Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kane@buast7.bu.edu (Brian Kane) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: I AM DISGUSTED! Message-ID: Date: 8 May 91 07:50:28 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Boston University Lines: 54 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article irani@brahms.udel.edu (Jennifer Irani) writes: > > There has been a lot of talk recently in the media about the >Presbyterian Church (USA) and their possible new acceptance of a very >liberal stand on sex. If passed, the church will not have qualms >about Christians having homosexual relations, sex outside of marriage, >premarital sex, etc. This is a disgusting fact!! > What does the Bible have to say about this? Well, the Presb (USA) >church seems to think it is outdated for they are willing to forget the >many passages that speak of homosexuality, premarital sex, etc as a SIN! >The Bible has not been revised and it does not need to be. The church in In reference to this post and the recent posting about God's "Bad Laws" may I point out that certain notorious passages in the Old Testament refer to concubinage, bigamy, incest, and slavery as natural in the eyes of God (in that he does nothing or says nothing to stop these practices). Yet our modern culture completely rejects them. We have consciously or unconsciously revised standard biblical practices already. If the entirety of the Bible is God's Word, why have we given ourselves this privilege? Even more notoriously, why does our modern society reject the Biblical "Mark of Cain" argument for segregrating and debasing African Americans and other black-skinned peoples? Must we necessarily follow all of Scripture? Did God give Moses and others good and bad laws, leaving us to figure out which was which?... ...which brings me to my main point...how do we know that the laws against homosexuality aren't "Bad Laws"? Oh, and yes, one other VERY SIGNIFICANT way that the Bible has already been altered is the obliteration of any reference to homosexual marriages which were once legally sanctioned in the Roman Catholic Church, until the Inquisitions. There is an upcoming book to be published dealing with just this subject, by Prof. John Boswell of Yale. Look for it in the fall (according to Dr. Boswell). He will surprise you by documenting cases of gay marriages that occurred as recently as 1940 in Albania. Even now liturgy exists for the Mechites, a Christian sect in the Middle East. To my knowledge, they don't conduct gay marriages anymore due to Moslem influences/threats. So, if gay marriage rites and rights were once officially sanctioned by several Christian denominations, what happened? Why can't homosexual relations be holy as long as the persons are married, the same law which puports to apply to everyone else? Has a grave injustice ALREADY been done? [I don't recognize you as having contributed to this discussion before, so you may be a new contributor. Several people have referred to Boswell's claims of homosexual marriage ceremonies, but so far no one has been able to supply enough information to allow anyone to evaluate the claim. People are beginning to get annoyed by postings of that sort. Perhaps we could have a moratorium on citations until the book actually appears, or someone who knows what is going to be in it tells us in some detail. --clh]