Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods: An Exploration into the Religious Significance of Male Homosexuality in World Perspective

by Ronald E. Long

Compare worldwide religious regulations involving gay sex and masculinity!

Men, Homosexuality, and the An Exploration into the Religious Significance of Male Homosexuality in World Perspective is an eye-opening look at the traditions of particular religions and their edicts concerning gay sex. This book examines the origins of holy directives involving homosexualitywhether forbidden, tolerated, or mandatoryand establishes a link between theology, sex roles, and the sensitive issue of masculinity. This text draws a parallel between homosexuality and the idea of religion, suggesting that gay rights can be understood as a freedom of religion issue.

While most readers are familiar with the traditional Islamic, Christian, and Hebrew prohibitions against sex between two males, this book also reveals other historic religions from around the world that neither opposed nor looked down on homosexuality. Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods argues that masculinity is the universal theme that formed historical interpretationwarriors and men of high status could not be sexually receptive or feminine and still be called men. This intriguing text shows how the modern homophile movements are in effect redefining masculinity to obliterate the stigma of being a sexually receptive man.

Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods examines the significance of homosexuality in such religions Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods is an enlightening book that honors homosexual claims to moral integrity and appreciates religion and religious figures without rancor. Easy-to-read and free of technical language, this volume is for anyone who has an academic, professional, or personal interest in theology and homosexuality.

The author is available for speaking engagements and can be contacted at Ronldlong@aol.com

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, History

190 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2004

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book. Long really engages with the philosophical tradition of several religions, from the indigenous practices of some New Guinea tribes, to the Abrahamic religions to the different branches of the Buddhist tradition. He does so in order to understand not just what their attitude towards male homosexuality is, but why it is thus. He presents the reader with thoughtful analysis of the definitions, priorities and consequences of the views of masculinity and sex in each of these traditions. Long, writing in 2004 for an American audience, spends some time at the end of the work analyzing the different arguments for, and rebutting those against, gay marriage and manages to make an interesting read even to the reader of 2023 since the arguments he explores were different from the ones that ended up winning the day for marriage equality at the US Supreme Court in 2015. Besides this digression in the political aspect of reassessed prejudices against male homosexuality, the book works as a fascinating conversation with the many religious traditions that continue to shape the worldview of many people today.