How much do the bible and religion play a part in beliefs, bullying, and hatred towards gay people?

In my experience, very little. Bullies act out their insecurities, and it has nothing to do with their religions or upbringing.

a) I don’t know what the Bible says about homosexuality. I’ve never read it.
b) I think that the Catholic church’s foundation in the US has heavily influenced people’s basic morals. There are a lot of concepts that are assumed to be moral or immoral without sitting down and deciding on an opinion of your own. That said, I attribute that to the actual organization that is the Catholic church as well as our government for allowing the church’s opinions to hold such weight in policy.
c) When it comes to people, individuals or local churches, I have seen all kinds of interpretations. Many people chop up the bible, taking some lessons and leaving others. Two people can read the same passage and get 2 different interpretations.

In the end, I don’t blame religions for saying these things. I blame the people who read and either interpret it to mean that or take a religious text on blind faith. People will argue that the point of religion is faith but I think that everyone should make a conscious decision to believe in the their intolerance and have an argument for it. Not be intolerant because ____ says you should be.

The ___ can be filled in by politics, family, science, anything. If you don’t think for yourself and come up with a reason why you agree, you are the problem.

I think it plays a large part, at least here in America where much of the population is Christian. It’s not that the Bible “commands” people to do these things, but anti-homosexual sentiment in the first place often stems from religious reasons, including anti-homosexual lines in the Bible. Even though whether or not a verse like Leviticus 20:13 applies to the modern day is debated, the Bible still says it and it is often used to justify hatred against homosexuals.

Again, it’s not that anti-gay bullies are thinking “I’m doing God’s work by bullying these kids”, but their anti-gay sentiment in the first place may have stemmed from a religious upbringing. In this country especially, we are prude about sexuality. Sexual sins are viewed as even worse than other kinds of sins, even if the Bible says all sins are equal in the eyes of God.

I am also not claiming that all anti-gay sentiment is the result of religion. It obviously isn’t. But a lot of it is. And it may have completely mutated from the original religious opposition to it.

First of all, the bible and religion are not synonomous. And while I know that in the ld Testament it says something about “abomination” before god, the bible does not give a directive to kill gay people. However many times people bring up the old testament as examples of orders to kill, Jesus named himself as fulfllment of the law and created a new covenant based on grace and he said; “I came not into the world to comdemn it, but that the world throgh me might be saved.”
As @YARNLADY said, people will be bullies based on their own lens of perception. It is only that some bullies use the bible as their excuse, but I firmly believe that they would still be bullies if they did not have that for an excuse.
As far as Religion itself goes, I am not qualified to say how the Koran addresses homosexuality, but as I understnad it, Muslims behead gay persons in their culture, which is something of a hypocrisy, as I also understand that it is an accepted practice to use boys for pleasure. In fact, I understand that a common expression among some of the Muslim peoples is “Women for breeing, boys for pleasure.”
Now I don’t know if this is directed or mandated as part of the religion of Islam or if it something else, but I have heard that gay arab men are quite fearful of being found out. There probably are no hard numbers that show gay arab men suicide rates but I would not be surprised to find them quite high.
I have no knowledge of how Judaism addresses homosexuality, nor Buddhism.
I can tell you that “Christians” who make moral judgements about people are going against what scripture tells them to do. ANd I can tell you that there are plenty of Christians who d not give a rats ass if you are gay or not. The church that I attend has one openly gay couple and nobody excludes them or treats them as anything other than valued members of the community.
The bible is a misinterpreted excuse for gay bashing, as it was for slavery. Do you know the reference? It’s in Genesis, when Ham saw his father Noah piss drunk, passed out and naked. He mocked his father but his brother covered him with averted eyes. So Ham was cursed by God for disrespect to his father. He was relegated to servant status to his brothers. Ham translates as “black”.
So a misinterpretation and willful ignorance of the spirit of the word. That can apply to just about anything.

My old bible for Leviticus 20:13 says, ‘If a man lieth with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have commited an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. I swore I had read this for the Akansas fool thread. Thanks @DominicX@Trillian I wasn’t going to start reading!

@DominicX You worded it so much better than I did.

How much do the bible and religion play a part in beliefs, bullying, and hatred towards gay people?

This much

Gak!! Trillian just pm’d me asking if I was a proponent of old testament laws. No- quite the opposite. Repeat, that’s not what my post means. I meant I think ‘yes, this type of biblical comment is what sets some people off on their rants and bigotry.’

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Wait….let me catch my breath….HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Whew I think I am over it now. Bullying of Gays has ZERO to do with the Bible or religion and 100% of how it was used incorrectly by those who did the bullying if they did so. That would be like saying deaths from drunk drivers are the fault of the street and the cars on them. The Bible may say that each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own man but I NEVER read ANYTHING in the New Testament (which we are all under now) that says if you see a homosexual kill him. If sexual immorality was a death sentence all the straight fornicators and whoremongers would be losing their life also. That notion was a good chuckle though………..

I think the Bible plays a part in our attitudes about gay people, yes. A part. Would we expect a two thousand year old set of readings to echo how we should feel now? If you believe the Bible is only made up by what the Creator said then yes, gays were condemned by God. And if so, did He have reasons for doing that? A thought to ponder. But, He created gay people too, right? At least I firmly believe they were born that way just as hetero’s were born their way.
Bottom line : I don’t think we’ll ever really know what God thinks for certain.

Depends on whether religions evolve or not, which involves the ability to criticize the content of holy books and try to understand them in a historical context.

i’d say quite frankly, A LOT… And some more