A Conversation About the Intersection of Faith, Sexual Orientation, and Gender: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives

Recent legal challenges center on the practice of counseling referrals that are made on the basis of a values conflict between a counselor and the client (i.e., Walden v. Centers for Disease Control) or counselor educators' actions in removing students from counseling programs for behaviors that are in conflict with the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2005; Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, 2010; Ward v. Wilbanks, 2010). These challenges provided the stimulus for our exploration of the intersection of faith and sexual orientation as it affects the counseling profession and counselor education. Each of the aforementioned court cases centers on the principle of how a counselor with strong religious values can practice counseling in an increasingly diverse world where there is a possibility of providing services to a client whose values or behaviors are in direct conflict with the counselor's religious value system. Of special note is the fact that, in each of the cases, issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) individuals were the focus of the values conflicts and corresponding legal disputes. Ford and Hendrik (2003) demonstrated that referrals to other providers were often made by psychologists and marriage and family therapists when a values conflict occurred. However, this practice can be construed to be discriminatory (Shiles, 2009), especially when the professional does not first seek consultation, supervision, or further education. The purpose of this article is to identify the perspectives of three major Western religions--Judaism, Islam, and Christianity--with respect to client diversity, highlighting issues of sexual orientation and gender, ACA's ethical standards and competencies, and the precepts of an individual's faith. The attempt to address diversity issues with respect to a major religious denomination is a daunting task. Each major religion encapsulates as much within-group variation as they do between-religion variations. * Conceptualizations of Social Issues From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam In Judaism, there is traditionalism, modernism, and postmodernism. The three main branches of Judaism include Orthodox, which adheres to a traditional application to Jewish law; Reform, which is a more liberal branch of Judaism applying modern ideas and interpretations to Jewish law; and Conservative, which embraces modernism but not to the extent of Reform Judaism. As a result, identifying how Judaism addresses issues of sexual orientation varies among the three main branches. Part of the deviation between the three main branches relates to the view of Halacha, a reference to the collective body of Jewish law that includes the Torah (i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the oral law, and rabbinic writings. Orthodox Judaism uses the most authoritarian interpretation of Halacha, whereas Reform Judaism uses a more liberal approach. Although no unified voice speaks for all Jews, Reform Judaism appears to be the largest denomination (35%), followed by Conservative Judaism (27%), Orthodox Judaism (10%), and Reconstructionist Judaism (2%); approximately 26% of Jews did not identify with a denomination (Jewish Federation of North America, 2005). There is substantial diversity within the Christian faith tradition. Although there are some basic tenets that most adherents of Christianity affirm (Borg, 2004; Borg & Wright, 1999; Lewis, 1943/1996; Smith, 1991,2005; Wright, 2006), there are also significant differences between various denominational/religious group perspectives and a surprising amount of diversity within various denominations/religious groups as well. Denominations or specific groups include Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and nondenominational groups (including postmodern movements within the faith), and each has doctrinal tenets that are unique to its group. …