More church support for gay people urged

Traditional church teaching and the attitudes of some Christians are partly responsible for the high level of mental health problems among gay and bisexual people, according to a new report by a Christian charity.

The report by the Oasis Foundation, a Christian research and policy unit founded by Baptist minister Steve Chalke, revealed that homosexual and bisexual people are up to 12 times more likely  than heterosexual people to experience mental health problems including depression, anxiety and self harm. It said that church teachings stating or implying that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality or bisexuality can fuel that negativity.

In “In the Name of Love: The Church, Exclusion and LGB Mental Health Issues” the charity stated that being homosexual or bisexual does not make people intrinsically any more susceptible to poor mental health.

Instead it identified two major causes: homophobia, bullying and discrimination, and perceptions of inferiority created by negative references to homosexuality – explicit and implicit –  within families, communities, in the work­place and in the media.

An analysis of the media, the report claimed, revealed that Christians are responsible for 91 per cent of negative comments about same-sex relationships. The analysis also found that of the signatories listed on the website of the Coalition for Marriage (the campaign against same-sex marriage), 74 per cent can be publicly identified as Christian.

A spokesman for LGBT Catholics Westminster, Martin Pendergast, said that the report raised some important points. He added: “In my experience, the parents of young people in particular need extra support to square their own often quite harsh Catholic understanding with their everyday experience of loving their own children, rather than encouraging them to imagine that they’ve produced some kind of monster.”

The Oasis Foundation said that there was much that Churches could do to support mental health in the gay community. “Churches might have the space to offer local counselling and therapy services,” said spokesman Gareth Streeter. “Church members are often more liberal than the teachings of their Church suggest”.