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From: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vince Manis)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Thus saith the Lord -- Who said what? Boswell reposted
Message-ID: <102@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Nov-85 13:18:10 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.102
Posted: Tue Nov 19 13:18:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Nov-85 17:37:49 EST
References: <1613@bbncca.ARPA>
Reply-To: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vince Manis)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science
Lines: 36
Summary: 

I think that an attempt to show the ''real'' meaning of Biblical quotations 
regarding sexuality is worthwhile, particularly for those people with strong
fundamentalist/evangelical beliefs. (My own private theory is that Paul, if
he lived today, would have strong difficulty with gay liberation on a sexual
level, but none at all on a theological level, but, then, I've never talked 
with Paul).

However, as a non-fundamentalist, there is another rebuttal, which I ultimately
find more convincing. If we are to assume that the writers of Leviticus, as
well as Paul, were human beings, then it would be almost blasphemous to assume
infallibility of them. As a result, we can view the Bible as a snapshot of
human perception of divine revelation at a particular time. Even if that 
snapshot contains unflattering portrayals of homosexuality [I differ from
Boswell in that I don't think there were any gays--in our sense--in Biblical,
Classical, or Mediaeval times], that should not be normative to us today,
any more than Levitical injunctions concerning diet or purification. (Next
time you meet a ''cover to cover'' fundamentalist, offer him/her a bowl of
clam chowder and a cotton/polyester garment. If s/he takes them, s/he is 
Levitically unclean.)

As a Jew, I don't feel myself bound by anything Paul might say (though I admire
his writing a great deal). As a non-fundamentalist Jew, I don't feel myself
bound by the Levitical Holiness Code, though there are many parts of Scripture
I take very seriously indeed (I recommend Isaiah 1:17-20 to any Moral Majority
members). Posters such as ''Thus saith the Lord'' say nothing whatsoever about
absolute right/wrong, but only about their own state of mind. (And that's why
I didn't respond to that posting or to any of Ken Arndt's, and why I stopped
reading net.religion, even before utzoo stopped gatewaying it into Canada).

Finally, if there are any flamers out there who want to accuse me of not having
a strong moral code, or of preaching ''situational ethics'' (whatever that is:
the only people I know of who talk about it are fundamentalist preachers), 
please refrain. You don't know what my moral code is, because I've said almost
nothing about it in this posting. All I've said is that I (along with about
75% of North Americans, by various polls) don't consider Biblical authority
absolute on moral questions.