Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-231) and index.
Contents
Introduction: Sex Crimes Against God -- On Earth As It Is in Heaven -- Heaven's Junior Varsity -- The Sex We Don't Have -- Better a Straight Jew than a Gay Catholic? -- Sacred Public Relations -- Religious Conversion as Political Protest -- Fertility Cults and Country Clubs -- Heaven's Dominion.
Summary
"This book examines the celestial admissions policies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The twentieth century transformed standards remarkably. After nearly two thousand years of division, for example, the Roman Catholic Church admitted Jews into heaven in 1964. The Vatican now vigorously encourages Jews to take pride in their faith, even as the Vatican encourages homosexuals to feel ashamed of themselves. Although the Vatican has not explicitly condemned gays and lesbians to hell, the Holy See has led the world to think of hell as the natural resting place for this curiously unpopular group. No matter that gay people may be monogamous and otherwise model Catholics, the sex they have virtually disqualifies them from paradise.".
"And so the way we worship apparently matters less to God than the way we make love. The diagnosis may not be limited to Roman Catholicism, for today Jewish, Protestant, and Muslim communities also struggle to decide what the next world holds for their sexual dissidents. Curiously, debates over where gay people belong now feed into debates over how much equality women deserve in the West's three major faith traditions."--BOOK JACKET.