A comparative study of the religious orientations, beliefs and practices of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) Christians in Britain and France has recently been published: Martine Gross and Andrew Yip, ‘Living Spirituality and Sexuality’, Social Compass, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2010, pp. 40-59.
The paper is based upon two conceptually and methodologically related empirical surveys undertaken by Gross in France in 2005 (n = 395) and Yip (now of the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham) in Britain in 1997 (n = 565, who filled in a self-completion postal questionnaire).
The core of the article comprises six statistical tables of: participants’ views on their sexuality in relation to Christianity; opinions of what should constitute the basis of Christian faith; opinions of what should constitute the basis for LGB Christian sexual ethics; beliefs about God; private Bible reading and prayer; and experiences of local churches in relation to sexuality.
From these tables some important differences emerge between Britain and France. For instance, the British sample was far less likely than the French to draw upon LGB communities as the basis for sexual ethics, perhaps partly because it was far more likely to report that local churches had addressed or were sympathetic to issues of homosexuality and bisexuality. Similarly, British LGBs were more regular in their private Bible reading and prayer than their French counterparts.
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Yip has written several other publications on the basis of the 1997 study. For further information, see:
