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As some of you readers may or may not know, this past weekend was Pridefest in Milwaukee. Pridefest is a festival that celebrates pride in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community. Naturally, I decided to attend this festival, expecting a fun time for all. However, upon arriving, I was surprised to find that not everyone was happy about this event. In particular, a group of about five or six haggard looking men seemed very upset. They were adorned with signs depicting bible passages and expressing their belief that God hates Fags and Homosexuality is a sin. Being a homosexual, it had never occurred to me that my natural born sexual orientation was sinful. Then again, I am not a Christian, and I certainly am not very well versed in the Bible. So I decided to do a little research and see just why exactly this God fellow hates me so much. My findings, are that these self proclaimed Christians in fact have no grasp of their own Bible, and simply use their religion to propagate hatred. In this piece I will work to dispel the misconceptions and biblical inaccuracies spewed by homophobic Christians on a regular basis.
To begin, I believe it is important to define homosexuality, so that we may accurately interpret what the bible does and does not say about the issue. For a workable definition, I turn to Wikipedia. Wikipedia says, The word homosexuality describes a sexual orientation characterised by lasting aesthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for others of the same sex or gender. I find this to be an acceptable definition. Homosexuality is attraction, love, and sexuality between two members of the same gender.
Having poured through biblical literature and the bible itself, I have found that there are a handful of passages in the bible that are used to condemn homosexuality, the foremost of which being the story of Sodom, found in Genesis 19. The story describes Gods anger at the residents of the city of Sodom. He was angry at their wickedness and consequentially decided to destroy the entire city and all of its inhabitants. Ezekiel 16:49 describes the sin of the inhabitants of Sodom as being mistreatment of widows, orphans, the sick, pride, gluttony, sloth, greed, failure to help the poor and a general inhospitality towards outsiders. God decides to send two angels to the city to warn that if the Sodomites did not end their wickedness, god would kill them all. The angels were taken in by a man named Lot. Before long, all the male inhabitants of the city appeared before Lots door and demanded that the visitors be brought out so that they may know them. Lot refused, and instead offered his virgin daughters to the crowd. God then went on to destroy the city as promised. Many anti-gay individuals have interpreted this story as meaning that the men of Sodom intended to rape the angels and therefore god destroyed them for their homosexuality. After all, God hates fags. Though this is the common belief amongst religious conservatives, I think the story needs to be interpreted a little more thoroughly before it can be used to denounce all homosexuals. It must first be noted that God intended to destroy the city of Sodom before the incident with the angels. Therefore God did not, in fact, destroy the city because of homosexuality. Also, seeing that every man in the town was part of this riotous mob, we would have to assume that if they were destroyed for being homosexuals, every man in the town was gay. This is simply not possible. Modern research indicates that approximately 10% of all men are homosexual, meaning that 90% of the men in that crowd were heterosexuals. Furthermore, the wickedness of Sodom is described as mistreatment of children and wives; if every man in the city was gay, none of them would have wives or children. Most telling of the sexual orientation of this sinister mob, is that Lot offered the mob his virgin daughters. If they were truly homosexuals, Lot would never have offered them his daughters, seeing as homosexual males have no sexual interest in females. The men of Sodom were not homosexuals. They were not destroyed because of their sexual orientation. They were destroyed because they were inhospitable to outsiders and because they threatened to rape two angels. This story has absolutely nothing to do with love or consensual sex between two people of the same gender. It denounces rape, not Homosexuality. According to biblical scholar R. Kimelman, "In the Mideast then, once a man has entered into your home, youre responsibility to his protection is your primary moral obligation, even if it's at the expense of your own daughters." The story of Sodom is not about homosexuality, it is about inhospitality and about people mistreating others. It is ironic that the inhospitality of the men of Sodom is not at all unlike the way religious conservatives treat homosexuals. Perhaps more Christians should take the time to reread this passage of the bible. It would do them well to learn a little hospitality.
Having successfully debunked the myth that the story of Sodom condemns homosexuality, I would now like to discuss the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is cited as being the major book denouncing homosexuality. Two passages in particular are commonly quoted by anti-gay activists. Leviticus 18:22 says that Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. The second passage is Leviticus 20:23 which states, If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. An abomination you say? That is some very strong language. However, if one were to read the rest of the book of Leviticus one would find that several things are considered to be an abomination. As taken from Leviticus 11:10-11, And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Well, there you have it; it is an abomination to eat crabs, lobsters, and clams. Leviticus 21:20 forbids those with impaired vision from entering churches. Leviticus 19:27 forbids shaving of the beard and baldness. Leviticus 11:6-8 forbids the touching of pigs skin. Leviticus 19:19 forbids the planting of two different crops on the same field. So, seeing as the book of Leviticus is persuasive enough to encourage Christians to protest outside of a Gay festival, why then have I never seen Christians protestors outside of Red Lobster? Why have I never heard protest outside of a football game because the game requires players to touch pig skin? Why do I never hear of Christians telling clean shaven men that they are sinners? Why is there no opposition to letting people with glasses attend church? The answer to all of these questions is that the book of Leviticus is not taken literally by any Christian church. If Christians were to believe the message of Leviticus, then surely almost every one of them would be doomed to hell for shaving, wearing glasses, eating lobster, or planting different crops. If we are to reject all of these passages, then we must also realize that this books anti-gay passages are equally ridiculous. Homosexuality is no more of an abomination than lobsters are. To accept one silly passage while rejecting the others is wildly hypocritical. The bible is very clear about not appreciating hypocrisy. We can all agree that the book of Leviticus is not a valid condemnation of homosexuals, seeing as it would also have to be a condemnation of a slew of other trivial things.
This brings us to Roman 1:26 27. The passage reads For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Now, being remotely competent at reading comprehension, I realized that since this passage begins with for this cause, there must be something very important before it. Upon looking back a few passages, I learned that the entire passage deals with prostitution and sex slavery in pagan temples. It also speaks of the worship of false idols. Worshipping false idols is forbidden by the 10 commandments, homosexuality is not. I think that we can therefore conclude that if a passage deals with both issues, the issue of false idols is significantly more important than the issue of homosexuality. It should also be noted, that the passage speaks of men turning away from their natural sexual orientation to have sex with other men. This clearly has nothing to do with Homosexuals, because a homosexual is exclusively sexually attracted to their own gender. Therefore this passage does not deal with homosexuality as we have defined it. Instead it deals with the issues of prostitution and sex slavery. Saying that homosexual sex slavery and prostitution is wrong does not say that homosexuality is wrong, any more than condemning heterosexual prostitution is a condemnation of heterosexuality.
I hope that those reading this have picked up on the fact that in the bible there is no condemnation of a loving, committed relationship between two people of the same gender. There is also no condemnation of sex between those loving individuals. The condemnation is of rape, prostitution, and sex slavery. I believe it is safe to say that loving someone of the same gender is not a sin or an abomination. In fact, I would like to direct everyones attention to the story of David and Jonathan. David and Jonathan are two men in the bible who love each other in an almost brokeback-esque fashion. In Samuel 1:26 David says to Jonathan: "very pleasant has thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of woman." And in Samuel 18:1 it is said that The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Clearly, god appreciates all love, regardless of gender.
People should not use the bible to condemn homosexuality. To do so would be to take every aspect of the bible literally. To those fundamentalists who take the bible literally, I would suggest that they read Exodus 21, Leviticus 25:44, Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, Timothy 6:1, Titus 2:9-10, and Peter 2:18, all of which are Pro-Slavery. They might also find interest in Genesis 3:16, Isaiah 3:12, Corinthians 11:3, Corinthians 14:34-36, Ephesians 5:22-24, Colossians 3:18, Timothy 2:11-15, and Peter 3:1, all of which are anti-Womens rights. If you are Anti-gay because the bible tells you to be, then you should likewise be pro-slavery and against womens rights. In reality, these passages do not insinuate that God is anti-women or pro-slavery. They simply show the bias of the time period in which the bible was written. When the bible was written people thought that women should have no rights, slavery was good, gays were bad, and the earth was flat. As time has passed, society has deemed that slavery is bad and that women should have rights. It is now time that we recognize that the passages that are anti-gay are as horrible and ridiculous as the pro-slavery ones.
I believe that if one is to be a Christian, they should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Having scoured the entire bible, Ive found that not once does Jesus say anything about Homosexuals. He clearly does not have any sort of hatred for them. Jesus message was that of love, compassion, and treating people in a respectable manner. This includes homosexuals. It is the biggest joke that people who claim to be Christians spend so much time harassing homosexuals. This is not Christ-like behavior. Jesus loves everyone, prostitutes, sick people, and even homosexuals. If anyone who has read this is still anti-gay, The only thing I have to say to them is said perfectly in Malachi 2:3; Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces
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