Religious orientation and attitudes towards homosexuality

The attitude of a sample of Perth, Western Australia, churchgoers towards homosexual persons and homosexuality in the clergy was measured and the relationship between the function of their attitude and their religious orientation was assessed. As predicted from the motivational view of religious orientation, intrinsic orientation was correlated with a negative attitude towards homosexual persons and homosexuality in the clergy. The function of the attitude of intrinsics tended to be value expressive, while the function of the attitude of extrinsics tended to be either social adjustive or defensive. This finding is congruent with Allport's description of these orientations. An additional finding was that intrinsics are rejecting of clergy with homosexual preferences even if the clergy are celibate. Some of the limitations of this study and suggestions for future research in this area have been presented.