I’m pretty sure that I know the answer is no but doesn’t hurt to make sure. Talking to people in scouting about the dichotomy (hypocracy?) that they complain that fewer boys and adults are joining but they are actively promoting an exclusionary practice which drives away homosexuals and now heterosexuals. One person that homosexuality is anti-Christian (let’s leave alone the hypocracy involved with that thinking) and I said that Boy Scouts is a religious group and not a Christian group. They then pointed out that no religion accepts homosexuality. My counter was that the religions that were discussing (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are all taken from the same basic source and that they are not accounting for other BSA accepted religions such as Buddhism, Bah’ai, Hinduism, etc.
My question is are there any mainstream religions <insert Greek Orthodox joke here> that do not consider homosexuality immoral?
United Church of Canada fully accepts homosexuality. It is the largest protestant denomination in Canada, and the second largest Christian denomnation in Canada after Roman Catholic.
Various sects of various religions at different times in history have been neutral or (at least somewhat) positive about homosexuality.
Nowadays, most of the developed and developing world has globalized into a more homogeneous popular culture, and mainstream religions are global in scope. Pretty much all of them at least nominally disapprove of homosexual acts. Some varieties of Buddhism might be an exception.
I don’t know if you’re only looking for contemporary religions but Ancient Greek paganism (painting with a very broad brush here) was not anti homosexuality.
Presently, there is a struggle withing the second largest protestant denomination in Canada, Anglican, over homesexuality (the blessing of gay marriages and the ordination of gays in particular). I expect there will be full acceptance of homosexuality within the next decade or two at the rate things are going in the Anglican church in Canada. Homosexuality and the Anglican Church of Canada - Wikipedia
Most Reform (note, not “reformed”), Reconstructionist and Conservative Jewish synagogues are accepting. It’s really some hold back Conservative and Orthodoxy that still are negative.
The Episcopol Church in the United States. (My, how things have changed since the nation’s founding.)
Also, you may want to clarify what you mean by “anti-homosexual.” Most religions profess that the behaviour is immoral but they don’t condone earthly punishments. Some do (death and other inconveniences). That’s a pretty big swag.
Scouts Canada is fully accepting of gays. “Scouts Canada is committed to social justice including the promotion of gender and member diversity at all levels of the organization, both in its structures and programs and to the elimination of discrimination on the groups of race, gender, ethnicity, financial ability, sexual orientation, religion, disability or age.”
There was a LGBT2Q Rover troop (the age progression is Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, Rovers – Rovers is for 18-26 year olds) in Toronto for a few years (1999-2001). “To us, it’s just like another one of our troops that addresses the needs of a community,” said Scott Morris, a spokesman for Scouts Canada. “We have a Cantonese troop on the West Coast, French-speaking troops in Quebec and special troops for Mormons.”
For that matter, is all anti-homosexuality religious? It’s my impression, which I’m willing to have denied or confirmed, that it’s only in relatively recent times that the primary opposition to/condemnation of homosexuality has specifically come from or been associated with religious people and organizations.
Not even all flavors of Christianity are anti-homosexuality. I expect there are denominations (or some kind of subdivisions) in every major religion that’s accepting of homosexuality.
I have a friend who grew up Wiccan with a mom straight outta Dykes to Watch Out For. Wicca is apparently very accepting of GLB stuff…so much that H came ou as gay when she was 15. Thought she was gonna be one of those womyn who go to Mitchfest and vacation in P’Town. She was REALLY freaked out to fall in love with guys a few years later, so no.
I know you’re using a broad brush but that’s a little too sweeping. The prejudice against adult males in sexual relationships with each other was just as unrelenting as in later times. As for religion, to compare Ancient Greek religion with modern religions is to compare apples with oranges. There would have been no ‘religious’ position on homosexuality, just the prevailing social one.
This may shove this thread into GD, but anti-homosexuality is a conservative position that seeks to rationalize it by scouring scripture for support. My take is that no religion is anti-homosexual, only people are anti-homosexual.
Anecdote: In the 80s, my (Reform) temple got a new Rabbi. She was (and presumably still is) gay. A friend’s mother was on the board for the temple, and discussed it with us a bit.
Considering anti sodomy laws existed in 14 U.S. states until 2003 and some countries still have the death penalty for homosexual behavior, it’s not really correct to say “The prejudice against adult males in sexual relationships with each other (in Ancient Greece) was just as unrelenting as in later times.”
The social stigma was only attached to males on the sexual receiving end of the homosexual relationship. It was perfectly masculine for an adult male to be the pitcher, just so long as he wasn’t the catcher. And this was going to vary a bit depending on when and where one was in the Ancient Greek world.
In more technical terms, there was no particular prejudice against an Ancient Greek man being sexually attracted to other men, or having sex with other men, so long as those men were his social inferior and he took a dominant role in the relationship (and once again, there were times and places in the Ancient Greek world where this did not matter as much).
Ancient Greek society certainly took a different approach to viewing religion and morality than contemporary Western society does. But there were certain acts they believed would offend the gods, and homosexuality wasn’t one of them. It should be noted that some acts considered offensive to the gods were sexual in nature. For instance certain types of incest were forbidden and could (theoretically) incur punishment from the gods (which is a bit hypocritical since the gods themselves did that sort of thing themselves, but that’s the way it was).
This isn’t a subject I know much about, but it’s my impression that Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto are pretty neutral on the subject of homosexuality.
I think that depends a lot on the individual/group. Based on people I’ve known I’d say that Wiccans are generally pretty gay-friendly, but I’ve heard secondhand that there are some that do believe heterosexuality is superior because it is more “natural” or because a heterosexual union brings together the feminine (Goddess) and masculine (God).