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In an interview with Spinner, Tori Amos is asked about her new album “Abnormally Attracted to Sin,” what it was like growing up Christian, and unsurprisingly, her thoughts on gay marriage.

One of the current arguments at large in America is whether or not gays should have the right to marry. Religion is often used in the argument against gay marriage. Why do you think that union is so threatening?

Tori’s response:

We go back to that word — intolerance. That, to me, isn’t what America ever was. It wasn’t about telling another person how to live their life. I always said in a perfect world, you keep the Democrats out of your bank account and the Republicans out of your bedroom. But in life, why do you have to have anybody else in your bedroom if you’re a consenting adult? That is the need people have right now, it seems, to dictate to another person how they should live their life. I find that the greatest sin of all. The record explores all kinds of feelings and depending on your state of mind, your set of circumstances could result in a very different outcome.

And when asked if she feels obligated to expose the intolerance dictated by big religions in her work:

I find that right now, in this turbulent time where there’s so much strife all around the world, there is an opportunity for religions to open their doors and their hearts — to become compassionate for someone else’s beliefs instead of intolerant. That’s always really disappointed me about people who talk about being religious, and yet they’re the most judgemental, usually. Right now, we’re at war, and I wrote quite a lot of this album while I was on tour last time. I traveled the world, I played in Israel, I traveled through countries where the major religions exist — and the one thing that I started to do more than ever was to really ask questions about “What do I believe in?” Traveling and seeing how women see themselves in different cultures … how the community thinks of them becomes so important for some of them, more than how than how they even feel about themselves. And some of them are dying — they’re dying in their lives. You might be approved of in your community, but your heart is completely breaking.

Her practical take on the absurdity of the controversies surrounding gay marriage feels like something a gay person might have said in response to the question. I kind of love that. And her take on religious intolerance is a nice, and necessary, antidote to the venom being spewed by the Religious Right.

Obviously, she has an enormous gay following, but beyond her music, it’s her thoughtfulness, both in her work and in her life, that maintains those fans. Read the entire interview over at Spinner.

[thanks for the tip, Pork!]