<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Arguments both in favor of and in opposition to gay and lesbian relationships that spills over to same-sex marriage (or equal marriage rights) are often made on religious grounds and\/or formulated in terms of religious doctrine. The alternative lifestyle as it were, has gripped contemporary society and challenged the ethos of traditional religions and cultures. Since the beginning of time, the world has always been about man and woman and their union. Of course carnal relations between males and least among females, was not unknown in the ancient world, though it was not accepted as normal lifestyle. Over the centuries, society has witnessed challenges to traditional morality with regard to adultery and premarital sex. In the post-Second World War, the bounds of traditional morality was shaken to its core by a generation of youth who were fed up with the bounds of traditional mores. The so-called flower people of the 60s generation explored carnality beyond the limits of acceptability. In the west, many supporters of same sex marriages maintained that, by defining the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman, the state automatically tramples upon the constitutional rights to freedom of religion. After over a decade of court battle on PIL filed by gay and lesbian activists, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously decriminalized Section 377(a) of the India Penal Code (IPC) which criminalizes consensual unnatural sex, saying it (Section 377) violated the right to equality. The PIL filed by gay and lesbian rights activists had pleaded that Section 377(a) infringed upon their rights. Although the majority of world religions oppose to same-sex marriage, the number of religious denominations that are gradually accepting this ‘alternative lifestyle’ are been increasing in recent times. Religious views on same-sex marriage are closely related to religious views on homosexuality. Various religions especially the orthodox within mainstream ones-Christianity, Islam and Hinduism- more or less adopt the same line. There is no objection of the Buddha found in the Tipitaka but the Buddha was neither supportive nor against marriages between members of the same gender. Hindus also hold almost similar views with other religions. However, there are both conservative and liberal views about homosexuality and same-sex marriages in Hinduism, which is similar to many other religions. This is because Hinduism has thousands of authorities who preside over millions of deities. Christians have not welcomed the Supreme Court ruling on decriminalizing Section 377(a). The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has pledged to uphold the Biblical tenets against homosexuality and thereby, resolved not to accept the court ruling. The CBCC (Chakhesang) and ABAM (Ao) church organizations have already made it clear they oppose any attempt to legalize homosexuality in any form, despite court ruling. Same sex relationship is forbidden in the Bible which considers homosexuality as an abomination to God. However liberalism in Christianity has not stopped many denominations from changing the goal post of morality and religious acceptability. With demolition of moral borders under the onslaught of hedonism and liberalism, many prominent personalities have come out of the closet to reveal their sexual (dis)orientation. Support and affirmation of marriage rights for same-sex couples generally comes from certain western Christian denominations that are considered theologically liberal. It would do well for the church to study the issue and apply remedial measures if they are sincere and determined to confront the challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not holier than thou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}