Religious homophobia feeds bullying and violence, but prophetic voices challenge the status quo

A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute reveals that a large majority of Americans understand the connection between religious homophobia and the higher rates of suicide among gay teenagers, even as the vast majority of religious institutions and leaders continue to refuse to take any responsibility for the pervasive hostility that gay kids face in school and indeed virtually everywhere in America.

The survey found that 65% of Americans believe that religious messages contribute to higher gay teen suicide rates and 72% think messages from places of worship contribute to negative views of gay and lesbian people.

Anguished and angry LGBT activists have been saying exactly that in the wake of rising anti-gay violence, including the horrific torture in the Bronx of three gay men, and the rash of back-to-school suicides: HOMOPHOBIA KILLS.

It seems that the only people left who deny the connection are the churches and synagogues and mosques that continue to broadcast their prejudice against God’s LGBT children. The silence from every official United Methodist body – which holds that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” and denies ordination and marriage to gay people – in the wake of the violence has been appalling.

But while institutional religious bodies have remained silent and complicit, there have been some amazingly powerful prophetic voices speaking out. Bishop Gene Robinson, in an article titled “How religion is killing our most vulnerable youth,” writes:

Not long ago I had a conversation with six gay teens, not one of whom had ever had any formal religious training or influence. Every one of them knew the word “abomination,” and every one of them thought that was what God thought of them. They couldn't have located the Book of Leviticus in the Bible if their lives depended on it yet they had absorbed this message from the antigay air they breathe every day….[B]ullying behaviors would not exist without the undergirding and the patina of respect provided by religious fervor against LGBT people. It's time for “tolerant” religious people to acknowledge the straight line between the official anti-gay theologies of their denominations and the deaths of these young people. Nothing short of changing our theology of human sexuality will save these young and precious lives.

 Meanwhile, the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) has sent a powerful letter to the UMC Council of Bishops that says that UMC doctrine on homosexuality “promotes intolerance” towards LGBT people, intolerance “found in many United Methodist Churches.” It goes on to say that “the church’s silence validates and gives permission for this violence” and calls on the bishops to speak out against intolerance, bullying and harassment of LGBT youth.

It is shocking to think that this request even needs to be made.

The RMN letter concludes, “We cannot allow one more child of God to take his or her own life because they believed they were not worthy of God’s love. Neither can you.”

Neither can any of us. If your congregation is not already engaged in a conversation about what we need to do in response to anti-gay bullying and violence as Christians and as members of a denomination that perpetuates homophobia, then take this article, the Robinson column and/or the RMN letter and start the conversation.

And encourage everyone to come to the November 20 symposium on hate crimes My Brother’s Keeper: People of Faith Confront Hate Crimes. We MIND that LGBT people are tormented, tortured and killed…and we’re doing something about it.