Every major religious tradition has elaborate teachings about sexuality — what it is for, how it should be expressed, what forms of desire are acceptable and which are forbidden — and in most traditions those teachings have been sites of profound pain as well as genuine wisdom. The contemporary debates about LGBTQ+ inclusion in religious communities are not new controversies overlaid on ancient certainties: they are the latest episode in a millennia-long argument about the body, desire, and what the sacred has to say about both. The traditions that are engaging this with genuine intellectual seriousness are finding that their scriptures and their histories are more complicated — and more generous — than the simplest readings allowed.
Each step builds on the last.