toward homosexuality. Homosexuality thrived in Europe for centuries right under the RCC's nose, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, far as I can see, has a sort of DADT policy about homosexuality.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I really don't see why evangelical Christianity gets worked up about any action, including same-sex sexual activity.

I thought that it was supposed to be all about faith: if someone doesn't have saving faith in Christ, any change in who he has sex with won't make him less hellbound, and if he does have saving faith, the "indwelling Holy Spirit" will express itself as proper behaviour in the person anyhow... right?

So why worry about how people act? If it really is about faith alone, why not just worry about faith and let the Holy Spirit sort out the rest?

 

[Midnight Pete]

The point is that traditional Christianity isn't as phobic toward homosexuality. Homosexuality thrived in Europe for centuries right under the RCC's nose, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, far as I can see, has a sort of DADT policy about homosexuality.

I am not familiar with Eastern Christianity so I will take your word for it. What do you think of the RCC's policy about pedophilia?

Churches and priests and the evil that men do.

 

[Jeremiah]

Smoke, you are becoming what you hate.

You people are so confused that you actually think your ingorance and prejudice should be on the same playing field as compassion and understanding. You are so messed up in the head you think up is down and down is up. I'll grant it that it is your right to be like that, and I fully respect your right to be closed-minded. But that does not mean you have a valid or even a respectable position, nor does it morally sanction your position.

I think some of you just use this, "It's my right" as an excuse to continue to be prejudice; nothing more then willful ingorance. That you don't really care about having a justifiable moral position, understanding the issue or combating the harmful effects of bigotry and ingorance. You just want an excuse to justify your own prejudice.

And this nonsense that it is in the Bible: I don't buy that at all, that is just another excuse to cling to one's prejudice. I, also, think using the Bible like that, as a shield to hide behind, is just about the most disrespectful thing you can do to Abraham's god.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

It's the kind of thing that's hard to nail down, but it's generally accepted that about a third of teen suicides are LGBT kids. A lot of the information I've found online cites studies that are twenty or thirty years old, though, and I'd like to see some more recent data.

In 2007, the last year for which final data are available, 184 kids between the ages of 5 and 14, and 4,140 people between the ages of 15 and 24 committed suicide in the U.S. (National Vital Statistics Report - Deaths: Final Data for 2007.) That's all suicides for those age groups, not just the gay kids.

Family reactions matter a lot. One 2009 study (here) found that "lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection."

I think what I am driving at from my original post, is that it may be these kids were disturbed above and beyond the fact eh might be gay or straight or whatever. Take Columbine, those kids were picked on and picked on and finally said **** it.
I think it might be a mistake to focus on the gay part and more on the fact that kids can be quite disturbed and what is really causing that. It might be dangerous and derailing the real problem by focusing on LGBT on this one, because it tends to just turn into a movement for that agenda, and not really ANYTHING to do with kids who have deep psychological problems.

Does that make sense?

 

[tomato1236]

You people are so confused that you actually think your ingorance and prejudice should be on the same playing field as compassion and understanding. You are so messed up in the head you think up is down and down is up. I'll grant it that it is your right to be like that, and I fully respect your right to be closed-minded. But that does not mean you have a valid or even a respectable position, nor does it morally sanction your position.

I think some of you just use this, "It's my right" as an excuse to continue to be prejudice; nothing more then willful ingorance. That you don't really care about having a justifiable moral position, understanding the issue or combating the harmful effects of bigotry and ingorance. You just want an excuse to justify your own prejudice.

And this nonsense that it is in the Bible: I don't buy that at all, that is just another excuse to cling to one's prejudice. I, also, think using the Bible like that, as a shield to hide behind, is just about the most disrespectful thing you can do to Abraham's god.

Bla bla bla.

 

[Smoke]

I think what I am driving at from my original post, is that it may be these kids were disturbed above and beyond the fact eh might be gay or straight or whatever. Take Columbine, those kids were picked on and picked on and finally said **** it.
I think it might be a mistake to focus on the gay part and more on the fact that kids can be quite disturbed and what is really causing that. It might be dangerous and derailing the real problem by focusing on LGBT on this one, because it tends to just turn into a movement for that agenda, and not really ANYTHING to do with kids who have deep psychological problems.

Does that make sense?

But what the data show is that a significant number of gay kids have these problems precisely because they're not accepted by their peers or by their families.

As for "that agenda," if you have a problem with LGBT kids being accepted for who they are, you're part of the problem.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

But what the data show is that a significant number of gay kids have these problems precisely because they're not accepted by their peers or by their families.

As for "that agenda," if you have a problem with LGBT kids being accepted for who they are, you're part of the problem.

Don't be like that Smoke, that is not what I said.
I am simply pointing out that maybe these kids have underlining problems and merely being accepted Still wouldn't resolve the problem.
The data you cite, is that based off psych evaluations or just statistics?

I have no problem with ANY agenda like this so long as persecution really is the problem. Understand?

 

[no-body]

Arkansas school board official Clint McCance bashes 'queers' on Spirit Day (ChicagoPride.com : Pleasant Plains, Ark. News)
Of course we're all familiar with people like McCance. What's disturbing is that this idiot is on the school board.

Thankfully he was pressured to resign. The schools action on this was a joke, they took off all the names of the school board members off the website.

 

[Midnight Pete]

I watched Anderson Cooper interviewing this guy on AC360 and I thought it was a just a superb interview. I could tell that Anderson knew exacty what he wanted to get out of McCance. As for the sincerity of McCance's on-air apology, I'm still scratching my head. Was McCance apologizing because he got caught or because he was sorry for what he posted on Facebook? He seemed sincere enough to me. He seemed shaken. I think there was some genuine remorse going on there.

And those parents of a deceased boy on the showed incredible equanimity and restraint. Such courage! I had to wonder if one of both had been sedated before the interview.

I sincerely hope Mr. McCance can find some redemption in his life.

 

[Prestor John]

They are told day in and day out that they are an abomination before God. Just consider the sheer numbers of LGBT kids growing up right now in Roman Catholic, Mormon, and other conservative religious households.

I am a Latter-day Saint (aka "Mormon") and I know for a fact that we do not teach that those who struggle with same-sex attraction are "abominations".

All people have weakness and all people sin. No one is an abomination for succumbing to weakness and sinning.

I learned this in my dealing with racism. It's not enough to be tolerant of other races. I benefit from a racist society just by being white. I don't ever have to use the "n" word, treat any person of color with discourtesy, or even think ill of anyone. But as long as I am not working to dismantle the systemic racism that benefits me, a white man, at the expense of people of color, I am a racist. And my faith calls me to become an anti-racist -- pro-active, vocal, and committed.

I don't know where you live, but there is no "systemic racism" in the U.S. today, besides programs that give benefits to a persons imply because they are a minority (like Affirmative Action).

No one is racist simply for being white. That is actually a very racist view to have.

​

 

[danieldemol]

I am a Latter-day Saint (aka "Mormon") and I know for a fact that we do not teach that those who struggle with same-sex attraction are "abominations".

All people have weakness and all people sin. No one is an abomination for succumbing to weakness and sinning.

So are you ok with monogamous married gays then? Because if not all that you have said above seems like an attempt to divert people’s attention from poor attitudes held by some Mormons

 

[Wasp]

It's the kind of thing that's hard to nail down, but it's generally accepted that about a third of teen suicides are LGBT kids.

If they die as teenagers there's a good chance they weren't really gay at all.

 

[Prestor John]

So are you ok with monogamous married gays then? Because if not all that you have said above seems like an attempt to divert people’s attention from poor attitudes held by some Mormons

God has proclaimed that marriage is to be had between only a man and a woman.

Believing that is not labeling homosexuals "abominations".

 

[danieldemol]

God has proclaimed that marriage is to be had between only a man and a woman.

Believing that is not labeling homosexuals "abominations".

It may be labelling homosexual acts as “abomination” though.
For example from the LDS website Homosexual Behavior
‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind; it is an abomination‘

 

[ImmortalFlame]

I don't know where you live, but there is no "systemic racism" in the U.S. today,

Oh, what a lovely, imaginary world you live in.

Redlining - Wikipedia
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/1003.pdf
https://psmag.com/economics/why-racial-economic-disparity-keeps-growing-in-the-us
Racial Economic Inequality - Inequality.org
Racial and ethnic income inequality in America: 5 key findings
Data Show Racial Disparity in Crack Sentencing
Bias on the Bench | Sarasota Herald-Tribune Media Group | Sentencing
http://lusk.usc.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/Wolch.parks_.pdf
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/379_727.pdf
How Real Is Systemic Racism Today? - Quillette
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/5/16/18627753/racism-kkk-police-brutality-sandra-bland