The Unmaking of Prejudice: How Christian Beliefs Relate to Attitudes Toward Homosexuals

Abstract

We propose that the internalization of orthodox Christian beliefs serves as a basis for a personal moral standard that discourages prejudice against others as well as for self-critical emotions that follow upon behaving in a discriminatory manner. Two correlational studies tested hypotheses derived from our theory. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent people endorse orthodox Christian beliefs, they report an internal motivation to respond without prejudice toward homosexuals. Study 2 demonstrated that, when controlling for the effects of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), endorsement of orthodox Christian beliefs was related to positive attitudes toward homosexuals as individuals or as a group, but not toward homosexuality as a behavior or lifestyle.The role of religion is paradoxical. It makes prejudice and it unmakes prejudice. . . . The sublimity of religious ideals is offset by the horrors of persecution in the name of these same ideals. Some people say the only cure for prejudice is more religion; some say the only cure is to abolish religion. (Allport 1954:413) As the quotation from Allport suggests, empirical findings on the relationship between religion and prejudice have historically been far from straightforward. Early studies on racial prejudice demonstrated that people who claimed to be more religious also reported greater levels of prejudice (Adorno et al. 1950;Allport and Kramer 1946;Rokeach 1960). However, it is now widely accepted, based on the weight of empirical research, that upon controlling for certain variables, internalization of religious (Christian) beliefs is inversely related to racial prejudice among whites (e.g., Herek 1987; Rowatt and Franklin 2004; see Donahue 1985 for a review).The relationship between religion and prejudice against homosexuals, however, remains complex. Studies on self-reported attitudes as well as studies about the behavioral expression of prejudice have defined and measured both religion and prejudice against homosexuals differently. Furthermore, studies have found religion to relate to prejudice against homosexuals to different degrees or even in opposite directions (Laythe et al. 2002). It is difficult to sort out a clear picture of the relationship between religion and homosexual prejudice from the myriad of empirical findings, in part, because the literature lacks a coherent theoretical framework for explaining how the internalization of religious beliefs affects attitudes and behavior toward homosexuals specifically and out-groups more generally.Our research aims to fill this gap in the existing literature. Social-psychological theories about motivation to respond to out-groups without prejudice provide the basis for a theory about how the content of religious beliefs-specifically orthodox Christian beliefs-affect attitudes and behavior toward homosexuals and other out-groups. We present the results of two correlational studies that test our theory and reconcile seemingly paradoxical findings of previous research.

Derogating benevolent behavior of deviant in-group members: group processes within a real-life sample of heterosexual Christians

“…The univariate interaction effects between the manipulated orientation and religiosity of the couple were significant for all items separate (all p's < .005), meaning that we found evidence of the derogation of the lesbian Christian couple on all 27 items. This is interesting because it seems to contrast earlier findings that Christians reject homosexual acts but not homosexual people (e.g., Ford et al, 2009). How to explain this difference?…”

The Relationship Between the Constructs of Religiousness and Prejudice: A Structural Equation Model Analysis

“…Kirkpatrick (1993) stated this in dramatic fashion: "Matters become even more confusing when one considers the meaning of intrinsic religion when Christian orthodoxy and fundamentalism are held constant" (p. 265). The extant literature is replete with these types of inconsistent results that result from the type of statistical analyses employed (e.g., Ford, Brignall, VanValey, & Macaluso, 2009;Fulton et al, 1999;Kirkpatrick, 1993;Laythe et al, 2002;Laythe, Finkel, & Kirkpatrick, 2001;Rowatt & Franklin, 2004;van der Slik & Konig, 2006;Wilkinson, 2004).…”

A Comparison of Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Among Students of Helping Professions in Crete, Greece: The Cases of Social Work, Psychology, Medicine, and Nursing

“…Still, although prior research has indicated that religiosity (e.g., frequency of church attendance) and a conservative religious orientation are associated with negative attitudes toward homosexuals (e.g., Herek, 2000;Herek & Capitano, 1996), the relationship between religion and prejudice against homosexuals remains complex (Ford et al, 2009). Studies have found religion to relate to prejudice against homosexuals to different degrees or even in opposite directions; according to Laythe et al (2002, p. 630-631), "orthodox Christian beliefs per se, when empirically disentangled from the confounding influences of authoritarianism and fundamentalism, appear to be a factor that 'unmakes' prejudice against gays and lesbians."…”