The Gospels say that when Jesus died, the Temple curtain was ripped in two. Jesus taught God,s unconditional love and transformed fear into love, telling us to love God, ourselves, and one another. When fear of God is coupled with fear that homosexual orientation is the abomination of God, it is not surprising that even loving parents learn with horror that their children lesbian or gay. Distortions of biblical material to condemn homosexuals as evil has set up an incredible situation where parents and others have been so afraid that they have treated homosexual children as if they were possessed by Satan. When people truly are convinced that someone is under the control of evil or demonic forces, even the most terrible and destructive actions are justified, even in the minds of the people who think that they are possessed.
Fear can blur the distinction between fact and fantasy.
People have been burned alive as witches, and multitudes of gay men and lesbians have been subjected to electric shock therapy. As I write this, the murder trial is in progress for the two men who tortured and killed a Matthew Shepard, simply because he was gay. The extreme horror of the crime sent shock waves and sparked outrage and hate crime legislation throughout the nation. But it did not change the conviction of homophobic religious fundamentalists, who remain sternly convinced that God hates homosexuality as a sin. These extra steps bring fundamentalist religious beliefs into the program and muddy the water for many people who honestly seek help in facing life more effectively as gay and lesbian people of many faiths.