Why are people so against gay people?

Post Reply New Topic

Why is it that nearly every conversation about homophobia that I've read in the last few years has ended with the religious folks spewing abject nonsense? It's like they can't continue the rational conversation any longer and instead resort to the functional equivalent to, "la-la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you", and it shuts down discourse.

They are incapable of being open to others it seems. If there is a God, I doubt he would care if are gay or bisexual, it's a non-issue.

It's a shame that a good majority of the world acts like this and you can't criticize them for thinking that way because "it's their way of life over there". Politically correct BS like that which I'm tired of hearing now. You can't criticize a religion without being seen as a "-phobe" or a "racist" (which makes no sense, religion does not equal race). Sorry for the rant.

In all fairness, homophobia has its place in religion as it is a documented sin but what confuses me is that fact that eating catfish and shrimp is a sin too yet we don't see people protesting outside of Red Lobsters. I don't know why homosexuality is considered a worse sin than others, I have heard testimonies in churches from people that lived a gay lifestyle that said they couldn't live that lifestyle after being saved. Well if thats the case, why are these people continuing to sin in other ways? The bible doesn't distinguish between sin and in fact considers them all the same so homosexuality should be equal to eating catfish and shrimp. I don't think its fair to treat the homosexual community as if they have commited a worse sin than the ones we ignore everyday.

My two cents for whats its worth,

Maybe they need to put others down in order to feel good about themselves.

I think there is a certain percentage of mentally ill people who are drawn to religion because it allows them to act out their mania/psychoses thematically without making any real sense to those of us not included in their insanity. That's why you tend to hear a lot of insensible god-themed babble. I don't think some of them COULD make a sensible argument if they actually tried.

Mania and psychosis are two different things, although psychosis can be an aspect of mania.

Psychosis can take aspects of real life or culture but combines them in a disordered way. It is somewhat different from standard grandiose delusions which are more consistent. True psychosis the person is not "acting out" anything. It is very really to them. Think of it like a dream.

There is a differnce between calculated bait posts which then descend into mock disordered thinking and the inconsistency of psychosis.

It's not just catfish and shrimp. It's wearing mixed fibers, shaving your beard, cutting your hair, allowing women into church within x days of a menstrual period, eating pork/bacon/ham...Deuteronomy & Leviticus are chock full of prohibitions that modern evangelical & fundamentalist Christians choose to outright ignore.

It's because those are things they do; loving a person whose anatomy happens to be the same as my own is something I as an outsider does. And as such we LGBT people have become the perfect "enemy" to use as a threat for fundraising and drawing a conservative congregation together out of manufactured fear. The modern implementation of such began during the Cold War as a political move (Berlin was known for being highly inclusive & once Germany was defeated we were up against the "Godless, immoral Communists"). Then as the Cold War was winding down, televangelists discovered they needed a new moral enemy to take advantage of the wonderfully binary way of thinking that had been nurtured. After the Berlin Wall fell and the 1990's neared an end, the GOP/TP *really* started to court the televangelists and after a few more years (around 2001) folded in the anti-Muslim rhetoric. Now the party and the set of conservative religions may as well be one and the same.

tl;dr version: it's about scaring people into giving up power, liberty and money.

I am aware that mania and psychosis are two different things, as I am myself bipolar and have been manic but never psychotic. The symbol "/" means "and/or". Thanks for explaining the obvious, though.

It may be obvious to you, but not obvious to everybody.

Grandiose delusions would present differently.

Coming from a different Christian tradition (Lutheran/mainline), the take on this particular subject is that the Bible speaks of someone being antichrist - with a small "a," being that such designations are given to those who oppose to Christ, rather than large "A" Antichrist, which is the notion that someone with superpowers who will carry out Satan's work on earth. Basically, we see someone who is antichrist like the late Jim Jones, who had perverted Christ's message, or in the case of Revelations, Nero, who tried to violently persecute the Christians out of existence. But we don't believe in someone who is Christ's evil twin.

So I feel I must ask: Given the recorded teachings of Jesus, would many of the current crop of hate & fear fostering pastors & megapastors, those who bend and twist the Bible into a tool to gain wealth and power fall under such a designation, either singly or as a group?

My point was that you shouldn't have assumed from no evidence that I didn't know what I was talking about and proceeded to explain symptoms of my own disorder to me. It's rather presumptive and rude.

I didn't have forethought of your disorder. You read it as rude, that was not my intention.

To me it is better said than not said. I had no intention for you to take it personally. I was trying to destigmatise mental illness through the explanation, which was my actual intent.

The explanation to me was not necessary, as what I said in no way indicated that I thought mania and psychosis were the same thing.

The subject was about what would make someone behave a certain way, so it was necessary to make a distinction to explain that, which was the main point I was trying to make.

I'm sorry it caused offense to you.