Modernization and the altered views of Millennials compared to Generation X and Baby Boomers have pressured and hopefully been a positive reinforcement and guide on different religions and how they view the same sex marriage. Unfortunately, we will always be faced with two sides of the religious spectrum, those willing to conform to new trends, and on the opposite side, the radically religious, those who are stuck allowing their traditional ways guide them even though they no longer match the world we are living in.
Catholicism has found a way to reduce a multidimensional human to a mere sexual orientation. The traditional teachers of Catholics is that Men and Women get married and the woman worships the man, and ensures his every want, need and desire are met. If you don’t follow the Ten Commandments; You shall have no other gods before Me, You shall make no idols, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, Keep the Sabbath day holy, Honor your father and your mother, You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, You shall not covet (BibleInfor). Along with the bible teaching, than you are going against the word of God and being unfaithful. Being in a same sex relationship is going against the word of God, so thoser embracing the new word, and attempting to reform it is running into one of two situations, acceptence, and those willing to join the new movement, or banishment from the church all together. But who are those people to tell someone who they can worship and believe in? Some interesting information I learned in my World Religion class was that all the bible writings (teachings), have been translated from languages such as Latin and Italian to English. Through these translation there were sure to have some situations where something was misinterpreted or miswritten. Sex and gender, although some people believe it to be the same are two very different words with different meanings.
Differentiating from Catholicism, Hinduism isn’t monotheistic, so they don’t have one particular person, power, spirit that they report to so views and attitudes towards LGBTQ vary from different groups, places of worship, families (Stances of Faith: Hinduism, 2018) There is nothing within the Hinduism religion that ostracizes members of LGBTQ, they welcome them into practicing the faith (Stances of Faith: Hinduism, 2018). The Gods refer to people members of Hinduism who identify as queer as third sex, implying they don’t procreate (Stances of Faith: Hinduism, 2018), all of these accpeting acts within the religion prove that they support same sex weddings. Although traditionally Hindu is welcoming to LGBTQ doesn’t determine or guarantee that all families and members will be accepting of LGBTQ people.
Buddist beliefes are larley personalized, you spirtual journey is led by yourself (Stances of Faith: Buddhism, 2018), determining if same-sex marriage would be celebrated or frowned down upon is a difficult task. There are no original scriptures stating particular sexual orientation or identifiers are “better” or “worse” than others (Stances of Faith: Buddhism, 2018). With this information it is easy to assume that a member of the LGBTQ community or not, you are still welcomed into the faith and free to live the same spiritual life you would like to live.
Candians is a large “Catholic” dominated country, but those that actually practice the faith is much smaller than those that identify with it. Canada is a multi-diverse country with a number of religions, but also with many people identifying with no religion, or identify as “Other Religions” than the most popular ones listen in class. Multi religious and multi diverse translate to race, faith, gender, sex, status, age. With these large, different demographics we are bound to have a division in our countries opinions and belief systems. Our political system is a great example, being mostly split between Liberal & NDB vs. Conservative. These political parties align perfectly with agreeing with and not agrring with same sex marriage. Secularism in Canada has led Canada to be a nation where Same Sex marriage is legalized but people are still against it. It’s interesting that Christianity is the prodominate religion in Canada, Christians have the harshest opinions on same sex marriage based off the three religions I am researching yet we as a country have legalized it.
Catholisim, Hinduism and Buddhism are all predominant religions in Canada. With such a diverse population we, as a nation are bound to have mixed opinions. It’s not suprised that same-sex marriage is legalized here, what is suprising is that some people still don’t understand why it is legalized. Religions individuals are said to be the most accepting, loving of beings, while realistically those that identify as Agnostic, without a religion or belief in numerous different spiritual practices, are usually the most accepting and loving.
Bibliography
BibleInfo. Retrieved from Ten Commandments List : https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/ten-commandments-list
Human Rights Campaign . (2018, August 1). Human Rights Campaign . Retrieved from Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Hinduism: https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-hinduism
Human Rights Campaign . (2018, August 15). Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Buddhism. Retrieved from Human Rights Campaign: https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-buddhism