As a advocate and activist for gay and HIV issues for many years, I could point out an insidious effect of religion that few of us think about.
Religion doesn’t just serve to uphold conservative values, it often acts to normalize and justify harmful behavior even among people who disagree with that behavior.
You cited the Church of England, so let’s talk about that. The Church of England is part of the greater worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the US-based Episcopalian Church is part.
The Episcopalian Church is about as progressive as possible. They have married same-sex clergy, even bishops in senior leadership positions, and they’ve been conducting same-sex marriages as religious ceremonies for a long time.
The Anglican Communion has not taken that well, imposing sanctions and disciplinary measures on the American Church. Married same-sex spouses of Episcopalian leaders were told they were not welcome at the last Anglican general conference in England.
Now here’s where we come to the insidious part. Many Episcopalian leaders, rather than protesting and taking strong action against the Communion’s hostile homophobic behavior, counseled love, grace, and “respect” toward Anglicans with “sincere differences of opinion.”
Instead of taking an opportunity to stand up for the dignity and value of traditionally marginalized people, the Episcopalian Church effectively stood up for the homophobes. Maybe they didn’t mean to do this, but they sent powerful messages to everyone in the church that it’s okay to treat LGBTQ people with profound disrespect and overt hostility.
The proper response to the controversy would obviously have been for the Episcopalian Church to boycott the conference. To say, if our leaders’ spouses are not allowed to be here, then we are not coming. We reject your homophobic attitudes as unacceptable and immoral. We do not tolerate mistreating LGBTQ people, and we will not participate in your evil value system.
Pretty much any secular organization would have done something similar if same-sex spouses were explicitly barred from a major organizational conference.
My point is that religion today, even progressive religion that respects LGBTQ people, usually still acts to normalize mistreating LGBTQ people.
For a further example, see the controversy in the US based United Methodist Church, where a progressive majority counsels respecting and showing “grace” toward a vocal homophobic minority.
