Homosexuality is Not Sinful, Even According to The Bible
This one goes out to all you fundamentalist Christians out there. Selah! I know you are all incessant readers and line up like dominoes to refute me brilliantly down at the bottom of everything I write (where no eye fears to tread but your own).
Now, I may be too narrow addressing this to just the fundamentalists out there. Many traditional Christians also fit the bill. Anyone, really, who believes that homosexuality is a sin or wrong or that, somehow, God, infinite and eternal creator and sustainer of the very Universe, is ‘against’ a tiny human behavior that harms no one. So, in other words, uneducated and ridiculous people everywhere.
Officially, the majority of Christian churches say that homosexual behavior is a sin, thus proving that the theologians behind those churches don’t understand their own Bible. This includes Catholicism, the largest and richest Christian brand, with about 50% of the world’s Christians spiritually employed in it.
Believe it or not, though, the Catholic Church has what could almost be considered a liberal outlook on homosexuality. According to the Catholic Catechism, which I have right here next to me, all giant and green, being a homosexual is not a sin….unless you act on it. So as long as you’re not a normal person, expressing love, connection, and attraction to another person, you won’t go to hell. To put it more honestly: the Pope says to keep it in your pants.
Generally, Leviticus 18:22 in the Old Testament is cited as proof that homosexuality is wrong: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination. 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.”
Leviticus also says that we are not supposed to let different kinds of cows graze together in the same field, which is a clear but subtle acceptance of bovine homosexuality. It also says that anyone who cheats on their spouse must be put to death. (I wonder how Dr. Laura feels about that?).
There are a whole bunch of goofball laws written down in the Old Testament that everyone ignores. Why is being bigoted toward homosexuals the one people latch onto?
The various Christian brands go through the Old Testament, picking and choosing the parts they consider cool. No one accepts the whole thing. No one. I mean, when was the last time a cheating spouse was actually put to death in keeping with the commandments of the Bible?
Using the Old Testament to determine if something is a sin is simply a matter of human and not godly opinion. It’s meaningless and certainly not ‘the word of God’. His teachings aren’t some basket of fruit for you to pick over. You either have to accept the old law in its entirety and start killing lots and lots of people or reject it in its entirety. Hand-picking the stuff you like is bogus, especially when you only pick the stuff that seems to legitimize your meanness to other people.
So the Old Testament is out.
It doesn’t matter anyway because Christ came and fulfilled it. He completed the Old Testament, so it’s done. He even said so in Matthew: “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.” True, he also said about the old law: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
So what, exactly, is he saying? That it’s cool to ignore the old law because he fulfilled it, or that we are required to keep even the “least” (meaning lesser) commandments in it?
Well, if he fulfilled it, then the point is mute. If it’s the other one, though, then we all suck because even the most devout Christians only keep the parts of the Old Testament that suit them.
Before we all start playing REM’s Losing My Religion, consider this: Denying someone the right to marry is not Christian, and certainly not American.
Mitt Romney, whose true beliefs on any matter depend entirely on whatever group of people he’s trying to sell himself to, has this to say about gay marriage: “I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.”
It’s a mean guy wearing a nice guy’s mask position: It’s ok if you’re gay. It’s totally YOUR thing. Just don’t marry the person you love and we’re cool. The problem with this is that according to virtually all brands of Christianity, sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful. Homosexuality is still ‘wrong’, it still has incorrect and selfish theology dogging it and has been rendered into common fornication.
The people who are opposed to gay marriage, and by extension, gayness itself have no excuse. They are bigots and bigots alone. They can’t use their special book to justify their hate, even according to the special book itself. They have no one to thank but themselves. They take the Lord’s name in vain and feel righteous about it it.
Yes, they take the Lord’s name in vain. Most people believe incorrectly that this commandment is about cussing, but it’s not. It’s about using God for yourself, for your own vain (personal) ends. They hold the Bible in the air and use it like a bitch to bolster their own prejudices and bigotry and hate and that is vanity, all is vanity.
The teachings of Christ are plain enough: love and forgiveness, tolerance and healing, acceptance and rebellion. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing more needed. Add what you will to it, it still won’t be from the Christ. It will come from your own (black?) heart.
Jesus Christ is the origin of the word ‘Christian’. Perhaps we should pray about that a bit more.
Today’s Christians tend to be followers, accepting of the notion that religion is just a box built by someone else into which they must stuff their spirit. They are naive and willingly line up like lemmings where ever told. They have a casual ignorance that tells them the Beast will come in the obvious guise of science or secularism or liberality. They cannot conceive of the Father of Lies actually lying to them.
Sinclair Lewis said that when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying the cross. When the Beast comes to the world, you can bet your sweet ass he will be thumping the Bible and preaching a hate disguised as love.
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