I can understand, if not agree, with those who consider homosexuality a sinful act based on their Christian (we'll just focus there) beliefs and what they believe the Bible teaches them.
But I find it increasingly flabbergasting the hyperbolic vitriol related to homosexuality and the subject of "marriage equality". Because you would think we were talking about … well, it's hard to come up with something over the top to compare it to, because pretty much everything has already been said. Usually in a shrill and panicky voice.
They're Nazis! They're Commies! They're disease-ridden pervs who want to pollute our precious bodily fluids! They want to molest our children, then kill them, and eat them, and then turn them into zombies! Gay zombies! Gay marriage is an attack on religion and the flag and George Washington, and will lead to Christians being put in re-education gulags where they will be forced to watch reruns of "Ellen" and wear pink crosses! It will lead to the Last Days, to plagues of locusts and giant meteor swarms and a big budget remake of "My Mother the Car" and war and frogs, and we will live forever in the Eurozone and wail and gnash our teeth in darkness and sin and utter desolation …
I think I've heard all of those except for the "My Mother the Car" one, and, heck, I'm expecting either Bryan Fischer or Variety to announce that one any day now.
What makes this so incredibly remarkable to me is that the Bible spends so little time talking about homosexuality, in a couple of litanies (Old and New Testament) that are surrounded by religious warnings that nobody pays any attention to any more, at least not sufficiently to organize massive protests and conspiracies and Fox News segments.
Jesus never talks about homosexuality, even if one would presume to think he would know it would someday become The Greatest Threat Ever to Christianity and Democracy and Children and Puppies. There's a lot of discussion of caring for the poor, and not gossiping, and loving one's neighbor, and not arguing, and about divorce being a big no-no (in the New Testament, at least), not to mention condemnation of touching ladies during their period, various dietary restrictions, usury and debt relief, slavery, and a variety of things to do when women turn out not to be virgins.
But very little of this burns up the airwaves each day, or leads to dire proclamations of impending DOOOOOM from pulpits and sound booths, or causes people to go apeshit over the idea that some of THEM might be in the Army (right alongside the Gossips and Divorcees, but nobody ever kicks those folks out), or that a state might actually allow THEM to get married, which instantly magically (through the Law of Icky Contagion) invalidates all other marriages, back to the beginning of time.
I'm sure there are all sorts of meta reasons for this utterly crazed focus on gays and gay rights as the Greatest Threat to Freedom and Unicorns and Baby Jesus and America and the Designated Hitter Rule of All Time — politics and authoritarian culture wars and all that. But I tend to take these things on face value, at least for starters, so I want to understand why something that gets a heck of a lot less word count in Holy Scripture than, say, worshiping pagan gods, creates such a godawful (in so many ways) furor. It just boggles my mind that this, this is what gets religious conservatives' panties in such a twist.
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Truth in Action Ministries has embraced the work of anti-gay activist Michael Brown in recent weeks, producing a condensed version of his book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, called A Stealth Agen…
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Great rant!
Thanks. I do tend to go on at times.
The Bible (if you follow it) is pretty clear on homosexuality in that's it a sin. That said, though, it's not for man to judge, that's left up to the Lord to take care of how he sees fit.
I do think, though, that there is a 'gay agenda' but it's not as nefarious as some might think. I don't think it's to try to 'convert' people to homosexuality, but just to put it out there so they can be themselves which, a true Christian should have no problem with, in my opinion. I mean, they don't have to agree with the lifestyle, but it's not up to them to judge.
I don't agree with the lifestyle, either….it's not for me and there's a lot about it I don't (nor want to) understand. But, I'm not going to condemn someone for being gay. That's not for me to do.
Not to be cliche' but 'I have a few gay friends' and I'm pretty sure they have no interest in trying to 'bring people to the other side' just as I have no interest in trying to 'convert' gay people to my 'side'.
Just my humble opinion, but society has much bigger fish to fry….
The answer might be very simple: stirring up hatred of the “other” is politically useful. And easy, if they’re a small minority with different sexual practices than your own. I’ll start believing there’s more to it than that, when they start going after divorce and shellfish and tattoos and so on.
Well, see, that’s the meta answer, @George — it’s not about the religious concern, but about tribalism and trying to isolate and banish the Other. Fit into that people looking to make a buck, people looking to make headlines, and people self-loathing their own deeply-suppressed orientation, and you can come up with a lot of answers.
But the ostensible excuse given is the Biblical one, and I’m trying address that head-on.
Huh. So they’re against shows like Glee because they threaten freedom of religion, conscience and speech? Therefore we should deny the creators of such shows those very freedoms? When I try to figure this out, it feels as if I am passing a brain stone.
@Avo – “Passing a brain stone” has now become my favorite phrase of the day. Thank you.
Yeah, the bible says lots of stuff.
Haha, law of icky contagion
Dammit, you’ve got me wound up now…
First off, I’m not gay. I’m a straight woman in an ordinary marriage (32 years this summer). And I’m easily wound up about the abomination in my state of California that went by the name of Proposition 8, amending our constitution to restrict marriage to one man and one woman. If you were gay and didn’t get married during the few short months that gay marriage was legal in California, you were screwed.
I like being married. I’m still really, really in love with my husband. The fact that my gay friends can’t enjoy marriage annoys the heck out of me. Something I’ve taken for granted for more than half my life is denied them, because
1) a majority of people have decided gay sex is a “sin”, and
2) those people don’t have any compunctions about imposing their belief system on others.
Grrrrrr.
@Karen – Sing it, sister!
+Mark Means, I'm not enough of a Biblical scholar to speak to the suggestion that what the Bible condemns is or isn't homosexuality as we see it today. I see a lot of other things talked about alongside it given a lot less attention (and a lot of other things talked about along side it that are simply no longer considered sinful), and consider it the least of what Christians should be societally worried about.
From my knowledge of gay individuals, they are remarkably like straight individuals. If there is a "lifestyle" that appears outwardly different, it stems more from their persecution over the centuries than anything else. While I have no particular inclination in that direction, I don't care for raw tomatoes, either, yet I don't see people eating them (yuck) as something either morally wrong or that needs to be prevented.
I do agree, though, that this society "has much bigger fish to fry."
I have put in a bit of study on at least some of the passages. Not that I'd qualify as a biblical scholar, but some of the things that are in essentially an equal verboten class are:
— Bacon (there goes the Margie-gras Three Bs)
— Polyester (the "poly" in it gets it based on its foundation but same goes for any blend of fabrics like cotton blended with anything)
— Tattoos (a fashion statement that seems a bit out of control these days).
Sure, those are things from the "Old" part yet many "Christians" who are willing to be rather selective in citing the parallel passages they perceive as applying to homosexuality conveniently dismiss those that forbid what is listed above (and a number of other common contemporary practices).
For "Christians" presumably it would more hinge on what Jesus actually taught. There is zero explicitly stated in the generally accepted record and what may be tangentially related is icky by just about any standard today: The words used in the earliest records in describing the Centurion's Slave are pais in Matthew and entimos doulos in Luke. These weren't words just for a "valuable" slave — they referred to a specific type of slave. Slaves in these classifications were quite often adolescent boys who would satisfy the soldier's sexual needs. So, Jesus didn't condemn a couple who were probably in a homosexual relationship but rather blessed them and healed them. And not just a homosexual relationship of equals but something that we today would probably classify as pedophilia (the really icky part).
So, yes, the bible says a lot of things.
Actually, there are some Christians who take the tattoo thing seriously. Though, again, that comes across as picking and choosing. (Heck, I pick and choose, too, though I try to do so from a somewhat coherent framework.)
we all fall short but for Grace.
I heard the “brain stone” phrase used by the panelists on Says You! and immediately adopted it. I hope it becomes widespread. Please pass it on (see what I did there?).