God 'n' Gays

[poliphilo]

The Biblical texts that are supposed to condemn homosexuality would- if I were to print them here- fill about half a screen. They come from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus (which also condemns the eating of shellfish) and a couple of the Pauline Epistles. There is nothing- but nothing- about homosexuality in the Gospels. If God really hates fags don't you think he'd have banged on about it at least as much as Jerry Falwell used to do?

Comments

[momof2girls.livejournal.com]

Good point. The people who seem to go on about homosexuality ignore the rest of the prohibitions in Leviticus.

Check out my icon. : - )

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That icon is awesome.

If people only read the Bible- I mean really read it- they would find it impossible to be Fundamentalists.

[momof2girls.livejournal.com]

They claim to be reading it and adhering to it strictly, but manage to leave out the parts that don't support what they believe.

Feel free to gank the icon. I got it from someone else, and am always happy to pass on icon love.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing the icon.

Human beings are capable of such willful stupidity.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I took a copy of that for myself, it's good stuff.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

That's what I think! But no, they rely on some half-baked screamer who makes them feel righteous for showing up once a week and encourages them to hate people who are different.

I suspect, though, that if a church really went straight with the word as it stands, they'd have a hard time getting those major donations or those enormous excited congregations.

My childhood United Church was small and shrinking, and generally talked about God's love, Forgiveness, etc. Not very sexy, I guess.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think that's true across the board.

Here in England, the Anglican church- which always stood for things like breadth and tolerance and scholarship- is struggling- all except for its fundamentalist wing, which is increasingly calling the shots.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

I also love your icon!

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I think it's because the pauline epistles give us that bit against homosex (even though real bible scholar folk question a lot of the terms he uses). Bible readers with a strict anti-homosexual view can say that the conjunction of Paul+Leviticius validates that those particular terms get carried into the "new law" while the other things (restrictions against bunnies, vegetable gardens) get thrown out by Christians as the "old law." (Of course, back to my hobby-horse, Paul also talks about slave-owning...)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ultimately there may be no way of battling fundamentalism except to shrug and say "I refuse to go on playing by your rules because they're silly"- which they are.

The Bible is a book written by fallible human beings over a period of many hundreds of years, reflecting superstitions we no longer hold and circumstances that no longer apply. If it has authority it's because the things it teaches can be demonstrated to be wise, sensible, practical or whatever. It is no more or less divinely inspired than any other old Book that has stood the test of time- the Iliad, for example or Plato's Dialogues.