When Christianity and homosexuality collide: a better understanding of the potential intrapersonal conflict

Abstract

Most organized religions including Christianity still regard homosexuality as being against their teachings, as sinful and contrary to scripture. Thus the matter of reconciling sexual orientation with religious and spiritual beliefs can be a very challenging and complicated process for those homosexual persons who uphold Christianity as their religion. A qualitative study was conducted via in-depth semi-structured interviews with purposively selected homosexual persons. This article is based on a broader research project entitle, "The potential intrapersonal conflict between Christianity and homosexuality: A better understanding through the resilience perspective." This paper seeks to explore the potential conflict between Christianity and homosexuality faced by the respondents. The result found that a small percentage (20%) of respondents were unaffected by the potential conflict between Christianity and homosexuality. Nevertheless, the majority, eighty percent, were affected by the conflict, implying that both Christianity and homosexuality were important components of their lives. The most common personal effects of conflict between Christianity and homosexuality indentified includes depression (68.8%), self- blame/guilt (37.5%), anxiety (31.3%), suicidal ideation (25%) and alienation (25%). Some implications for practice are presented at a few different levels such as counsellors and mental health professionals, church leaders, parents and Christian homosexual people.