I was raised in a very strict Catholic family, so the fact that I was bisexual wasn't exactly ideal. But I always found the hatred that I saw from Catholics and fellow Christians toward people in the LGBT community confusing. Having had to read the gospels cover-to-cover in high school, I thought it seemed pretty clear how Jesus wanted people to treat each other. "Love one another as I have loved you" is advice that seemingly would lead to a religion full of warmth and kindness. You know, unless you thought Jesus "loved us" by being a judgmental prick.
Anyway, this experience has always made me highly suspicious of America's obsession with demonizing the beliefs of Muslims. Christianity is a religion that is often used in the name of hatred, and has extremists who are violent and oppressive, and yet they are the ones who are appalled at Islam. Well, Mother Jones has the breakdown of a new poll from Pew, which shows that my instinct to be suspicious of Christians is right on.
But what’s perhaps more noteworthy... is Pew’s finding about Muslim Americans’ attitudes toward the LGBT community. Statistically, they’ve become much more accepting of LGBT people: 52 percent of Muslim Americans now agree that homosexuality should be accepted by society—up from just 27 percent in 2007. And while they are not the most accepting group polled, their views have shifted toward being gay-friendly by a greater margin than any other group in the survey. White evangelical Christians remain the least accepting; the group’s views were comparable to those of Muslim Americans in 2007, with 23 percent of white evangelical Christians saying homosexuality should be accepted by society. Today only 34 percent say the same.
So as white evangelicals bemoan the dangers of Islam, they also still explicitly believe that people like me should not be accepted by society. Now look, obviously this is a broad brush and there are plenty of Muslims who are homophobic and white Christians who are pro-gay, but it's important to recognize that one of those two groups is making major strides toward acceptance, while the other seems to be totally comfortable with their hate. Perhaps it's not a surprise that 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. After all, when you're a bigot, you're going to vote for a bigot.
Oh my FSM... If this poll is an accurate reflection of reality then
Seeing current events as they are is wrecking me emotionally. So I say 'farewell' to this forum. For anyone who wonders.
Wow, turns out Muslims aren't all a fundamentalist hive mind. Who knew?
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2017-08-12 11:16pm
Wow, turns out Muslims aren't all a fundamentalist hive mind. Who knew?
There is something about comparing "muslims" to "white evangelicals", given that white evangelicals are distinguished from mainline protestants and catholics in a way that "muslims" are not, for some reason...
EDIT: I'd also be curious if the question specified if said LGBT was muslim or not, now you might think it doesn't change the answer, but at a more nuanced level there are plenty of muslims who are conditional with their tolerance - ergo - "i'm fine with you as a non-muslim following your ways, but I draw a line at muslims following your ways, as your ways are sins. But as a deference to secularism I will allow you your ways."
Muslims are a minority in the US and therefore may feel increased need to try to align to the wider society and that will affect the answer.
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
Part of the issue is that for American evangelicals, homosexuality (along with abortion) have become their defining 'line in the sand' issues that they use as the poster children for "America has become a decadent and sinful nation!" It's a symbol for everything that's changed since the days when evangelical churches' moral standards ruled America.
They used to use (for example) out of wedlock births, couples "living in sin," women being generally uppity, and so on for these purposes. But in all but the most hardcore loopy-do fundamentalist communities, that just isn't going to fly any more. Because too much of their congregations includes women who intend to live independently and have jobs, couples that are living together without getting married or having sex while dating, and so on. Even if they don't acknowledge that such behavior is right, they still do it, and so won't be comfortable with their evangelical leaders claiming that such behavior is deeply horrible and sinful. It hurts the evangelists' support base.
So they've retreated from a lot of positions their fire-and-brimstone predecessors of fifty or sixty years ago would have staked out... but they can keep very firm positions on homosexuality. Because gays are a small minority that keeps themselves carefully closeted in a community like that, so they don't have to publicly acknowledge that gays are a thing, the way they have to acknowledge that women can do jobs in a community where many of the doctors and lawyers are women. Likewise on abortion.
Thing is, this is a specific consequence of the American political sphere, where evangelists have formed a ferociously powerful political alliance with a specific party and have cheerfully cooperated in dividing the American sociopolitical landscape up into "Blue Tribe" (where gays are OK) and "Red Tribe" (where gays are, on the whole, supposed to stay hidden and burn in hell). And all the evangelists are over in Red Tribe.
Muslims do not have this problem. This is not to say "Islam" is inherently more or less tolerant of homosexuality than "Christianity" or for that matter "Protestantism." But Muslims don't have a specific reason to get all fired up and treat homosexuality as the Greatest Problem Facing Us Today. Muslims have other, bigger problems.
Simon_Jester wrote: ↑2017-08-13 10:49pm
Muslims do not have this problem. This is not to say "Islam" is inherently more or less tolerant of homosexuality than "Christianity" or for that matter "Protestantism." But Muslims don't have a specific reason to get all fired up and treat homosexuality as the Greatest Problem Facing Us Today. Muslims have other, bigger problems.
Yeah true. I think you summed it up in a fair manner, though I still think it's premature to take this survey as evidence Muslim's as a group are generally tolerant of behavior that is very much defined by mainline Islam as a mortal sin.
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
