BombermanBoard

Sora G. Silverwind · #4 Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:11 pm

The thing with the quotes about homosexuality from the Bible is that it's not quite as clear-cut as people seem to believe. The fundies like to apply 20-century meanings to something written millennia ago without understanding what the context was back then.

Disclaimer: I'm not Christian - I'm Hellenic pagagnostic (that is, I consider myself mainly agnostic, but am studying the ways and religion of the Greek gods). Ha. See y'all in the sixth circle of hell, biznatches. I've got lakeside property.

I don't believe the reason Sodom and Gomorrah fell was because of homosexuality - I believe it was because the people and Sodom and Gomorrah were inhospitable to their visitors (that is, Abraham and his two angels). If Yahweh were pissed off about the homosexuality, he would have said so. Unfortunately, the people back then wouldn't have had the concept of a loving homosexual relationship - they couldn't fathom that, so why would they need to address it? (Of course, then you get the story of David and Jonathan, and...yeah.)

The line about a man lying with a man as with a women from Leviticus is part of a series of laws tha also says that you can't wear mixed fabrics, eat shrimp, listen to women, work on Sundays, play football, or keep a garden, among other things. People, people, if you're going to quote one, you better dang well quote them all. And follow them, too.

This is also the same set of laws that in John 8:1-11 Jesus says that we as human beings do not need to enforce anymore, except the bit about offering no meat to idols. And, um, I'm not sure about this, but I think Jesus was pretty important in Christianity, right? So I think it would be pretty important to listen to him. {/sarcasm}

But we also know that Paul apparently had some things to say about homosexuality, particularly this line from 1st Corinthians 6:9-10: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Which seems pretty clear-cut until you consider that 1) the NT was originally written in Greek, meaning 2) there was no word for homosexuality in ancient Greek. The phrase "abusers of themselves with mankind" was originally the word arsenokoites, which does not mean homosexual. Ancient Greece was a culture which believed that the most perfect form of sexual union was between two men (particularly an older men and a younger boy, if you're going by Plato). There was no such thing at that time as homosexuality and heterosexuality; there was just sex and no sex. See http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/119283.html for more details. Sexuality back then was not the same as sexuality now.

Then we've got the whole spiel in Romans by Paul, where the men who had rejected God "burned with lust" for one another or whatnot. But the only homosexuality he had ever experienced would have been in the context of pagan temple worship (yes, us ebbil pagans like to cause trouble in the world, hur hur). He most likely had never seen a homosexual relationship as we tend to think of it nowadays. For more thoughts on the passage in Romans as well as the other places where homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible, see http://www.reallivepreacher.com/node/633.

I really shouldn't be so concerned with what another religious book says about the lines of morality. Unfortunately, it's the so-called followers of this religious book that are attempting to worm their way into every aspect of life. I've only summarized what I've learned about the different possible meanings behind the passages that people like to quote as indicative of God hating on homosexuals - the debate rages on and on and on...