How the Christian Right's Homophobia Scares Away Religious Young People

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http://www.alternet.org/belief/155462/how_the_christian_right%27s_homophobia_scares_away_religious_young_people/

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Christian Right activists who give money, pressure politicians and organize against gay rights may think they’re accomplishing a couple of goals, like rolling back gay rights and asserting their religion’s primacy in American culture. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for the rest of us), one of the things they're doing in the long run is alienating their young people -- not a good long-term strategy. Short-term victories like passing more bans on gay marriage, sometimes repeatedly in single states, might feel good for homophobic Christians, but in the long run, it’s their religion that will pay the ultimate price; available evidence shows that anti-gay activism is souring young people on Christianity.

In response to the latest gay-bashing vote in North Carolina, evangelical writer and speaker Rachel Held Evans wrote an impassioned plea to her fellow Christians to just cut it out. She points to statistics showing how much damage the church has sustained because of its anti-gay crusade. Research conducted by the pro-Christian Barna Group in 2007 on Americans age 16-29 found that “anti-homosexual” was the dominant perception of modern Christians. Ninety-one percent of non-Christians and 80 percent of Christians in this group used this word to describe Christians.

She also points to research documented in the book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman showing that 59 percent of teenagers who grow up as church-going Christians abandon their faith in adulthood. One of the major reasons is the gay rights issue. Overall, the perception--a largely correct one, I’d add--is that modern conservative Christianity is dominated by sex-phobic bigots who use God as a cudgel to beat all sorts of people, but especially gays and lesbians. No wonder many in the younger generation want out.

Unfortunately for Evans, these kinds of numbers probably won’t do much to convince the Christian right to give up on gay-bashing, at least not until it's done even more serious damage to the Christian brand. Evans may be drawn to Christianity for fellowship and spirituality--many more tolerant Christians are--but the dominant function of conservative Christianity in the real world has never been to offer comfort and solace to believers. Religion is about power and giving up the war on gays would mean relinquishing power and control over their adherents' most private selves. Thus, we can guess that the Christian Right won’t stop fighting gay rights until it’s way too late for them to take it back.

[DCKit]

1. Outrage Overload

On so many issues, they get it wrong every damn time.

[efhmc]

2. Christianity suffered its biggest setback since the days of the Roman gladiators under gwb.

His lies and hypocrisy did more to send people away from the church than anything before or since.

[NC_Nurse]

3. When you see the hate and bigotry of these supposed followers of Jesus

it's hard not to realize what bullshit the whole enchilada is. The hypocrisy of using the Prince of Peace to hate others is irony at its best. And once you start thinking, it's over.

[bubbalubagus]

4. I agree with the article and w/ NC Nurse even more

I went to chruch and youth group religiously (*snicker*) but I only had to be honest with myself once, ONCE, to realize that I didn't believe any of that crap. I'm ashamed to admit that it took a great friend to ask me "Do you really believe in all this stuff?" which when I answered in the affirmative he followed up with "Really?" Then, with the most trace amount of bravery, I admitted to myself and to him simultaneously that I didn't believe in it. Not to be hip, not to be cool, but to be honest.

And I can't tell you how alive the world became to me after that!

[Dawson Leery]

5. As someone once said: Billy Graham needs to take a long walk off a short cliff.

The "Christian Right" is a cancer on society.