Friendship versus Faith: How Latter-day Saint College Students Manage the Conflicts between Their Beliefs about Homosexuality and Their Friendships with Gay and Lesbian Persons

ABSTRACT

In this article, we investigate the experiences of Latter-day Saint college students as they navigate and negotiate the complexities associated with maintaining their beliefs about homosexuality while, at the same time, engaging in friendships with gay and lesbian persons. Based on analyzes of 30 interviews, we show that these students face conflicts of: culture versus faith; politics versus faith; and friendship versus faith. We then focus our investigation on four distinct managements strategies that these students use to respond to conflicts of friendship versus faith, including: avoidance; hate the sin, love the sinner; agency; and differential moral responsibility. We situate these findings in relation to the broader literature, especially that of contact theory, and we explore the implications of our research for how cultural and social differences can be navigated and negotiated at both the micro and macro levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Homosexuality
• morality
• contact theory
• Latter-day Saints
• college students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica M. Sargent

Jessica M. Sargent, M.A., is a graduate student at Idaho State University studying public administration (M.P.A.) and political science (D.A.). Her research focuses on sexuality, religion, political polarization, political narratives, and collegiate athletics.

Jeremy N. Thomas

Jeremy N. Thomas, Ph.D., is the Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at Idaho State University. His research focuses on sexuality, deviance, and the body. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Positive Sexuality.