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Ignorance can be effectively diffused by assuming a given position is accurate and proving it false within the very same context.
Gay and lesbian issues have been at the forefront, from marriage to anti-discrimination bills, fund raising to entertainment, post-gay to ex-gay. As a result, cohorts of the Religious Right have stepped up to bat. What follows is a critical evaluation of homosexuality and its relationship to the Holy Bible, the Religious Right and Christianity in general.
Anti-homosexual campaigns have little, if anything, to do with morals or Christianity. Those proclaiming homosexuality is a sin and gays are doomed to hell, fornicate, lie, abort and abuse. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." We don't see homosexuals aren't spearheading programs against adulterers, liars or divorced / remarried couples.
Jesus doesn't teach hate. Christians will always sin. There are no "white" sins or "black" sins mentioned in the Bible. Therefore, lying is to divorce(1) what premarital sex is to abortion, lust, greed(2) or those who know the good they ought to do and don't do it(3). Lying leads to hell just as fornication, lust or any other sin. Christians lust, fornicate and divorce for starters.
Men who prefer men, then, can be Christians just as those engaging in premarital sex, those who divorce and remarry(4) - an on-going sin - or those who know the good they ought to do and do not do it(3).
For alleged Christians to "heal" lesbians and gays of homosexuality is fruitless and ironic at best in that it assumes one can and will be healed of any and every sin. While they trumpet, "Jesus will deliver you," They have yet to be delivered from hypocrisy. This ideal conflicts with Christianity which claims Christians will always sin. If homosexuals will be "healed" of their gayness, we could presumably heal one another of every sin and prove the Bible wrong unless, of course, there is only selective healing, which seems to be the going belief. We cannot select which sins we will be healed of. Why focus on one sin over another, in terms of salvation?
When was the last time gays fought divorced/remarried couples on the streets or on television using God's name?
Sin is sin and even Christians will always sin. But Christians are forgiven...forgiven liars, adulterers, hypocrites...
Responding to a letter from a gay man, Focus on the Family president, James Dobson, wrote, Let me simply say that the same Scriptures that condemn homosexuality and premarital heterosexuality also tell us to accept those who are in violation of these ordinances. Jesus was more compassionate toward the woman caught in the very act of intercourse - a capital offense in those days - than He was toward the hypocrites in the church. This is our model and our mandate. (Focus on the Family - July 1993)
Here is the critical point. While Christians can't chose their healing, they don't have a green light to commit naughty deeds willy-nilly. Christian status isn't the stamp of approval to consciously choose to sin.
The purpose of the preceeding comparison is to examine a pervasive hypocrisy - A hypocrisy based on the readings of selective scriptures out of context. It is not to advocate sin. The following further examines the Holy Bible and its actual references to homosexuality. To fully understand the ramifications of homosexual practice, passages from the Bible must be read in context.
Both the Old and New Testaments of The Holy Bible clearly read...
- Romans 1:26-27
- For this reason God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
- Leviticus 20:13
- If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.
The Holy Bible also reads...
- I Corinthians 14:33-35
- As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission.
- I Peter 2:18
- Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
- I Corinthians 11:6
- If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
- Mark 10:11-12
- Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
- James 4:17
- Those who know the good they ought to do and do not do it, sin.
The Holy Bible indicates that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to inherit the Kingdom of God.
Taking scripture out of the context of time for whom it was written, leaves room for a large margin of error because it ignores relevance. "Cafeteria Christianity" is used to glaze-over what some feel are their wrong-doings and highlight what they feel are others'. When convenient, the "official qualifiers" of others' morality read Scripture in context.
Surely women who do not shave/cover their heads aren't doomed to hell. Most realize this scripture is relevant to the church at Corinth in those times, though it's taken from the New Testament. Ironically, the same zealots avoid interpreting Scripture in context when referring to subjects they aren't (or at least would not like to be) associated with. Certain Scripture is just as explicit in denouncing remarriage and women not shaving their heads as it is in the act of homosexuality...in context.
Cafeteria Christianity speaks to the weaknesses of a paticular group at a given time. It is the maintenance of the ideals, expectations and beliefs of a given group's way of life.
Leviticus 18:22 reads, "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." The beginning of the chapter indicates that such instruction was for Israelites. The scriptures in Leviticus refer to the spilling of seed and the importance of reproduction as the Israelites entered new territory. Reading further into chapter 19, verse 19 reads, "Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." This differentiates the Israelites from the Gentiles. Verse 27 continues, "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." Similar examples can be drawn from Pauline chapters. These subjects haven't come under attack by the 700 Club or the Southern Baptists yet they're excerpted from the very same chapter of the same book.
Sodomy, as many understand it, is not the exclusive domain of homosexuals. The term first appears in the book of Genesis, chapter 19. The Religious Right references the incident at Lot's door. In doing so, the most of the story is ignored. David Yegerlehner, Ph.D, explains the story best in New York Blade News, August 7, 1998.
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Lot offers his two virgin daughters to be raped by an angry mob outside his front door, and the chapter ends with incest: these daughters take turns getting their father drunk and seducing him. In all regards, the religious right should be embarrassed to remind the world of this story.
There was no incident of homosexuality. Not a one. There was, however, certain incidents of incest drunkenness.
If Congressman Armey thinks that the famous "abomination" verses in Leviticus 18 and 20 send a clear message on homosexuality, then perhaps he should enroll in a refresher course at his church... The first nine chapters of Leviticus are a manual for animal sacrifice - how to cut up goats, bulls and birds to burn in public worship. Southern politicians also invoked Leviticus during the Civil War because of its authorization of slavery. The brutal and barbaric laws of this book (the death penalty for men lying with men, adultery, cursing parents) should make any religiously sensitive person uneasy.
The infamous Aabomination" term in Leviticus, when translated, refers to anything ritually impure or associated with idol worship. This was yet another differentiation between Jews and Gentiles.... just as not shaving the hair along side the face.
Consider all of the atrocities which took place at Lot's door. The Religious Right ignores certain accounts of incest, rape, lust and drunkenness to focus on sodomy (which didn't occur), not necessarily homosexuality. The mob ultimately has sex with Lot's daughters. Homosexual men have no sexual interest in women, mind you.
If we are to obey every passage in the Bible, let's not ignore the fact that it clearly reads, over and over again, that slaves are to "obey" and "submit themselves to" their masters. These very scriptures were used to justify generations of slavery in the United States. As with scripture pertaining to homosexuality, what the Bible states is explicit and obvious, "submit to" and "obey." There's no room for misinterpretation, or so it seems...yet few are calling for the re-institution of slavery. They are able to (or willing to, as it were) read it in context. In Hebrew translations, the term "slavery" translates into the modern day dynamics of employer and employee. This does not denote whips, chains and blood. The Southern Baptists recently apologized for their misinterpretation of that scripture during the years of slavery. By their own admission, they have a history of misinterpreting scripture, taking it out of context and acting more as a political force than a church of Christians. What makes them any different today?
Disney extends benefits to domestic partners of its gay (and not so gay) employees. In reaction, the Southern Baptist the family company. The SBs may have bitten off more than they can chew. Here is a partial list of companies, cities and organizations which extend such benefits.
Matthew 19:9 reads
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
This passage is taken from the New Testament. The scripture is in red, denoting the actual words of Jesus.
America's divorce rate hovers at over 50% and is actually higher in America's Bible Belt. Unless half of the adults are remaining single, which clealy isn't the case, someone's committing adultery. They are practicing a lifestyle.
The Holy Bible mentions a time when men will "gather 'round to hear what their itching ears want to hear." It mentions a time when people cling to custom and tradition instead of truth. Everything the Religious Right is doing is scriptural... selective, cafeteria Christianity.
Opening the Bible to a random page, culling a sentence or two from it and applying it to everyday life is a recipe for misinterpretation. As with any book, it is to be read and understood in context. The Holy Bible is, perhaps, the only book so regularly read out of context, in random order, understood by the sentence not by the book and then acted upon with selective conviction.
The Ten Commandments serve a purpose. Its laws are universal. They applied to the Christians in Corinth, they apply to Christians today.
The following quotes are from renowned Theologioan, Reinhold Neibuhr formerly of the American University, Washington, DC.
It is interesting how our worst sins are always derived from self-righteousness, which is what gives Christ's contest with the Pharisees such relevance.
Theology, February, 1940, in Love and Justice, p. 52.
Real religion produces the spirit of humility and repentance. It destroys moral conceit.
Religion in Life, Spring, 1932, in Love and Justice, p. 37.
A church can consequently never prove itself Christian by defending a "Christian civilization." By that very effort it becomes, as church, unchristian.
Radical Religion, Spring, 1937, in Love and Justice, p. 77.
It is a tragic world, troubled not by finiteness so much as by "false eternals" and false absolutes, and expressing the pride of these false absolutes even in the highest reaches of its spirituality.
Theology, February, 1940, in Love and Justice, p. 49.
It is not that man in his weakness has finite perspectives that makes conflicts between varying perspectives so filled with fanatic fury in all human history; it is that man denies the finiteness of his perspectives that tempts him to such fanatic cruelty against those who hold convictions other than his own. The quintessence of sin is, in short, that man "changes the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man." He always usurps God's place and claims to be the final judge of human actions.
Theology, February, 1940, in Love and Justice, p. 48.
(1) Luke 16:18, ICorinthians 7:10-11, Matthew 5:32
All scriptures taken from and interpreted with: The Holy Bible-NIV, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, The Holy Bible-King James, The Greek + Hebrew Translations.
(2) ICorinthians 6:9-10
(3) James 4:17
(4) Luke 16:18
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Copyright © 1997,1998 Ed