Homosexuality

Brief quotations

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Note:

No matter what your beliefs about homosexuality are, you will find some of the following quotations promote beliefs other than your own. Please do not read them if you are easily distressed.

Homosexuality:

Anon:

	"If GOD did not make homosexuals, there would be none."
	"God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
	"God made 'Adam and Eve' not 'Adam and Steve'?...hmmmm...then who made 'Steve'?"
	Why do we endlessly recycle the old conflicts: first we fought about slavery, then segregation, then gender, and now sexual orientation, while gender identity is in the wings waiting. Why can't people look at the phrase 'liberty and justice for all' and simply accept that 'all' means 'all.'"

	Anita Bryant: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children." Anita Bryant, 1977 ₆
	Jimmy Carter, quoted in the Los Angeles Times: "We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States."
	Chick Publications: "Homosexuals cannot reproduce. They must recruit. And they want our children! That�s why they are getting public officials to require school teachers to present homosexuality as �normal" and acceptable. They know that the next generation will one day be voters, and they will change the laws so that homosexuals can prey on children and not worry about breaking the law!" ₅
	William Sloane Coffin: "In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism. It's time we did the same for homophobia." ₁
	Ed Dobson, former VP of Moral Majority, Inc.:

"I haven't changed in the sense that I believe sexuality is a gift from God to be expressed exclusively within the commitment of heterosexual marriage and that all other expressions of that are outside the boundaries of God's creative intent as revealed in the Scripture. However, I do not believe that gives you a license to hate people, including homosexuals, and I think part of the struggle for people is that it's easy, it's easy to beat up what you don't understand. I have sat and listened to story after story after story from gay people of their journey and have cried with them and tried to listen to the awful pain they go through. [It] hasn't changed what I believe about the practice of homosexuality, but it has reminded me that 'Whom you would change you must first love.' Martin Luther King, Jr. said that. And in general, Christians have not been very good about loving gay people. Oh, they'll tell you they hate the sin but they love the sinner, but I don't see much love for the sinner."

	Jerry Falwell: Quoted in Jim Hill & Rand Cheadle, "The Bible Tells Me So", Anchor Books (1996), P. 69-70: "[homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven."
	President Gerald Ford: In 2002, he was asked by lesbian columnist Deb Price if gay couples should receive equal benefits. He replied, "I think they ought to be treated equally. Period." ₄

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Steve Gunderson, first openly gay Republican congressman:

"...the worst thing that happened to the gay community was the fall of communism...As long as the conservative movement had communism to fight, they could organize and raise their money over that issue. The minute they lost communism, they had to find a new enemy, and that enemy became homosexuality."

	Vangie Jones; in a letter to the editor of the Maui News, Maui, HI, on 1997-FEB-3, titled "Change breeds fear:" "Homosexuality is a discovery, not a choice or a sin."
	Lynn Lavner: "The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision."
	Rory Lewis (performer): "The epitome of evil is having spiritual leaders condone hate, in the name of God, against others such as our gay brothers and sisters."
	Leonard Matlovich: He served for 12 years in the US Air Force, received exemplary ratings, won a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After revealing his homosexual orientation, he was dishonorably discharged. His tombstone reads: "Here lies a man who was given a medal for killing two men, and a dishonorable discharge for loving one." ₁
	Chief Justice Moore, Alabama Supreme Court:

"...the homosexual conduct of a parent -- conduct involving a sexual relationship between two persons of the same gender -- creates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone is sufficient justification for denying that parent custody of his or her own children or prohibiting the adoption of the children of others.... Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated. Such conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws of this State and is destructive to a basic building block of society -- the family....It is an inherent evil against which children must be protected." ₂

Moore is a devout fundamentalist Christian. He may not be aware that the phrase "Nature's God," found in the Declaration of Independence, refers to the Deist, not the Christian, concept of God.

Pat Robertson: "If the world accepts homosexuality as its norm and if it moves the entire world in that regard, the whole world is then going to be sitting like Sodom and Gomorrah before a Holy God."

Salt Lake City Board of Education:"...Hispanic Club,...Native American Club, Human Rights Club, ...Young Democrats,...UFO (Ultimate Frisbee Organization), Advancement of Hispanic Students, ...Chinese Checkers Club...HIS Club (a Bible study club),...Latino Pride Club,...Students Against Drunk Driving, Students of the Orient, Young Republicans." This is a partial list of high-school clubs banned in 1996 after the board determined that the only method of legally eradicating a single student gay/lesbian support club was to ban all student clubs in the system.

Rev. Dr. Christine M. Smith: "It is not just equal rights or �our share� of the status quo that LGBT people want. Rather many of us are working hard for a transformed world for all who are oppressed and marginalized. It is time to really challenge our communities of faith to articulate and embody aspects of that transformation."

John Shelby Spong:

	"...secular journalists ... tend to accept uncritically the oft-repeated Evangelical Protestant and Conservative Roman Catholic definitions that the Bible is anti-gay. If these people were honest, they would have to admit that the Bible is also pro-slavery and anti-women." ₇
	"I think that we have in recent years entered a "New Dark Age" in the Western world. It is marked by the rise of religious systems that seek to build security by encouraging prejudice against a designated victim....the homosexual has become in the religious hysteria of our day. This kind of behavior is always a response to fear and to a rapidly changing world. Security-providing religion, which always requires a victim, is like a drug that carries us over the rough places of life. It is certainly not the wave of the Christian future."
	"We don't choose to be white or black, male or female, left-handed or right-handed, gay or straight. We awaken in each instance to the reality of what we are. Nothing external to our humanity activates our self-understanding. It simply is. Alcohol distorts life for the alcoholic. Homosexuality does not distort the life of the gay person. Your pastor's understanding is simply one more version of the idea that homosexuality is a sickness or addiction that needs to be cured if possible and if not possible, it needs to be suppressed. Wholeness never came to anyone who tried to suppress his or her deepest identity." ₃

Desmond Tutu:

"We struggled against apartheid because we were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about. It is the same with homosexuality. The orientation is a given, not a matter of choice. It would be crazy for someone to choose to be gay, given the homophobia that is present."

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

William Sloane Coffin, "Commentary: It's clear that homophobia was reason for ad's rejection," United Church News, 2004-DEC-15, at: http://news.ucc.org/
Chief Justice Moore, "Supreme Court of Alabama, 1002045, Petition for Writ of Certiorari," at: http://www.wallacejordan.com/
"Church conflicts," Bishop Spong Q & A, 2006-AUG-30.
Andy Humm, "Gerald Ford: The gay angle," Gay City, 2006-DEC-28, at: http://gaycitynews.com/
Previously, this essay contained a quote taken from "The gay marriage debate rages on," an Email from Chick Publications on 2008-AUG-12. However, we have been unable to absolutely confirm this when challenged, because both our Emails and Email file backup for that era had failed. So we removed the quote and added an entry to our errata page.
"Quotations," at: http://www.goldenvoid.com/ and many other places on the Internet.
J.S. Spong, "The struggle among Episcopalians," Email Newsletter, 2009-JAN-28.
Vangie Jones, "Change breeds fear." A letter to the editor of the Maui News, Maui, HI, on 1997-FEB-3.

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Copyright � 1996 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
Copyrights for the individual quotations held by their creators
Last updated and review: 2009-FEB-01
Compiled by: B.A. Robinson