IS IT A SIN?

How Religions View It

This is one of the most difficult questions for religious people. Many religions teach that homosexuality is condemned. But nowhere in the Bible is there mention of those whose true nature is homosexual.

Neither the Ten Commandments nor the Gospels mention homosexuality. Biblical scholars tell us that the oft-quoted (out of context) proscriptions in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 and St. Paul's Epistles Rom. 1:26-27, refer to male prostitution in the temples: sexual practices by heterosexuals.

We ask that you listen to priests, ministers and rabbis who have studied the question and have come up with other answers:

Catholic

"Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them." -- Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

"Homosexuality has nothing necessarily to do with sin, sickness or failure. It is a different way of fulfilling God's plan . . . Supposedly, the sin for which God destroyed Sodom was homosexuality. That's the great myth. I discovered through scholarly research that it was not true. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was inhospitality to a stranger . . . In Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples: 'Go out and preach the Gospel and if you come to any town and they don't receive you well, if they're inhospitable, shake the sand from your sandals and it will be worse for that town than it was for Sodom.'. . . The four Gospels are totally silent on the issue of homosexuality." -- John J. McNeill, SJ. in an interview with Charles Ortleb in the Journal Christopher Street, Oct. 1976.

Protestant

"Do I believe that homosexuality is a sin? Homosexuality, quite like heterosexuality, is neither a virtue nor an accomplishment. Homosexual orientation is a mysterious gift of God's grace communicated through an exceedingly complex set of chemical, biological, chromosomal, hormonal, environmental, developmental factors totally outside my homosexual friends' control.

"Their homosexuality is a gift, neither a virtue nor a sin. What they do with their homosexuality, however, is definitely their personal, moral and spiritual responsibility. Their behavior as homosexuals may be very sinful, brutal, exploitative, selfish, promiscuous, superficial. Their behavior as homosexuals, on the other hand, may be beautiful, tender, considerate, loyal, other-centered, profound.

"With this interpretation of the mystery that must be attributed to both heterosexual and homosexual orientations, I clearly do not believe that homosexuality is a sin." -- Bishop Melvin E. Wheatley, Jr., Methodist, Retired, 11/20/81.

Jewish

"Above all else, Judaism has always stressed the importance and sanctity of the individual. The ancient rabbis likened each human life to the entire world. `Why did God create each human being different, not stamping us out like so many coins?' asked the rabbis. `To show us that each person is unique,' they answered.

"Judaism has always gloried in the individuality of human life, and it has always cherished freedom as the vehicle through which each unique individual can develop to his or her potential.

"It is for this reason, and because we Jews have learned first hand how stifling and destructive oppression is, that the Reform Jewish movement in all its branches has called for gay rights legislation and for loving acceptance of gay people.

"While all branches of Judaism do not agree, liberal Judaism recognizes that religious strictures against homosexuality were a product of their time and place, an ancient age in which existence itself depended upon each member of society having children to populate the frontier and the army.

"That was a long time ago, before modern science and psychiatry brought us new understanding of human nature. We Jews have always incorporated the latest knowledge in our Judaism. This adaptability is why we have survived, and why so many other Biblical prohibitions are disregarded.

"Thinking Jews today, indeed all thinking people, will refuse to invoke homophobic rules from among all these long-forgotten laws. After all, even the most Orthodox no longer stone disobedient children to death and fundamentalist Christians do not call for us to keep kosher, only two of the rules found in the Bible.

"If we Jews, always victimized for being different, are not accepting, who in God's name will be?" -- Rabbi Charles D. Lippman, 1985.

Is Homosexuality Unnatural?

Homosexuality is not unnatural since it exists in nature. It is just as natural for one person to be heterosexual as it is for another to be homosexual.

We don't know why people are homosexual, but we know that there always were, are, and will be homosexuals. It is estimated that 10% of the population in the United States and throughout the world is lesbian or gay; at least one member out of every four families.

For them, homosexuality is their true nature. To ask them to behave otherwise would be to ask them to behave unnaturally.