Is religion the major source of homophobia?

[Jeremiah]

Homophobia has been found to be more common among religious people. Is the heterosexism expressed in some religions the reason for this? Or is it that bigots, in trying to justify their prejudice, turn towards religion as an excuse? And if not religion then what is the source of homophobia?

 

[sandandfoam]

Homophobia has been found to be more common among religious people.

I am not a homophobe. Far from it.
I see no reason to believe your statement.

 

[Jeremiah]

I am not a homophobe. Far from it.
I see no reason to believe your statement.

"I am not a homophobe. Far from it."



I never said you were homophobic....


"I see no reason to believe your statement."

Are you joking?

 

[MSizer]

I think it has to do more with left and right winged traits. People seem to fall on a scale between left, which seem to value individual rights, and right, who seem to value the protection of the group. It seems the more right you fall, the more you dislike anything that puts the individual before the group. That's why they don't like homosexuality - it doesn't (in their minds anyway) benefit the group to have a sexual practice that doesn't produce more population. It is also tied into their tendency to espouse absolutist meaning narratives (religious beliefs basically in their case). They see the world as being in order through religious beliefs, so when someone practices something that isn't in line with the dogma of their religion, it appears "out of order" to them.

Therefore, I believe that religion isn't the cause of homophobia, but that a person who values group sanctity over individual sanctity is likely to espouse religion and dislike homosexuality (co-relation but no causation).

I realize that these are generalizations, but I do believe them to be correct to some degree.

 

[sandandfoam]

"I am not a homophobe. Far from it."



I never said you were homophobic....


"I see no reason to believe your statement."

Are you joking?

lol, I didn't think you said I was homophobic, I was merely making my position clear.
As regards seeing no reason to believe your statement,

Homophobia has been found to be more common among religious people.

no I'm not joking. Found by whom, found when. The statement seems a broad generalization to me and I see no reason to believe it. Give me a source, cite a study and I'll have a look.

 

[Jeremiah]

lol, I didn't think you said I was homophobic, I was merely making my position clear.
As regards seeing no reason to believe your statement, no I'm not joking. Found by whom, found when. The statement seems a broad generalization to me and I see no reason to believe it. Give me a source, cite a study and I'll have a look.

Don't worry you'll get your source when I get back from work.

 

[Mr Cheese]

bigotry comes from fear.
Religion has just been used as an instrument of fear.

But I sense from this and other threads, that you are gay and have a problem with religion.
Which is unerstandable,,,,but there

But then it solves little in poking at others...

 

[Big_TJ]

Homophobia has been found to be more common among religious people. Is the heterosexism expressed in some religions the reason for this? Or is it that bigots, in trying to justify their prejudice, turn towards religion as an excuse? And if not religion then what is the source of homophobia?

Self-consciousness, societal norms and mores, common-sense .. . One don't need to be religious to be homophobic (at least I don't)

 

[AlsoAnima]

Homophobia has been found to be more common among religious people. Is the heterosexism expressed in some religions the reason for this? Or is it that bigots, in trying to justify their prejudice, turn towards religion as an excuse? And if not religion then what is the source of homophobia?

We are afraid of that which we won't understand.
As a self admitted example, I'm afraid to go into the "Left Handed Paths" board because I don't understand it.
However, some of us take this fear too far, and turn it into hate.

 

[whereismynotecard]

Maybe homophobia is a source of religion. You see what I mean? Maybe religion doesn't cause people to be homophobic, but rather homophobic people see that some religious texts speak ill of homosexuality and so they decide to follow that religion. THERE'S A SQUIRREL OUTSIDE!

 

[Jeremiah]

bigotry comes from fear.
Religion has just been used as an instrument of fear.

But I sense from this and other threads, that you are gay and have a problem with religion.
Which is unerstandable,,,,but there

But then it solves little in poking at others...

Mr. Cheese, I am gonna be brutally blunt with you. I have absolutely no interest of having a discourse with you, of any type.

 

[Jeremiah]

lol, I didn't think you said I was homophobic, I was merely making my position clear.
As regards seeing no reason to believe your statement, no I'm not joking. Found by whom, found when. The statement seems a broad generalization to me and I see no reason to believe it. Give me a source, cite a study and I'll have a look.

Here is that link I promised.

Unsurprisingly, religious people were more likely to be homophobic - in fact, religion was one of the strongest predictors of attitudes to homosexuals.

It also turned out that more religious people were more likely to be authoritarian, conservative, poorer, and Protestant - all factors that also predicted homophobia. Women were also more likely to be religious, but less likely than men to be homophobic.

But even after taking all this into account, religious people were still more likely to be homophobic. In other words, an authoritarian conservative is even more likely to be homophobic if they are also religious. Women are more likely to be homophobic if they are religious. Among all the possible factors they explored, two stuck out as being much more powerful predictors of homophobia than the rest: conservatism and religiosity.

So it seems that religion really does make people homophobic. Now, the interesting thing is that, although religion was also linked to racism, the link was extremely weak. So it doesn't seem that religion in general is acting to strengthen group identification. The implication of this is that religion really does powerfully add to homophobia because of its moral condemnation.

Epiphenom: What's the connection between religion and homophobia?

 

[MissAlice]

I think it's more of a male thing than anything.

Not all religions are homophobic but it seems in male dominated societies, they tend to be more in that area. That's not saying women aren't also homophobic but you do see this homophobic trait stronger in men than women. Another trait I seem to notice...(but this is just my observation) is that female homosexuality doesn't seem to get condemned or get the same kind of condemnation as male homosexuality.

Ironcially the same people who spout out how bad homosexuality is don't seem to have a problem in many religious practices polygamy or children being married off to older men. And yes there seems to be a big trend of girls as young as 7 than the other way around.

 

[monta]

Like a couple of people have already said, religion is more a like resource for homophopics.

 

[Rain Drops]

Homophobia exists independant of religion.

After spending a couple of years on Christianforums I've seen just as much Gay-hate on their from Athiests as I've seen from Fundies.

To me it's the lens they interpret the bible through.

There are liberal Christians that don't believe being Gay is a sin.

I find the combination of: American, Christian & Conservative describes the typical homophobe to a T. (Online anyways).

 

[Mr Spinkles]

Jeremiah,

It's very interesting that you posted those studies, because I was just going to suggest it was more right-wing authoritarianism than anything else....citing the examples of the early Communist regimes (China, Russia, Cuba) and European fascists and North Korea.... but the studies you posted seem to contradict that claim.

In light of those studies I suppose we can turn to the answer staring us in the face: the Bible condemns homosexuality. The more seriously you take the Bible, the more likely you are to have attitudes that reflect what it says. Duh.

In fact we can further test this hypothesis: I assume "religiousness" is basically a measure of Judeo-Christian-Islamic religiousness? We could narrow things down, and compare the religiousness of a Christian/Jew/Muslim to the religiousness of people who don't believe homosexuality is a sin as a major tenet of faith (Jains, Buddhists, Unitarians, Quakers I suppose). In this case, it would not be "religiousness" but the actual beliefs of the religion that cause homophobia, namely the belief that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of our loving Father in heaven comparable to rape and murder. Again....duh. Of course they will have homophobic attitudes if they think that is true.

 

[MissAlice]

Wait....I forgot to ask.

Which religion or religions are we talking about?

I was assuming the Abrahamic ones so that's where my supposition came from. It seems the polytheists are/were less inclined of homophobia than many of the mainstream monotheistic religions.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

Like a couple of people have already said, religion is more a like resource for homophopics.

I agree but at the same time, the opposite is also true. You are basically saying, religion is neutral, and people bring their homophobia to it. Of course that must happen sometimes. But it also sometimes happens that some religions are homophobic, and they bring this to otherwise neutral people.

I mean if kids were raised to believe God smote an entire city because they were black, and blacks are sinners, we all know that would be a racist religion and those kids would be racist as a result of the racism inherent in the religion. Replace the word "black" with "gay" and "racism" with "homophobia", and the same reasoning seems to hold.

 

[Jeremiah]

Wait....I forgot to ask.

Which religion or religions are we talking about?

I was assuming the Abrahamic ones so that's where my supposition came from. It seems the polytheists are/were less inclined of homophobia than many of the mainstream monotheistic religions.

I have to agree with the site I linked, in that it "add to homophobia because of its moral condemnation." As such, the Abrahamic religions would be in question. But I do not want to imply all religions. I know the site I linked was very bold in its use of the word "religion" but it is very clear this is not true of all religions.

I think dogma plays a large role in this; almost every time, if you argue long enough with a bigot, it come down to "because 'God' said so." If it was not for that dogmatic barrier then I think homophobia would greatly diminish.

 

[strange_lupe]

It certainly doesn't help!

I think a lot of otherwise tolerant people are unable to get over the childish fear of homosexuality because of the restrictions organized religion imposes on thought.