9781422283806

CONTENTS

Foreword by Kevin Jennings, Founder, GLSEN ............................................ 8

1 Sexual Orientation and Religion ............................................................ 11 “Strugglers” with Sexuality and Faith ........................................................... 12 Gay and Faithful: “Two Parts of Who I Am” ................................................. 14 The Rift Between Devotion and Desire ........................................................ 15 Close-up: The Dilemma of Marriage Equality .............................................. 17 “God’s Will for You in This Life” .................................................................... 18 Divinity or Identity: Choosing Both ............................................................... 19 2 Christianity ..............................................................................................23 Close-up: From the Universal to the Specific .............................................. 24 Historical Catholicism ................................................................................... 24 Catholicism Today ........................................................................................ 25 The Protestant Perspective ..........................................................................26 No Single Point of View ................................................................................26 Evangelical Protestantism ............................................................................ 27 Finding a Way Forward ................................................................................. 28 3 Judaism .................................................................................................... 31 Historical Judaism and Homosexuality ........................................................ 31 Close-up: The Love of Ruth and Naomi .......................................................32 Modern Judaism and Homosexuality ..........................................................33 Close-up: Judaism and Transgender People ...............................................34 4 Islam ......................................................................................................... 37 Homosexuality in Modern Islamic Culture ...................................................38 Close-up: Islam and Transgender People ....................................................39 Islam and the Issue of Marriage Equality ..................................................... 41 Close-up: The Tradition of Gay Arab Poetry ................................................ 41 Gay and Lesbian Muslims in the United States ...........................................42