Are Christians Homophobic?

From The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality October 13, 2008

New Research Study Debunks Claim Christians are Homophobic

It would appear to be true that Christians love the sinner and hate the sin according to the results of a study published in the latest issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. The researchers from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University found that people who scored high in religiousness do distinguish between same sex attraction and same sex behavior in their responses to others.

The study had 100 female participants who were scored for interest in religion. The participants were led to believe that they were working with another participant as a two person team. The participants received hand written notes from their ostensible team partners with personal disclosures. Half the notes disclosed that the writer was gay, the other notes did not disclose sexual orientation. Half the notes disclosed that the writer was engaging in sexually promiscuous behavior outside of marriage. This created four cases: gay sexually active team member, gay celibate team member, heterosexual sexually active team member and heterosexual celibate team member. The participants were then given two minutes to perform tasks that could benefit the team member or a third student.

In general the participants helped the team member more than the unknown student. Participants did not help a gay team mate less than a heterosexual. The promiscuous were helped less than the celibate. The participants did not differentiate between a gay and a straight promiscuous team mate. Participants who scored high on religiousness helped the promiscuous person less.

The researchers concluded that the participants were able to distinguish between out group status (having same sex attractions) and value violation behavior (promiscuity). Ironically it would appear that it is previous researchers who failed to distinguish between out group status and value violation in previous studies that concluded that subjects who scored hign in religiousness were prejudiced in their behavior toward gays. The previous studies failed to provide the straight promiscuous category for comparison.

Here is the abstract:
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Volume 47 Issue 3, Pages 379 - 392 Published Online: 28 Aug 2008
© 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Separating the "Sinner" from the "Sin": Religious Orientation and Prejudiced Behavior Toward Sexual Orientation and Promiscuous Sex HEATHER K. MAK, JO-ANN TSANG

Heather K. Mak was an undergraduate majoring in psychology at Baylor University. E-mail: makhk@umdnj.edu
Jo-Ann Tsang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University.

Correspondence should be addressed to Jo-Ann Tsang, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, One Bear Place 97334, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334. E-mail: JoAnn_Tsang@Baylor.edu Copyright © 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

ABSTRACT
This study extends research on the relationship between religious orientation, sexual prejudice, and antipathy toward value-violating behaviors. If intrinsic religion leads individuals to "love the sinner but hate the sin," homosexual sexually promiscuous targets should be treated similarly to heterosexual promiscuous targets. One hundred female introductory psychology students were provided the opportunity to help two students. They had no information about the first student. The second student disclosed through a note that she was gay or said nothing about sexual orientation, and further stated that she was sexually promiscuous or celibate. Participants scoring high in intrinsic religiousness helped the disclosing student less when she revealed she was sexually promiscuous, but did not help a gay discloser less than a straight discloser. High intrinsic scores seemed to be related to antipathy toward the value-violation, but not toward the gay person as an individual.

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