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So, the question is this. Can you see in the foreseeable future any chance of mainstream christianity coming to term with gay rights? Or is this an issue that will be faced by my grand children?
The church has harbored intolerance for so long I'm not really sure. I'd heard one plausible theory that said people who were thought to be gay were often encouraged to be part of the church, thusly preventing homosexuality from happening. Or.. well not.
For some reason though, society has always shunned acceptance of well, anything considered to be diverse by the existing social mores, and often religion is used as a tool to justify such a behavior. I blame the fear of change for this occurrance, people are afraid something might change thier mind, thier way of being, thier sense of security, thier surroundings. I can't say that its a bad thing or a good thing, as often social mores and values exist to preserve a society.
But perhaps if the church were to re-evaluate the reason for the existance of such judgemental mores, it could happen. Its important I suppose to say that society is not what it used to be, because of the benefits of science and technology. Medical practices which prevent disease which were once prevented by practices of theistic belief systems is a good example of that, and not to mention science and technology is a much more efficient means of doing so (take tirpanning for example).
I'm not here to argue though whether or not the church oppresses homosexuality. I'm sure theres evidence to support claims on both sides of that argument. I'm simply trying to answer a question, is it possible for homosexuality to be maybe not endorsed, but accepted by mainstream christianity? I think so long as there are judgemental minds in a system of self sustaining hatred, this will continue to be an issue. But I dont think all christians, are judgemental.
One of my high school instructors actually used to work a lot with teens, as a part of the church, who were homosexual. He was not a judgemental man, he was in fact one of the more enlightening teachers I'd had to be around. I'd say because of that experience, that we can definaitely stratify the levels of corruption within the church, by correlating the level of tolerance with the level of responsability in a church. I'd say that because it seems to me, that such persons who are not judgemental such as that man do not often make it very far in terms of obtaining power within a church system.
With all of that said, I can say that I still dont know! I'm not much on predicting the future but if anything I said can be used as a means of establishing a causality, then so be it.
Edited by OurCynic, : No reason given.
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