Sheesh. It's right there staring at me. I heard this was in the bible a long time ago and never thought to go look at it. I suppose because I never saw it I just imagined, more like pretended, that it wasn't there. Frankly, I'd like to go back and pretend...
I don't know how you all out there feel about homosexuals, and usually I try to stay away from saying my opinion on hot button issues, but this one I'm sure of. They are people and have feelings and hurt. The more I hear people telling them that God hates them (which I highly doubt) or that they chose their fate, the more I will stand up beside them and fight back. I'm not normally a fighter but it hurts to see people you love get hurt and it conjures up the fighter within me.
I don't want to push people away with my thoughts, and I'm sorry if you disagree. It doesn't mean we can't be friends or that I don't love you. You don't have to agree with me. I'd like it if you did, but if you don't that is fine.
I think that you are brave to say this, considering the fact that you have a lot of confidence in the Christian faith. I think that you imbue the Bible with integrity when you are willing to say that certain lines of the Bible can be flawed. Because even from God's lips to our ears, certain truths can be lost in translation. It's not God's shortcoming, it can simply be our own doubt and refusal to truly listen.
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ReplyDeleteBrandon Wernick: well, there's also the fact that the entire tribe of benjamin was slaughtered by the other tribes of israel for their homosexuality
there's actually quite a bit, i just find this an interesting topic sense one of the biggest claims supporting homosexuality is that it isn't in the bible.
just because it's not a commandment people seem to think it's not there.
although as far as i stand on the issue i don't really care one way or another, i just like to play devils advocate and know both sides of the argument hahaha
Juliana Bucher: ruth, the great-great-great....great-grandmother of the coming messiah for jews was in an openly homosexual relationship with naomi. that famous speech often used in weddings (i'll go where you go, etc) was first uttered between those two women. linguistically, the hebrew text used the same EXACT word to describe the love between ruth/naomi as it did to describe the love between adam/eve --- and the word's meaning included sexual intonations ("clave"). check this site. it's christian-based, and well done: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bmar.htm. leviticus ain't everything. ;)
Brandon Wernick: god's cool with lesbians
Juliana Bucher: haha, there are some male relationships in that link too :) but you're right-- in leviticus, the hebrew translation in that now-anti-gay statement is "a man should not lie with another man in the way that he lies with a woman." so, nothing about lesbians. but also nothing about men either because, really, it's impossible for a man to lie with a man the way he lies with a woman anyway! ;)
Jeremy Shapiro: Heather, it'll probably come as no shock to you that Meredith, myself, and durned-near everyone we know in good ol' heathen Madison, WI supports gay rights. It's so much the norm here that it's easy to forget that this is still a contentious issue even among young people in some places.
Juliana Bucher: even the conservative sect of judaism allows openly gay rabbis. a friend of mine became the first openly lesbian to be ordained a rabbi. she says, "i'm a footnote in history!" :)
Michael Hoopes: My seminary Old Testament professor would tell you that to quote that now, some 2500-3000 years later, would be to take it totally out of context. when it was written, the tribes of Israel was very small, and surrounded by many enemies, several of whom were larger than they. So they needed to have every union be producive, increasing the numbers of breeders and warriors (being very blunt about the roles!!).
James Anderson Merritt: As I understand it, a great many prescriptions in the Old Testament were based on practical needs of the society for which the book was originally written. Behavior, diet, and other things were specified to maximize the chances of survival for "the chosen ones" -- that is to say, those who had a covenant with God. I have to think that the tenets concerning homosexuality fell in that category. Anything that went against the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" had to be contained, if not eliminated outright.
Thanks, Lechatonnoir! :D
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