Does Disbelief in God Expand the Number of LGBTQ+ People?
In a sermon on the Solemnity of the Assumption last month, Bishop Stefan Oster of the Passau diocese made the claim that the rise in the number of LGBTQ+ people is being caused by a general societal trend of disbelief in God.
In the same homily that was criticized by a German Catholic LGBTQ+ Committee for the speech’s overall anti-LGBTQ+ references, Oster also made the following claim:
“I believe that the perceived absence or non-existence of God has massively expanded the scope of what is possible in the entire context surrounding the topic of sex and gender.”
The bishop is entitled to his opinion. But opinions, especially when they are so sweeping and provocative, should be supported with evidence. Bishop Oster provided none.
Disbelief in God does not cause variance in someone’s sexual or gender constitution. Disbelief in God does not lead people to seek non-heteronormative and non-cisgender normative behaviors. Disbelief in God does not affect someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. And being LGBTQ+ is not about expanding “the scope of what is possible.” It is about recognizing the reality of one’s life given to them by a loving God.
This correlation is as incorrect as earlier theories of what causes homosexuality was bad family dynamics or a failed heterosexual relationship. Those ideas are in the dustbin of history where they belong. By the bishop’s logic, all, or at least, most, or at the very least, atheists would be LGBTQ+. No evidence of that connection exists, probably because psychologists and social scientists knew that such a premise was too ludicrous to investigate.
There’s still another flaw in the bishop’s claim: the fact that many, many LGBTQ+ people are people of deep faith, and hold on closely to their religious institutions–even in cases where those institutions disrespects or tries to expel them. Has Oster spoken to any LGBTQ+ people of faith? I know many LGBTQ+ Catholics in Germany with whom he could converse. And I’m sure the ranks of other denominations and religions in Germany have LGBTQ+ people.
If such a correlation between these two factors does in fact exist, I suggest that the causal relationship is in the opposite direction. The pain and suffering that many LGBTQ+ people have experienced from religious leaders, including Catholics, is likely a strong factor in why they leave their churches, and eventually, without a faith community, their belief in God aso withers.
Ironically and sadly, the anti-LGBTQ+ comments in Bishop Oster’s sermon are a clear example of why LGBTQ+ people lose their faith.
As regular readers of this blog will know, there are many Catholic bishops and leaders in Germany who are forthrightly positive about LGBTQ+ people, and they have been calling for their full equality in church and society. These leaders’ witness and efforts are powerful aids to keeping Catholic LGBTQ+ people in the church. And here in the U.S. and around the globe we have Catholic leaders speaking and acting in similar ways. Bishop Oster’s claim is empirically wrong, leading him in the opposite direction from where Catholics have begun to go and grow.
—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, September 8, 2026
Thank You. The bishop must be very myopic if he does not know of the many Catholic clergy, as clergy of other faith communities, who are LGBT+ who are people of deep faith and serving God and God’d people! This is true of many women and men religious who serve selflessly! They are doing so in spit of men like Bishop Oster . His attitude blocks him from seeing and keeps good women and men from trusting his leadership!
Thank you for sharing this post by BIshop Oster, I am so sad for his words to be printed and what he has said cannot be true in my belief in God as All Loving, All Caring, All Healing.
This is complete exclusion of Love saying to include ANY in the Body of the Church is to
Disbelieve in God. I pray for Bishop Oster to reflect and see his words are not the message Jesus God gave everyone he encountered, including after the Resurrection.
Thank you for your clear analysis of the bishop’s illogical position!
Typical. Bishop demonising LGBTIQ people but to say that it is caused by a dis belief in God is scandalous and reprehensible. Proves that this reality of being human is not in his wheelhouse but a narrative and idealism about sex and gender pre science and pre understanding of the reality of the human condition speaks volumes. So disappointing 😞.