Religion And Violence Against Homosexuals

As I have argued numerous times on this blog and elesewhere, the root cause of homophobia and violence against gays is RELIGION. No matter how hard and disingenuously professional Christians and religious leaders such as the Nazi Pope try to brush aside their own palpable responsibility, the buck ultimately stops with them. They have the clear choice of rejecting the ignorant bigotry contained in a few passages of the Bible and accepting modern medical and mental health knowledge on homosexuality or deliberately clinging to ignorance and scripture inspired hate. Once they opt for the latter choice - and by the way all religious belief is a choice - they are responsible for EVERYTHING that flows from their choice. Actions and choices DO have consequences. If the religious could come to terms with the earth revolving around the sun instead of vice versa, it's not much of a jump to reject the purportedly anti-gay passages of Leviticus and their subsequent recitals by St. Paul, a legalistic Pharisee in the final analysis, who in my view worked huge damage to Christ's message. Among those bearing huge guilt for his actions fueling and tacitly condoning homophobia is Benedict XVI who is allegedly an educated man, who wrote this in relevant part the following in 1986:
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[A]n overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good. Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
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To chose someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design, . . .when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent. As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one's own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God.
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But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase.
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As in every conversion from evil, the abandonment of homosexual activity will require a profound collaboration of the individual with God's liberating grace.

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That's right. No one should be surprised when violence is exacted against gays according to the Nazi Pope. Since we have "chosen evil" we more or less deserve what we get. Nothing like shifting responsibility to the victim rather than the hater. Religious Dispatches has this in the context of the recent wave of gay teen suicides that sums this sick situation up rather well:
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These suicides are not acts of “escape,” or a “cop-out” from facing life. When LGBT people resort to suicide, they are responding to far more than the pain of a few individual insults or humiliating occurrences. When LGBT people commit suicide it is an extreme act of resistance to an oppressive and unjust reality in which every LGBT person is always and everywhere at risk of becoming the target of violence solely because of sexual orientation or gender identity. They are acts of resistance to a perceived reality in which a lifetime of violence and abuse seems utterly unavoidable.
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The landscape upon which LGBT teen suicide is set calls for far more than our sympathy and sadness. There are times in which it is important to be guided to action by our anger. This is one of those times.
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[D]ominant religious and cultural ideology is in a state of crisis. It is no longer an unquestioned assumption that heterosexual experience represents the definition of reality for all people. The power to define reality for the masses is at stake and this power comes with all manner of political and ideological implications. Thus, there is a vested interest on the part of the religious and political right in keeping LGBT persons silent and subjugated.
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Anti-gay bullying is a theological issue because it has a theological base. I find it difficult to believe that even those among us with a vibrant imagination can muster the creative energy to picture a reality in which anti-gay violence and bullying exist without the anti-gay religious messages that support them. These messages come in many forms, degrees of virulence, and volumes of expression.
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[N]o institutions have done more to create and perpetuate the public disapproval of gay and lesbian people than churches. . . . Our children and teenagers are being held hostage by a religious and political rhetoric that strives to maintain the status quo of anti-gay heterosexist normativity. The messages of Focus on the Family and other organizations actively strive to leave the most vulnerable among us exposed to continuous attack.
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Ministers who remain in comfortable silence on sexuality must speak out. Churches that have silently embraced gay and lesbian members for years must publically hang the welcome banner. How long will we continue to limit and qualify our messages of acceptance, inclusion and embrace for the most vulnerable in order to maintain the comfort of those in our communities of faith who are well-served by the status quo?
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In the current climate, equivocating messages of affirmation are overpowered by the religious rhetoric of hatred. Silence only serves to support the toleration of bullying, violence, and exclusion.