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

[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.