Friday, October 5, 2007

Exclusion

Note: This is the opinion article previously mentioned. Please comment!

In 2003, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church was consecrated. This sparked criticism and outrage from the Church’s conservative members, while less traditional Episcopalians praised the decision to appoint him. Last month Episcopalian leaders from both within the United States and overseas met and agreed on a compromise: that homosexuals already serving as priests or bishops would be allowed to continue their service, but no new gay bishops would be consecrated. They also agreed to stop blessing same-sex relationships. Most European leaders view this as a satisfactory compromise, but a number of African leaders are deeply opposed to it. Benjamin Nzimbi, the Archbishop of Kenya, has publicly denounced the compromise. He says that the gay bishop should be removed from his position immediately, and that the American church needs to repent for what he says is “a sin in the eyes of the Lord”.

The Episcopal Church is one of the more liberal ones with regard to homosexuality. Roman Catholicism requires that homosexuals wishing to be ordained remain celibate for a period of time prior to entering the seminary. The Southern Baptist Convention recently expelled three of its congregations from the group for conducting studies about homosexuality. The Presbyterian Church requires its priests to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness”.

Most religious or semi-religious people would agree that this rift—or any rift—in the church is not helping them gain members. Between 1990 and 2001, the fastest growing religious group in terms of number of members was the non-religious, which also includes atheists and agnostics. The world figure for non-religious people is about 13 percent as of 2004, up from approximately eight percent in 1990. Indeed, the number of non-religious people in the world and especially in the United States is expected to continue to grow, as more children are brought up without religion.

As churches try to increase their membership, the idea that a group that comprises up to ten percent of the world’s population can be and is excluded from membership is ridiculous to me. National and regional governments around the world are gradually moving towards acceptance and tolerance of gays and lesbians, and some religions are following them. However, the divide between religions such as Unitarian Universalism, which has as its symbol a rainbow flag, and Orthodox Judaism, which looks down on homosexuality, is still wide, as is the gap between traditional and liberal Episcopal churches.

While some religions claim that homosexuality can be cured, there is no psychological or scientific evidence to prove this. Indeed, the American Psychological Association reports that these so-called therapies often do more harm than good. It points out that people subjected to the therapy are likely to experience greater feelings of self-hatred than they did prior to the treatment. It has been documented that homosexual youth are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as their heterosexual counterparts. This is attributed to the homophobia and the lack of a support structure that gay and lesbian youths face. Paul Gibson, a licensed clinical social worker, specifically points to an intolerant or unaccepting religion as a risk factor for suicide in gay youth. He points to the fact that teens who do not feel like it is possible to come out are the ones most likely to commit suicide. Religion, he says, is one of the factors that may make it impossible for homosexual youth to speak to their families regarding their sexual orientation.

While it is important for religions to have strong belief systems, it is incomprehensible that edicts against homosexuality would be viewed as more important than teachings about equality and compassion. Turning people away from religion—perhaps permanently—is too large of a price to pay for taking every word of the Bible or any religious text literally.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

My Belief-O-Matic Results

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (99%)
3. Liberal Quakers (94%)
4. Neo-Pagan (85%)
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (81%)
6. New Age (80%)
7. Theravada Buddhism (70%)
8. Nontheist (67%)
9. Taoism (64%)
10. Mahayana Buddhism (63%)
11. Reform Judaism (63%)
12. Orthodox Quaker (56%)
13. Scientology (50%)
14. Bahá'í Faith (48%)
15. Sikhism (46%)
16. New Thought (46%)
17. Jainism (40%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (38%)
19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (27%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (27%)
21. Orthodox Judaism (26%)
22. Islam (25%)
23. Hinduism (25%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (23%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
26. Roman Catholic (16%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (11%)

These are the results. Some parts are surprising, some are not. So let's start from the top.

First on the list is Unitarianism. I've always known that my beliefs fit in really well with the Unitarian faith. My dad put it this way: "It's the least religious of the major religions." I don't exactly see it that way. Unitarianism does let its member basically hold whatever beliefs they want, to an extent, while uniting around a core set of morals and ideals. Obviously, I share these morals and ideals.

Next comes Secular Humanism. I had no idea what this is and had to look it up. For some reason, the name made me think it was evil or something. This, of course, was not based on any actual evidence. I had never even heard of it. After I did some research, I discovered that secular humanism and unitarianism are pretty similar. However, there was a "Dangerous Reading" section on their website. That kind of scared me off.

Liberal Quakers. Where to start. I know nothing about Quakers beyond what I've read in [fictional] books. And I don't have time to do research because I have a major paper due tomorrow. So, I'll withhold judgment for now.

Neopagan: not happening.

Now, let's move on down the list to my "actual" religion. Roman Catholicism. I think this story says something interesting about Catholicism. A couple of weeks before my Confirmation, I informed my mother that I had no desire whatsoever to be confirmed in to a church that is ruled by bureaucracy and makes a lot of really stupid decisions (like discrimination against gays and outright forbidding abortions). Her response: "You'll be glad you did it when you're older". I've thought for a while that initiations take place way too early in the Catholic Church--the rationale behind baptizing babies, who have no say in the matter at all, is way beyond me.

The hypocritical aspects of the Church drive me insane as well. I mean, they say that you should treat everyone as you would like to be treated, and then proceed to restrict liberties and exclude minority groups. They preach that poverty and restraint saves your soul, then takes donated money and builds giant churches with huge stained-glass windows and golden crucifixes.

I wrote an opinion article for the magazine about how stupid excluding gays and lesbians from religions is. I'll post it at some point.