Fundamentalism
In the West we have become used to progress on the civil liberties front, and have seen our relationships recognised in law and our partners protected in case something happens to us. We have a feeling of belonging to our society and having rights and responsibilities in it. There are people who do not necessarily approve of our life styles, but we live in a democracy, and they have no more rights than we do, and we all have to live within our laws.
We may feel safe in our homes at night but there are many parts of the world where gay men and lesbians do not. Gay men in Egypt are often rounded up and imprisoned for being gay. In Iran gay teenage boys have been hanged in public. In African countries there are very few countries where it is safe or legal to be gay. In the Caribbean a number of gay activists have been murdered.
Here in the UK and in America too we allow members of churches freedom to worship as they wish. Unfortunately even within the Church of England there are more radical factions who want to turn the clock back and do not approve of us. In Northern Ireland there are links between religions and political parties and there are those who oppose gay rights.
As our western European societies become more diverse with people from more faiths living in western Europe, the incidence of gay bashing is on the increase and even in liberal Holland the gay politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered, and a film director who made a film about Islam also was killed. Visiting gay tourists to Amsterdam have found themselves the victim of assault and sometimes it is by followers of a religion which has a fundamental opposition to gay men and lesbians.
Of course there are in those religions and communities many gay men and lesbians who are in a particular dilemma; do they identify with the western gay society and come out, and face the possibility of their family disowning them or worse? Or do they suppress their sexuality and live a double life like some of us once had to? My sympathies are with anyone in such a distressing situation.
Some commentators, like Andrew Sullivan, put it even more bluntly. In “The Advocate he wrote:
“Gays are on the front line in this global religious war whether you like it or not. If we do not wake up now and help our friends and fellows looking death in the face, their fate may one day affect ours. Their freedoms should matter to us, because freedom is a precious thing, and its extinction somewhere threatens it everywhere. By all means, move on. Go to the next party; don’t miss the gym; plan your vacation. But don’t ask for whom this bell is now tolling. It tolls for us”.
Mel White, who runs Soulforce, practises non-violent opposition to fundamentalists. He alleges that they met secretly in 1994 to organise a joint strategy to fight gay rights and homosexuality. He points out that justice and mercy do not feature in their organisations’ values.
Whether we like it or not, we have got to live on the same planet as people who are opposed to our liberty and life style on religious grounds. We have got to understand and respect their point of view and their life style and our democratic societies require them to reciprocate in equal measure. If they do not they will find themselves on the wrong side of the law. At the same time we need to be vigilantly alert on their religious activism and ensure that we counter all their lies and propaganda with warmth and truth.
If you have a faith, it is worth belonging to the gay and lesbian group for your faith, and campaigning with them within the church to bring about greater understanding and realisation that we all live in the same community and we all need each other. In the UK the Religious organisations with long and positive track records of involvement supporting gay rights have been the Unitarians and the Quakers. I was unable to locate a gay and lesbian buddhist group in the UK or a website for the Unitarian gay and lesbian group.
