The document summarizes religious views on homosexuality from Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam. Catholic views hold that homosexual desires alone are not sinful, but acting upon them through sexual activity or deliberate fantasizing is considered sinful. Homosexual people are called to chastity. Both the New Testament and Catholic catechism condemn homosexual behavior. Jewish views cite prohibitions against homosexual acts in the Torah, but note the individual is not condemned. While prohibitions exist, persecution of homosexual people is considered un-Jewish. Muslim views overwhelmingly condemn homosexuality. Several Muslim-majority countries impose the death penalty for homosexual acts. Persecution of homosexual people is common in many Islamic nations

1. Research into Religious Views

2. Catholic Views
• Homosexual desires, however, are not in themselves sinful. People are subject to a wide variety of sinful desires over which they have little direct
control, but these do not become sinful until a person acts upon them, either by acting out the desire or by encouraging the desire and deliberately
engaging in fantasies about acting it out. People tempted by homosexual desires, like people tempted by improper heterosexual desires, are not
sinning until they act upon those desires in some manner.
•
• "Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested
friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection" (CCC 2357– 2359).
• Confirming this fact is the New Testament’s forceful rejection of homosexual behaviour as well. In Romans 1, Paul attributes the homosexual desires
of some to a refusal to acknowledge and worship God. He says, "For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. Their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one
another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit
to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. . . . Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things
deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them" (Rom. 1:26–28, 32).
• Elsewhere Paul again warns that homosexual behaviour is one of the sins that will deprive one of heaven: "Do you not know that the wicked will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9–10, NIV).
•
• They believe that people must marry first in order to have sex as homosexuals can’t marry they can therefore never have sex. It is an abomination to
the catholic religion laws.
• Explanation for gay relationships is a lack of love from a father in a boy or lack of love from a mother to a daughter. This causes them to crave
attention and love from the same sex that they never got as a child growing up. We do have to treat them the same, console them and help them
out in their time of need as they come out and try to explain to them that they are not homosexual just simply confused about their feelings due to
childhood issues.
• Homosexual desires, however, are not in themselves sinful. People are subject to a wide variety of sinful desires over which they have little direct
control, but these do not become sinful until a person acts upon them, either by acting out the desire or by encouraging the desire and deliberately
engaging in fantasies about acting it out. People tempted by homosexual desires, like people tempted by improper heterosexual desires, are not
sinning until they act upon those desires in some manner.
•

3. Jewish Views
• According to the Bible, homosexual acts are "to'evah," an abomination.
In Leviticus 18:22, it is written: "And you shall not cohabit with a male as one cohabits with a woman; it is an abomination."
And in Leviticus 20:13, it is written: "And if a man cohabits with a male as with a woman, both of them have done an abominable thing; they shall be
put to death; their blood falls back upon them."
The Biblical prohibition of homosexual acts seems harsh at first glance, but not all orthodox Jews interpret these passages in a simple way.
Furthermore, the Torah condemns the homosexual act, not homosexual love or the homosexual urge. "Judaism does not prohibit or in any way look
down upon homosexual love. In the eyes of Judaism the love between two men or two women can be as natural as the love between a man and a
woman. What it does prohibit is homosexual intercourse."
• Most Jews would agree that making Jews who are homosexuals feel like they are outcasts or sick is inhumane and un-Jewish.
Traditional Judaism believes we should reach out to those with homosexual preferences by educating about the benefits of and encouraging them to
enter into a heterosexual relationship.
• http://judaism.about.com/od/homosexualityandjudaism/a/samesex_2.htm
• The Short Answer:
• In Judaism homosexuality is an act, not a person 1. The Torah2 prohibits the act, but it doesn’t ostracize the individual who desires it.
• The simple truth is the origins for the prohibition against physical intimacy between members of the same gender, like all other forms of sexual
prohibitions, has nothing to do with the person, the people, or the society.
• http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/237,2139473/What-is-the-Jewish-view-on-homosexuality.html
• "A man's wife is permitted to him. Therefore a man may do whatever he desires with his wife. He may engage in relations whenever he desires, kiss
any organ he desires, engage in vaginal or other intercourse or engage in physical intimacy without relations, provided he does not release seed in
vain. Nevertheless, it is pious conduct for a person not to act frivolously concerning such matters and to sanctify himself at the time of relations, as
explained in HilchotDeot. He should not depart from the ordinary pattern of the world. For this act was [given to us] solely for the sake of
procreation...’
• "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination." (Leviticus, 18:22)
• You are responsible for deciding on the ordination of persons, will you ordain someone who is gay or lesbian? Why, why not. Will you perform a
marriage for two homosexuals? Why, why not.

4. Muslim Views
• One leaflet showed a wooden doll hanging from a noose and suggested burning or
stoning homosexuals. “God Abhors You” read another. A third warned gays: “Turn
or Burn”. Three Muslim men who handed out the leaflets in the English city of
Derby were convicted of hate crimes on January 20th. One of them, Kabir Ahmed,
said his Muslim duty was “to give the message”.
• That message—at least in the eyes of religious purists— is uncompromising
condemnation. Of the seven countries that impose the death penalty for
homosexuality, all are Muslim. Even when gays do not face execution, persecution
is endemic. In 2010 a Saudi man was sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in jail
for having sex with another man. In February last year, police in Bahrain arrested
scores of men, mostly other Gulf nationals, at a “gay party”. Iranian gay men are
typically tried on other trumped-up charges. But in September last year three
were executed specifically for homosexuality. (Lesbians in Muslim countries tend
to have an easier time: in Iran they are sentenced to death only on the fourth
conviction.)
• http://www.economist.com/node/21546002
• "We also sent Lut: He said to his people: Do ye commit lewdness such as no people
in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in
preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds. And
his people gave no answer but this: they said, "Drive them out of your city: these
are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!"" (Qur'an 7:80-82)
• In Islam, homosexuals (called qaumLut, the "people of Lot") are condemned in the
story of Lot's people in the Qur'an (15:73; 26:165) and in the last address of the
Prophet Muhammad. With regard to lesbian homosexuality, some have argued
that since penetration is not involved, female homosexual acts should be less
severely punished. Shari'a (Islamic law) is most concerned with public behavior
and outwards, so there is no strong condemnation of homosexuality if it is not
displayed in public
• http://www.religionfacts.com/homosexuality/islam.htm