God and Gay Marriage, part 2
Thu, Nov 12, 2009 in Bloggers by Monica
9 Comments
Monica Bio|Posts
So, as I said in an earlier post, I don’t think the topic of God and homosexuality is as open-and-shut as a lot of our opponents claim it to be. On a really basic level, how the heck could anyone know what God thinks? Why not just give us all the same rights and let God figure it out in the end? But I’m getting off-topic. A lot of arguments are made that are Bible-based, and I’d like to address some of those here.
First of all, the Bible only talks about homosexual relations in terms of sex outside of a marriage or committed relationship…which it always says is wrong. The Bible never speaks (explicitly, anyway) about sex between a loving, committed gay couple. So with that in mind, in my opinion, that the broad argument of “the Bible says it’s wrong” doesn’t have any validity.
Second, let’s look at the “explicitly” comment I made above. Some biblical scholars say that there are loving, committed relationships in the Bible, and because of thousands of years of translations and mistranslations, among other things, they aren’t explicit. One of the readings I plan to have at our wedding, Ruth 1:16-17, references one of them.
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
This is a pronouncement from Ruth to her mother-in-law, Naomi. In this male-dominated Old Testament society, that’s a pretty big deal. Other examples of possible same-sex relationships are King David and both Jonathan and King Saul and Jesus saving a young man who may or may not have been his centurion owner’s lover. Now, I’m not saying that these are concrete examples of rainbow flags in the Bible. I’m just saying that we don’t know.
A typical argument against homosexuality is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m going to hazard a guess that most people who use that argument haven’t actually ever read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. There’s a whole lot of other stuff going on in that story, not the least of which is the “good guy” of the story, Lot, offering his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom. Yep, the Sodomites wanted to see the two strangers that Lot was harboring, and he says if they leave these two strangers alone, they can have his two daughters. Nice. Anyway, some biblical scholars say that this story is actually about the Sodomites being unfriendly and inhospitable to two strangers, not them wanting to get Biblical with them. Don’t believe me? Read it yourself and draw your own conclusions – Genesis 19:1-11.
Finally, let’s talk about Jesus. Jesus was all about love. Loving everyone, in fact, no matter who you were. He was known to frequent the company of tax collectors and prostitutes, the dregs of his society. He didn’t care. In addition to loving God, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s it. No hate. No fear. Just love.
I personally think the Bible has a lot of wonderful things to say about how a person should (and shouldn’t) live his or her life, but unfortunately, the message in some cases became polluted along the way. And don’t get me wrong – I’m no expert. This is what I believe to be true for me.
If you’ve made it this far and want to know more, I highly recommend Daniel A. Helminiak’s book “What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality.”
Also, So You’re EnGAYged wants to recommend “The Good Book” by Peter Gomes.
Tags: bible, Gay Marriage, god
my dad always says you cant put a limit on god, thats what makes him god. it annoys me so much when people use christianity to not behave in a christian way. and they cant even see it.
When people bring up the fact that they’re sure God and the Bible are against homosexuality, I like to bring up the protestations of Christian pastors in the 18th and 19th centuries that swore that slavery was not only OK, but something that good white people should do, and backed it up with bible verses. In Hispaniola, you couldn’t be a slave if you were a Christian, so it was illegal to teach slaves about Christianity.
You might also ask them (since, if I remember correctly, most of the passages people quote are from the Old Testament), if they also do the following:
Don’t wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19)
Don’t cut your hair nor shave. (Leviticus 19:27)
Any person who curseth his mother or father, must be killed. (Leviticus 20:9)
If a man or woman has sex with an animal, both human and animal must be killed. (Leviticus 20:15-16).
If a man has sex with a woman on her period, they are both to be “cut off from their people” (Leviticus 20:18)
Psychics, wizards, and so on are to be stoned to death. (Leviticus 20:27)
People who have flat noses, or is blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18)
Anyone who curses or blasphemes God, should be stoned to death by the community. (Leviticus 24:14-16)
dave, you forgot my favorite-
eating shrimp is an abomination (Leviticus 11:9-12)
You’re a great person, Monica Yeater. Janice and I both think so. And you deserve a better DJ. Good day.
But please keep us anyway. PLEASE!
Beth — that’s why your dad and I have always gotten along so well…
Dave — you can tell we’re related.
Jason — we’d never think of getting another DJ!
i applaud your use of reason and your skill backing up your points. =) and it was nice to hear something about love on the topic of homosexuality and GOD when so much out there is about the hate. *shakes head* good job, girl!
The Bible can be used to support or refute any number of social issues. It can be used to justify rape, murder, slavery, oppression of women, oppression of children, etc.
It also contains a fair amount of adultery and scandal.
Personally, my favorite book is Ecclesiastes: “…For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…” As the social and political tide changes, it is becoming more and more our “time,” our “season,” as gay and lesbian people.
I had previously read that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah could have been God’s rebuke for people being inhospitable. It was very important that people take care of travellers at that point in history because they (the travellers) couldn’t just whip out their credit cards and order room service.
So when I started (slowly) reading the Bible, I was struck that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is preceded by Genesis 18 which is about showing hospitality to EVERYONE.
I’m sure there’s a decent point somewhere amongst that babble.