Buddhism and homosexualityMenuBeliefs about homomosexuality among the Buddhist traditionsSponsored link. "LGBT" refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender persons and transsexuals.Overview:Beliefs towards LGBT persons are greatly influenced by many factors. Two of the most important are the interaction of culture with religion. Culture often trumps religion. For example, in the case of the worldwide Anglican Communion:
Here is a single religious tradition, using the same Bible as their holy book, sharing the same rituals, and sharing a common history that has extended over many centuries. Yet they take opposing views on homosexuality because of their vastly differing cultures. They are able to find biblical passages concerning homosexuality and interpret them so that they support their very different cultural views. The same cultural override appears to have happened in Buddhism as well. 1 In Western Buddhism, there seems to be a growing acceptance of consensual and safe same-sex sexual activity as moral, at least among persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation. In many Asian countries, cultural influences cause many Buddhists to continue of a long tradition of considering same-sex behavior to be a form of sexual misconduct, no matter what the nature of the relationship is. Within Christianity, there is no consensus on the ethics of homosexual behavior, only:
It appears that the same dynamic appears in many other religions. It is part of a long-term series of conflicts between science and religion within many faiths:
In the West, science seems to be winning the battle for people's minds, as more research is performed into sexual orientation. Topics covered in this section concerning LGBTs:
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