That is not where one goes for the knowledge that is the catalyst for destroying prejudice.

Historically my faith has taught that sex was evil, that celibacy was the higher path of virtue, that marriage was a compromise with sin, that slavery was a legitimate human institution and that women were created to be second class citizens.

Some have tried to use the old “separate but equal” argument, but it did not work in segregationist America and it will not work for religious systems trying to justify their patriarchal sexism. With that kind of a track record why would anybody go to their faith tradition to inform their attitudes toward homosexuality?

Is the Bible’s presumed condemnation of homosexuality more virtuous or lasting than its commitment to polygamy, slavery or the hatred that God was portrayed as expressing for other religious traditions than that of the chosen people?

The revolution in attitudes toward homosexual people in our generation has been fueled by the recognition that sexual orientation is neither a sickness that needs to be cured, nor a choice that needs to be challenged. It is also not a sin for which repentance is required.

Homosexuality is one of the givens in the world of human experience. We are born with different hues of skin. We are born male and female, left-handed, right-handed, gay and straight. Acceptance of the givens in life is the first step into wholeness.

The attempt in the name of religion to impose ancient and dying prejudices on any segment of the population is a sinful act. Many in the Christian Church at the highest levels of ecclesiastical leadership are today guilty of that sin.

The repentance needed is not the repentance of homosexual people who are increasingly self-accepting people; the repentance that is needed must come from religious leaders and religious people whose ignorance on this subject has led the Christian Church to act toward gay and lesbian people in a way that violates everything that Christianity has ever taught.

Minds, even religious minds, will change. The alternative is that these minds will die and the minds of the next generation will change. Either way, however, religious homophobia is doomed.