So here's something that's bothered me about the whole anti-gay movement for awhile, and that is the fact that there's really no scriptural basis for 'God Hates Fags.' One good thing about being raised Mormon is that I have a fairly good grounding in the Bible.
Yes, there is that passage in Leviticus, "a man shall not lie down with another man as he lieth with a woman." I fully accept that passage is in there, and looks to me like it forbids homosexuality (at least between men. You can argue that it forbids something else entirely, or leaves a loophole for oral sex, but that's not important).
But, here's the thing that most fundie Christians miss the boat on. The law quoted is part of the laws of Moses. Things like not wearing clothing of mixed fibers or even the kosher rules. When Jesus came to Earth, he said that he was fulfilling the laws of Moses. By fulfilling them, that meant that they no longer needed to be obeyed. Jesus basically said that you didn't need to follow the rules of Leviticus anymore. Only two laws remained, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind and spirit," and "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
In the early days of Christianity, a big question was if a person would have to convert to Judaism in order to also become a Christian. Remember, Christianity was originally an offshoot of Judaism, so this was a burning question as the evangelicals began to spread the good news of the Lamb of God. It was concluded that no, because Jesus came to fulfill the Law of Moses, one did not actually need to be a Jew to be able to be a Christian as well.
This is why Christians don't keep kosher, for instance, and never have. Christians can eat all the cheesy bacon-wrapped shrimp they want, and wear as many nylon/cotton blends as they please. Levitical law does not apply to Christians (technically, neither does it apply to Jews, since if you strictly interpret the scripture, the Law of Moses was fulfilled for everyone. Then again, I also believe the Anti-Christ died in a garage explosion in 1952 in Pasadena right before he was supposed to move to Israel and help develop their rocketry program, so I may not be the most reliable source to be issuing such decrees).
Long way of saying: the Christians should be the absolute last people in the world to live by Levitical law or persuade others to do the same. The only remaining law of God is that of love. Even so, Levitical law/Christian law is still a matter of conscience. Though I may pity an individual who lives a celibate life believing homosexuality is a sin, it's still their right.
So Christians can have as much gay sex as they want, but Jews can't.
7 comments:
The New Testament injunctions against homesexuality are not found in the Gospels, but are taken from Paul's letters to the Romans and Corinthians. Basically, Paul was upset that the majority Pagan cultures in Greece and Rome had a more open attitude toward sexual practices in general than the Jewish culture in which Christianity arose. Wikipedia has a pretty good article covering the various Biblical references to homsexuality in both the Old and New Testaments.
It says a lot about extreme conservative Christians that rather than rely upon the words of their Savior they instead take a handful of Paul's comments, ignore the context, and make of them a prominent pillar of their theology - just so that they can keep on hating the gays and anyone else they fear might be having a good time.
Just one more reason to be a Thelemite instead!
Why, hello there!
Have we met?
And, yeah, you have a good point that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality and it was all Paul's fault. He really missed the boat on the whole love and tolerance thing.
I'm not sure if we've met. If you're an OTO member we might have, otherwise probably not unless you happen to live up here in Minnesota.
If the stories are to be believed, Paul was a serious Right Wing Authoritarian type. He starts out persecuting Christians, has a conversion experience, and then goes on to rail against everything that's wrong about how other folks at the time were practicing Christianity.
Years ago a book came out about angels or something by an author who claimed to be Paul's reincarnation. Upon hearing this, my immediate response was "what can we do to stop him now?"
Not an OTO member, I'm just wondering how you wandered across my blog. Although, Minnesota... you have my condolences (I live in the Pasadena area of So Cal. It's great! Although some people like prarie... hell if I know why, though... ;) )
If Christianity actually practiced what Jesus taught, it would be a much nicer religion.
Just surfing around - I saw a couple of your comments on other blogs that I read and found my way over here. Actually, there's not much prairie in the Twin Cities, just in the outlying areas. I live in Minneapolis so things are pretty cosmopolitan. I grew up here, and while I'll freely admit I'm not fond of the cold, it really is a nice place to live.
That whole injunction about not judging others is completely lost on the Christian haters. It seems like that's what they live to do. What's good to keep in mind, though, is that most Christians aren't dominionist theocrats. I seriously hope that the Bush administration represents the last gasp of fundamentalist political power. On gay rights and alternative sexuality in particular, surveys show that folks in their twenties and thirties have become a lot more tolerant than those of their parents' generation, and we can hope that trend will continue.
Ah, you probably saw my comment on Treasure House of Pearls.
As a twentysomething myself, I think you're mostly right. Many of my friends are socially liberal and accepting of equality for all. Then again, I do self-select my friends - I have a few Christian friends, but generally only ones who haven't tried once to witness to me or convert me. I also have a bevy of Mormon cousins who are all fairly conservative in the grandest of Mormon traditions.
I hope you're right - one thing that bugs the shit out of me are the twentysomething Republicans I know, who put a high priority on fiscal conservatism, even though they may be socially liberal. They'll vote for Bush or McCain or whomever because he's fiscally conservative, and ignore their anti-choice, anti-civil rights stance (see earlier post for my views on that).
Hello!
I thought each Christian sect basically picked through the Old Testament for pieces that they liked and adopted them as truth. Like the Ten Commandments, or the Flood. So it is perfectly consistent with that trend to pick out the anti-gay stuff and leave behind the anti-pork stuff.
It might be fun to remind the WWJD? crowd that Jesus kissed men.
Here's a question: what belief set defines 'Christian'? Literal acceptance of the entire Bible, or just metaphorical acceptance of the Gospels? Jesus as God, Jesus as a supernatural prophet, or Jesus as a wise man? Maybe just the belief and practice of universal love?
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