Hall is correct according to the study.

as a gay man I have always thought that "religious figures" who were so focused on homosexuality had some personal involvement or interest.

I think the vast majority of these men (you rarely see women in this context) are closeted bi-sexual or homosexual men. They cannot reconcile their innate character with hateful and mis-understood passages in the Bible.

I would have empathy for them if it weren't for the hateful and destructive impact of their public loathing for "out" gays and lesbians.

to be "different" were often the ones that were pushed into the priesthood.

I have no data to back that up except some significant experiences dealing with priests that were being torn apart by their sexuality and vows of celibacy.

At any rate, this guy has not been a friend to the GLBT community and I really wonder what his motive is here.

some credit for it. There were (it is generally believed) at least three gay popes. It's only recently that they have gone all dingo on homosexuality.

In some remote (think ain't NOBODY been there but the locals) areas of Romania, this was happening as late as the mid-70's. I don't know if this has changed.

In the Middle Ages the "black sheep" of the family was steered into being a monk or priest because that was the main place eccentric intelligent people could find their calling, especially if they were women. The medieval guy who discovered inertia, Nicolas of Cusa, was a bishop.

Until the 1400s most college students were people studying to be priests and included some really eccentric people. I suspect a good number of them were gay people who knew that they could not have a legitimate sex life in the lay word anyway because of their orientation.

it was only starting with Counter-Reformation that the Church got all anti-intellectual. I may not like religion, but the notion that the medieval church was anti-intellectual is a modern-day myth, mostly derived from Enlightenment polemicists confusing the medieval church with the bigotry of the Counter-Reformation

One of the things I love about the group is the depth of historical knowledge so many have.

I am glad to say I learn something new every day.

The Middle Ages were actually a period of technological advance. People wrongly think the collapse of the the Western Roman Empire as a technological regression, which is untrue. It was a regression in infrastructure, yes, but not in technology. In fact the collapse of classical intellectual culture actually took down barriers to technological advancement caused by classical attitudes towards work and productivity. Heavy plows that could turn over the dense rich soil of Northern Europe were invented in the 700s. The 3-field system, an innovation that used legume crops to fertilize the soil, was developed in the 800s. Windmills and water mills were invented in later Imperial times but only became common after the Western Empire fell.

Europe in 1250 was AHEAD of Ancient Rome technologically. Indeed, Western culture has has a love affair with machinery going back to 1000. Byzantine princess Anna Comnena, in her history of the 1st Crusade, looked at the Crusaders's crossbows with disgust and contempt.

Also, medieval people DID bathe and most medieval cities had public baths. It was only in the early modern period that bad medical beliefs regarding the Plague and an increased moralism caused by the Reformation that people stopped bathing.

Do anti-female clergy "secretly desire" to be women? Highly unlikely. Do anti-Semites/Islamaphobes in the Church wish to convert to Judaism/Islam? Aww hell NO! Yes, it is true, some people who are homophobic are projecting their hate (or IMO, their fear) onto GLB people because they, themselves, are GLB and can't come to grips with their own sexual orientation (this is much less likely, but may have some similar responses in regards to the transgender). But, and it is a big but, it is likely most homophobes are simply homophobic because they are bigots, plain and simple! No closets, no toe-tapping under the stalls, no secret nights out; they simply despise GLBT people because of their own deeply ingrained bigotry.

It's almost as if the 'normal' people can't cope with the idea that 'normal' people like them can be so malevolent... they have to be hiding something, deep down ... not like 'us' at all.

OTOH if you are LGBT inclined and want to hide it, what better way than espouse strident anti-LGBT filth.

Scratch a homophobe and you'll frequently find out they hate everyone else too. They generally hate everything that isn't what they've decided is "normal", and their definition of normal is usually "Me and everyone exactly like me."

As the church has been in the business of suppressing the sexuality of priests, and there is some evidence that families that identify a child as gay might push them towards the priesthood, there might be a larger proportion of self-hating gay men in the priesthood who project that hate.

I think most homophobes are just homophobes, but within the priesthood, I think there may be a whole different group.

I have no evidence expect some substantial anecdotal experience in this area, having worked in a professional capacity with a number of priests who fit this description.