Religion, Religiosity and the Attitudes Towards Homosexuality—A Multi-Level Analysis of 79 Countries
SEBASTIAN JÄCKLE & GEORG WENZELBURGER
Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Marriage and Holy order. What these 7 words have in common is that they make up a list of 7 sacraments that Catholics are meant to follow. These sacraments are only one part of what makes up the Catholic religion. Since I grew up as Catholic, it is all I know and based on my personal experiencem many members that make up this institution tend to be very conservative and ‘traditional’. Sebastian Jackle and Georg Wenzelburger both indicate that besides Islam, the Catholic religion is the second religion in the world that promotes homonegativity.
According to Sebastian Jackle and Georg Wenzelburger in "Religion, religiosity, and the Attitudes Toward Homosexuality", homonegativity is described as a “aversion to homosexuality as a social practice or way of life” (Jackle & Wenzelburger, pg 208). Those who practice the Catholic religion show negative attitudes in regards to homosexuality as a practice or way of life. This is mostly due to the fact that Catholics tend to “use the bible” (Jackle & Wenzelburger, pg 211) as a backup in order to help defend their prejudice and discriminatory ideologies. Based on this many Catholics tend to act in a more hostile and aggressive way toward these groups of people.
Jackle and Wenzelburger both argue that there is more to just religion and religiosity when it comes to determining where homonegativity comes from. Another reason for homonegativity is not only a result of religious bias but it also highly depends on the financial status of the country. Countries with “higher gross domestic product per capita are more tolerant toward homosexuality” (Jackle & Wenzelburger, pg 216). This helps us understand that those who are not really tolerant of homosexuality may not be financially settled. Even though the authors mention financial status as being a reason for homonegativity, they go back to the concept of religion and focus more intensely on religiosity. This is not to get confused: religion and religiosity have two different meanings. Religion is the term used to identify what religion you may practice such as Islam, Catholic, Muslims and so forth. Religiosity however refers to a person who has strong feelings or belief upon the religion they may practice. Based on the level of religiosity, an individual may have a different “level of aggressive attitudes” (Jackle & Wenzelburger, pg 230) towards the concept of homosexuality as a practice or as a way of life.
Both religion and religiosity not only impact homonegativity on the individual directly but it also acts an influencing factor. Overall we come to understand that the influence religion has upon the homo-negative attitudes on an individual is very strong and makes up most of their beliefs to why homosexual is not a moral way of life.
Jäckle, S. & Wenzelburger, G., 2014. Religion, Religiosity and the Attitudes Towards Homosexuality—A Multi-Level Analysis of 79 Countries. Journal of Homosexuality, pp.Journal of Homosexuality, 27 September 2014.