God hates homosexual
This article is part of the Tough Passages series.
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24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged organic relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all style of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are packed of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, dis
Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He reportedly replied:
This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.
This isn’t the first second Pope Francis has shown himself to be a steady leader when it comes to, among other things, homosexual Catholics.
It’s a stance that has drawn the ire of some high-ranking bishops and common Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.
Peruse more: Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church
Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it?
Scripture is particularly crucial for Christians. When church leaders point to to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually denote “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. Th
Fred Phelps: How Westboro pastor spread 'God hates fags'
"Locally, the church is near a park in Topeka, Kansas, called Gage park," says Fred Mann, a whistleblower for the Wichita Eagle, who has written about Phelps in the past.
"They believed there was homosexual activity in the park. They went with signs, anti-gay signs and then it spread from there."
At first, the "God hates fags" slogan was nowhere to be found.
"I remember them talking about the beginning days of the picketing," says filmmaker K Ryan Jones.
His film Fallen From Grace followed Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church for a year.
He recalls that they told him: "Originally our signs did just say 'gay' or 'homosexual' or that kind of thing, and then we started using 'God Hates Fags'."
They set out to shock - and they knew that those who weren't offended by the use of the word "fag" would bristle at the idea of God hating anyone, says Jones.
Their tactics seemed to work. Though "God hates fags" is
Queer Theology: Does God Loathe Gay People?
A class questions issues from hetero privilege to gaydar to LGBTQ racism
Class by class, lecture by lecture, question asked by question answered, an education is built. This is one of a series of visits to one class, on one day, in search of those building blocks at BU.
Are stereotypes about gays—for example, that gay men talk, dress, or gesture differently than straight guys—bigoted blather? Or is there such a thing as reliable gaydar that helps people, including gays, to perceive others’ sexual orientation?
You might not expect openmindedness about stereotyping to reach up in a seminar called Queer Theology, which studies questions about God and religion posed by gay, transgender, bisexual, and gender-questioning people, many of whom, according to lecturer Pamela Lightsey, ask, “Does God hate me?” because of widespread prejudice.
Lightsey herself, she says, is the only openly lesbian African American cleric in the United Methodist Church, and a fervent critic of stereotyping. But the University of Theology associate dean and clinical