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1. Great article, Andy!! Thanks for sharing- I saved it.

   It's a shame that the bible is held up as law because it certainly wasn't initially written that way. Anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of contract law could easly spot the myriad of ambiguous verbage that has resulted in such wild interpretations over the centuries. Even going back to the original Hebrew or Greek results in ambiguous wording - Such as the original Hebrew text where Paul admonishes the Romans not to "lie with another man in your wife's bed for it is unclean..." ... the bed, or the act? does this include sex? what if we just stood on the bed? can we fuck NEAR the bed?

   That one phrase has been interpreted and retranslated to be the single, most direct arguement against homosexuality, when in fact many scholars believe that he was warning against simply occupying a woman's bed *(as was uncustomary anyway due to mentral reasons). Other arguments that have been translated to admonish anal sex again seem to *(originally) do so for reasons of hygene, rather than morality.

   Studying both biblical and secular history, it becomes rather clear that homosexual sex was commonplace -though there was no word for "a gay man". It was assumed (and even held as normal) that men would have sex with other men but still go on to produce children, regardless of the passion, (be it Eros, Stergo or Philo) he held for his lover. Men rejecting women entirely wasn't really a consideration, though it surely existed. In that sense, the 'lifestyle' was a closeted one and condemened not for morality sake, but for social, financial, and civic reasons. There are many accounts of men falling passionately in LOVE with their lovers (Hadrian, Alexandre being two of the most visible and powerful ones) and reluctantly having to squeeze out a baby with as much excitement as we have when we fill out our W2 forms. This is substantiated by historic complaints by their wives *(more in the case of Hadrian).

   Oddly, the act of lesbian sex is rarely discussed (not just biblically) -most likely due to reasons of social status and the belief that sex was more of a "man's need" than a woman's. Again, it surely existed, however it is logical to assume that it was not overly admonished in the same way that it is not admonished (even by conservative, straight men) today.

   The question; "Did God goof?" has been asked before and the only viable counter that the Christian church has produced is to explain that homosexuality must have arisen after the fall of man and the subsequent expulsion from Eden -and is therefore the Devil's fault (*note: this is the base 'catch-all' argument for most of the world's 'faults' including, but not limited to: mosquitos, earthquakes, childbirth, poor metabolism, war, rape, ingrown toenails, menstration, Bill Clinton, the seven deadly sins any disease except AIDS which is a punishment from God).

   However, it seems to be a moot argument because God's perfect eden fell apart before the world could be populated beyond the number "two". In Eden, prior to the fall, there was one man and one woman... homosexuality was as possible as time-travel at that point... so the real question is: "Did God not plan ahead?"...

   Posted by: M@ | Oct 23, 2004 5:38:52 PM

   
   

2. A great article, must have emailed it to hundreds this morning. First commentary above is icing on the cake...

   Posted by: Jeff | Oct 23, 2004 8:26:46 PM

   
   

3. Hooray, finally some rational thinking. Can't we make Nicholas Kristof the Pope? He's a much better theologian.

   Posted by: Paul | Oct 23, 2004 9:21:30 PM

   
   

4. I have to make a technical correction to my statement. Paul was a Roman citizen, writing to other Roman citizens so the original text in that case was in Latin, not Hebrew. Most of the New Testiment texts are in Greek, Aramaic, or Latin, whereas the Old Testement is almost entirely in Hebrew.

   Posted by: M@ | Oct 23, 2004 9:57:47 PM

   
   

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