Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ihnp4!cuae2!ltuxa!we53!sw013b!dj3b1!killer!ozdaltx!lonestar From: lonestar@ozdaltx.UUCP (lonestar @ OZ BBS, Dallas,Tx) Newsgroups: soc.motss Subject: Re: New question for biblical scholars Message-ID: <390@ozdaltx.UUCP> Date: Fri, 26-Sep-86 17:16:19 EDT Article-I.D.: ozdaltx.390 Posted: Fri Sep 26 17:16:19 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 30-Sep-86 20:51:42 EDT References: <1575@felix.UUCP> <1576@felix.UUCP> Lines: 136 Summary: The Bible and Homosexuality In Article 3 (Newsgroup soc.motss) last week, Dave inquired: "how can you be both a Christian and gay? Where in the Bible are homosexual acts condemned? How do gay people reconcile that problem? Does the new church founded by/for gays have special Bibles with those references removed?" There is absolutely nothing that precludes a Christian from being a homosexual, or vice versa. A Christian is a believer in the risen Christ: nothing more, nothing less. Some churches like to impose their own qualifications on what constitues a "real" Christian; but these are latter- day additions to or corruptions of Christianity. The Metropolitan Community Church is not a "gay church", but a Christian church with an outreach to the gay community. It came into existence because many gay Christians were excluded from membership or participation in their traditional congregations. It's not surprising that a large percentage of MCC members come from fundamentalist backgrounds; but the MCC serves Catholics and Protestants alike. No, gay Christians do not have special Bibles with references to homosexuality removed. It might be tempting to say, "Why don't we compile a new Bible and just cut-out those bits that we don't like?" Well, where do you quit cutting? Are you going to delete the Resurrection because you find it inconvenient? See the problem? We can't remove bits from the Bible like that because our integrity would be lost. We have to take the Bible as a whole and read it in context, not in bits-and-pieces. The first, and most quoted, reference to homosexuality in the Bible is Leviticus 18:22. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination".... .usually delivered by homophobes of a somewhat theatric bent in ringing tones! Other Biblical references to homosexuality are clearly cases where the writer borrowed from the author of Leviticus. Asking how gay Christians reconcile the problem with this condemnation is rather like asking how straight people deal with the Biblical condemnation of adultery. Which straight people? Which gay people? Not all gay people think alike--anymore than do straight folks. Some worry about it, some don't; some reconcile it this way, some that way; some never reconcile it at all. Most Biblical Literalists perceive an irreconcilable problem in this single verse of scripture. Their view of the Bible is that "God wrote it, every word is true, and it contains no errors." But no thinking person can accept that notion. The Bible is full-up with errors, mainly of four types. The first is Biblical self-contradictions. One example: Noah's flood lasts for 40 days in Genesis 7:17 and for 150 days in Genesis 7:24. Not bad...only eight verses apart, and they can't decide how long it lasted. The second is errors in natural science. The universe was believed to be wrapped in waters that are held back by a solid bell-shaped barrier called the firmament of heaven. Clearly, this is wrong. Third: errors in history. There are so many of those that it's hard to know where to start, but perhaps the best example is the fifth chapter of Daniel, which is just rife with them from start to finish. Finally, there are moral errors. Probably the worst example was the system of "heran". This was the total destruction of an enemy people, considered as enemies of oneself and therefore enemies of God. Their total destruction (men, women, children, and cattle) was understood to be both the will of God and righteous. Another example is God's blessing of slavery (Leviticus). In 1986, we must say that these are moral errors. How do you deal with that? If you insist upon Biblical Literalism and inerrancy, don't you attribute those errors to God himself? Compelled as we are by our integrity to reject the Bible as literal history, and therefore also to reject it as inerrant, we're left with one alternative: interpretation. Interpretists believe that it is the task of every generation to interpret the story of the faith in and for its own time. No word or portion of the holy scripture is binding upon us just as it is written-down, without interpretation. It is not sufficient to just quote the mere words of the text. What is the context of the words? The text must be examined with meticulous care, using all the tools of scholarship available to us in all denominations. It must be checked for accuracy. It must be related to other passages, one passage set against another, to see how these things balance-out; not taken in isolation. It must be examined for its historical setting. What were the time and circumstances in which it was said; not taken on its own, as though it had no place. And then it must be checked against the overall message of the Gospel as we know it. How does what it says measure-up against the doctrine of Love? If it doesn't, it's probably wrong. Then, when you're finished with all that, you can relate it to the present time. What is the context of Leviticus 18:22? The book of Leviticus was written as a guide to the priests of the day: containing instructions for rituals, sacrificial offerings, and maintaining cleanliness. There were over 600 laws that the Hebrews had to obey, 365 couched in the negative! Homosexuality was just one of them. Some other sins and abominations in Leviticus included eating rabbit, pork, or crabmeat; touching a woman during her menstrual period; eating rare meat; and the selling of land. (How eagerly some people use the Bible to beat homosexuals over the head, but dispense with the other laws. Selective enforcement of the law!) The laws condemning homosexual relationships originated in Jewish history upon the return from Babylonian exile. It's significant that both mouth-genital contacts and homosexual activities had previously been associated with the Jewish religious service. But now, in about the 7th century BC, there was an attempt to disidentify themselves with customs which they had previously shared with the Babylonians. Homosexuality and many other condemnations were based upon the fact that the pagan Babylonians do thus-and-such; and therefore we won't. (Ref: The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, p. 797). Through misinterpretation of intent, many Christians have misconstrued the Biblical condemnation of homosexual acts as a matter of morality. Perhaps the most important thing about the Bible and homosexuality is that Jesus, who had so much to say about so many sins, said not one word about it! For many gay Christians today, there simply isn't a problem to be reconciled.