Sexophobia

 
Dear Readers,


The second to the last comment on my post on Steve Wells' blog Dwindling In Unbelief, concerning the "pray the gay away" issue is something that I think should be seen.


Charlotte P said...
I feel like many of you are missing the point here. This is not serious. This is not about whether it is right or wrong to be homosexual. This is not even about how homosexuality is portrayed in the bible. Rather, this appears to be a commentary on how the bible can be used to support any opinion, depending on your interpretation. Of course this isn't how the bible was meant to be interpreted, but what it seems to be trying to say is that everyone will interpret things differently, and using bible verses to back up your arguments is extremely flimsy. Although that's just my interpretation of something that clearly can also be interpreted many different ways.






I agree with Charlotte that Steve's humorous commentary on the subject may not be how the bible is "meant" to be interpreted. People have all sorts of different opinions on how the Bible is "meant" to be "interpreted". For a religious text that is supposedly the "Word" of God (Yahweh), the 40,000 different Christian institutions sure cannot make up their minds about how to read any of it's passages, if you ask me. I agree that using the Bible to back up arguments is extremely flimsy. The way homosexuality is portrayed in the Bible is simply wrong, that is what I would tell Charlotte. Ur doesn't matter how the Bible views homosexuality, well it sort of does due the way that homophobic religious people view and treat the LGBT community, what the Bible portrays about homosexuality and sexuality in general is simply wrong and misguided information that the authors don't seem to really understand all that well to begin with. Whether it is right or "wrong" to be a homosexual is another issue. Personally, it is not "wrong to be a homosexual, if you happen to be gay in my eyes. Why do people care so freaking much if someone is gay? How is it hurting you or keeping you from living your life the way that you want? I am a heterosexual monogamous, married woman and I am supportive of LGBT rights, including the civil right for same-sex couples to legally marry as well as the right for same-sex couples to adopt children and raise a family. I also support the right for LGBT people to be openly be who they are. I think I am mature enough to discuss issues pertaining to romance and sex. I mention LGBT issues so much, because of how religion treats and views LGBT people. That's why I mention LGBTQI issues a lot.












I remember saving comments from a website when researching religious aspects of Judaism and homosexuality where two straight guys who were very homophobic were saying how mad they were they LGBT people were exposing that idea to children that gay people have sex and they sort of implied, rather ambiguously and confusingly that gay people were "encouraging" kids to have same-gendered sex. They also said that it is "bad enough" that teenagers are having sex without being legally married. Hello, what planet do you live on, Kolob? Teens have been having sex with each other, since the beginning of time. I think you should wait until you are an adult before you have sex. You don't have to be married to have sex. Please, name what law in there in America which reads that a that a person has to be married before having sex Do you honestly believe that unmarried couples are going to stop having sex with each other? I don't. I'm not going to go around a tell consenting adult couples whether married, unmarried, straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, monogamous or polyamorous about what they can or cannot do to each other sexually in the bedroom. What is with all this fear and hatred surrounding sex.  Despite my past involvement with some very fundamentalist religious groups that I ended up disagreeing with, sexual expression and sexuality are things that I felt should be a private issue between consenting adults, but they openly discussing sexual issues in a healthy and productive way is necessary. Better sex-education is extremely crucial, in a world where so many teen girls bring unwanted children into being.






We don't force women to marry their rapists as the Book of Deuteronomy in the Torah commands, do we? We don't let men kill off entire cities while taking the virgin girls for themselves, right? Well, maybe there are exceptions, such as in Lot's case and the Levite in the Book of Judges where he gives up his concubine to be raped by the men of  that once city that I forget the name of all the time. Homosexual sex isn't detestable when done between consenting adults, but forced sex and rape is. Lot offered his two virgin daughters who were engaged to the men of Sodom because he didn't want them to rape his angelic house guests. After the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah and the cities of the plains are destroyed. Lot and his two daughters are the only survivors, the girls then get their dad drunk and have procreational sex with him. Gross. Lot's wife had been turned into a pillar of salt for merely looking back at the destruction taking place around them. That's all she did. I feel sorry for Lot's wife . I always did. She didn't seem like such a bad person. I mean the angels did try to lead her out of the city, so she couldn't have been that bad or else wouldn't Yahweh have told them to leave her to die?




King David killed a man just so he could mess around with his wife. How nice? This is the man who was close with Jonathan who basically said that his love for him meant more to him than any love that he had been shown by a woman. That sounds pretty gay to me. Especially, when the two men throw each other on the ground and start kissing each other after King Saul makes numerous attempts to destroy David who is destined for something greater than what he was born with. I mean straight guys rarely throw themselves on other men and start kissing them, unless their favorite team won the Super Bowl or something. In fact, speaking of David becoming the King of all Israel, it is said in Judaism that the Messiah will be descended from the royal House of David, but the two genealogies that we have for Jesus directly contradict each other. Anyways, David's great-grandmother was Ruth the Moabite. I've always loved the story of Ruth, though I never viewed it literally, even when I did believe in a god and belonged to an organized religious community. I still love the Book of Ruth even as an atheist. It's one of my favorite Bible stories.  Salt Lake City, forget having the Book of Mormon as the #1 inspirational read ( I am an ex-Orthodox Mormon, the Book of Mormon has a lot of racism in it, but there are some good parts but you have to really dig through the text to find them). The Book of Ruth should be at the number #1 spot.










Being a Jewish atheist by choice because I feel a strong connection with the Jewish people. It hurts me to see how homophobic many Jews can be. We should know better. Jews have been persecuted for over 5,000 years. We have been called Christ-killers by Christians for over 2,000 years. I know Israel isn't a perfect place, I have never been there, but I'm sure that it is an valuable place to learn about the history of the Hebrew people. I consider the Jews to be my people. I consider myself to be one of them. I've always had a strong sense of connection to the Jewish people and admired how diverse they were. Unfortunately, many Jews want to segregate from themselves from the Gentile world.  Particularly Orthodox Jews and I have a problem with that. Our secular laws which are meant to protect everyone, they are not built on the Book of Leviticus and for very good reasons.




We need to do better as a specie when it comes to our views and discussions about sex and sexuality, particularly homosexuality and non-heterosexual relationships between consenting adults.




Sincerely,


B.W.