Christianity - Social Tolerance - and Homosexuality

Question: Discuss about the Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. Answer: Introduction Same sex marriage in Australia has been a severe issue since a long time. The aim of equality in marriage should be applicable for every individual, regardless of gender or sexual orientation of the human being. However, it has never been that easy for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Even though several scholars have argued that same sex marriage is socially justified and the concept of social justice is entirely served when the normative significance of marriage in weakened. In Australia, the same sex marriages have existed in the societal scenario for a long time, however the outlook of the society was not a positive one. Rather it was considered as a social nuisance. However, in discussing the issue of same sex marriage the attribute as described by Boswell (2015) can be considered as the capability of understanding the personal experiences connecting them to the larger societal issues and the political and historical processes that helps to shape those. Distinctly, sociological imagination is not merely a concept or a theory rather it is the attitude of the society that guide the individual when thinking about something apart from the regular life and looking at a particular opinion anew. The controversial issues around same sex marriage have been moulded by the existing power structures of the society and sentiments that are neither inactive nor absolute, but they are specific to the place and time. The modern supporters of LGBT rights and gay marriages try to the sociological imagination while the try to portray the logical aspects of the issue. Some scholars have already pointed out the similarities of the religious arguments that have been used to resist the interracial marriages in the 20th century and those arguments have now opposed the gay marriages. Prior to year 1967, the Supreme Court of Australia have made several laws that that turned the interracial marriages into the unconstitutional ones and the defenders of those laws declared that the violation of such laws and the interracial unions would be against the God and totally unnatural (Lamanna, Riedmann and Stewart 2014). However in todays time these claims seem to be unethical and racist, therefore the o pposition of religious institutions towards same sex marriages would be expected to be understood by the future generations. However, the concept of sociological imagination does not need everyone to come to the same conclusion over a specific matter. While it is applied in the real life situations, ones conclusion might seem a little different from the other one. For instance someone could think of drinking coffee as a sign of caring the own self however it could also be considered as a ritual as many consume coffee at the same time of the day (Mills 1978). Therefore it can be noted that social imagination can be considered as the collective procedure of making the cultural meaning, where the social imaginary or the product is the major provider of the cultural basis of for the implied schemas, prototypes or the categories which are used for the future action and the cognition by individuals. The social imagination of same sex marriages mostly shape the major aspects of the world view of an individual regarding homosexuality which includes the belief, moral judgments, attitudes and the references of polic ies by them. It also defines the part of the formative encounters of the young associates with the social structure and therefore the changes in the social imagination can mark the beginning of a new period that includes young changing their world views as well (Mills 1978). The increasing number of same sex marriage might change the deep rooted structure of the Australian culture, but even a decade ago the general population has thought of this issue in an entirely different light. The major reason of the change in the social imagination of the Australian society is that different individuals view the issue of same sex marriages differently. Generally people also articulate the social imagination of same sex marriage in their discourse through analogies, metaphors. Therefore any discourse regarding this issue is the result of the political and religious ideologies of an individual and their social imagination of same sex marriage. Conclusion Alternatively, few researchers who have agreed on the acknowledgement of the historical base if the marriage indicate that marriage is not only an outcome of the social definitions that is altered over time, and it is also not considered as the objective fact rather it is the communities who decide what does it mean. Therefore it has changed over time as there are significant sentimental shifts towards the concept of companionship and love. The LGBT families are raising children as same as the heterosexual parents. However, there are researchers who claim that the children raised by the lesbian parents tend to grow abnormal behaviour, however this view has been criticized and it was a flawed decision from the very beginning. Reference List and Bibliography Boswell, J., 2015.Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: Gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. University of Chicago Press. Wright Mills (1978) 'The sociological imagination' Connell, R.W., 2014.Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. John Wiley Sons. Lamanna, M.A., Riedmann, A. and Stewart, S.D., 2014.Marriages, families, and relationships: Making choices in a diverse society. Cengage Learning. von Doussa, H., Power, J. and Riggs, D., 2015. Imagining parenthood: the possibilities and experiences of parenthood among transgender people.Culture, health sexuality,17(9), pp.1119-1131. Westbrook, L. and Schilt, K., 2014. Doing gender, determining gender: Transgender people, gender panics, and the maintenance of the sex/gender/sexuality system.Gender Society,28(1), pp.32-57.