It is very painful for me to hear, over and over again, how Christians in the name of God and the Bible will doom my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to judgement. The Bible-Thumper's assessment is not only archaic and non scientific but will ultimately be judged so by history. In addition, the Bible-Thumpers' ideas are not even based in good biblical interpretation. The purpose of this post is to equip my gay and lesbian friends and their allies to defend themselves from all the Bible-Thumpers who throw the "book" in order to persecute. And, I do hope that after any of my gay and lesbian friends read this post they will never again concede that the Bible and/or God is against them.
They say to you - in the book of Genesis, God judged and destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual activity. Thus, God will judge all homosexuals.
You say to them - have you ever read the actual story in Genesis? It's not about consensual sex between same sex adults at all. Go read it. It is one strange story. The men of the town are trying to rape angelic beings. And to prevent that from happening, Lot offers his young virgin daughters to them instead. Really? And you're gonna use that strange story to condemn gay people?
My commentary - it's from this story the terms "sodomy" and "sodomite" evolved which even make there way into civil laws. I know some of you are really cute and all, but I don't think any of you are cute to the point the you can be called angelic. And, I doubt any of you have offered your virgin daughters up to a man's mob. So it appears to me that this story does not really relate to my gay and lesbian friends at all.
They say to you - in Leviticus it says homosexuality is an abomination.
You say to them - and so is eating shrimp, and eating pork, and touching dead people, even touching a pig, women on their periods that remain in the city limits, rebellious children; we could go on and on. Most Christian theologies teach that these laws have been replaced by Christ's new law of love. And most will use the story of St. Peter's vision of the sheet being lowered from heaven with images of all things "unclean" according to the Levitical Law on it, and God saying to Peter, "get up, kill and eat". This is used by a huge majority of Christians to free themselves from the Levitical Laws except for one exception - gays and lesbians. I'm sorry but that's bullshit.
My commentary - one of my biggest gripes with a lot of Christians is what I call "selective literalism". They can eat shrimp and play football because that is no longer to be taken literal. But you being "gay" and an "abomination" is to be taken literal. MoFos can't have it both ways, just sayin'.
They say to you - St. Paul says that homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
You say to them - St. Paul never said nor wrote such a thing because the term homosexual did not even exists when St. Paul was alive. The word "homosexual" was first placed in the Bible by translators in the last Middle Ages more than a thousand years after St. Paul lived. The Greek word that was used in the epistles, most scholars agree, refers to a heterosexual men that would rape and use young boys for sexual sport.
My commentary - if there are any heterosexual men out there raping young boys and I find out about it, I will report you to the authorities and you will go to jail. You will not pass go, and you will not collect two hundred dollars. Also, I doubt you will inherit the Kingdom of God.
You say to them - that is really all that the Bible has to say about homosexuality. It's a very weak argument. There's mush more written about God's judgement against judgmental bastards with haughty eyes than against gay people. And add to that, Jesus never uttered a word about it.
They say to you - but it's not "natural".
You say to them - that you believe in science - and according to science eight to ten percent of the human population is homosexual and it has always been the case. In addition, homosexuality has been documented in almost fifteen hundred other animal species. So, according to "nature" it is "natural".
My commentary - I will tell you what's not natural: fake blondes, televangelists with no gray hair, and Cheez Whiz. And the most unnatural thing of all is a gay person being forced by religion or society to be with a gender to which they are not attracted.
Love to all my wonderful gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Hold you heads up high, walk with dignity, and remember that you were carefully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139).
