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Obama and Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride month
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small, suspiciously flamboyant birds, doing what comes naturally - photo by Kate Perez
On June 1st, President Obama issued a proclamation naming June, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. You can see the proclamation here:
Since the proclamation, various religions are stirring up their members with the usual talk about how biblical scripture clearly views homosexual behavior as a sin.
Almost every anti-proclamation article online quotes the same person, the Southern Baptist national strategist for gender issues, Bob Stith, who said, 'This issue for most evangelical Christians is not bias or prejudice. It is simply maintaining the freedom to speak the truth about Scripture. It is one thing to be loving and tolerant. It is something else altogether to encourage pride in what God clearly says is sin.'
I think that most of us, who have actually read the bible, realize that it condemns and recommends all kinds of things that make no sense in the modern world. I could look up some examples of this myself, but many others have also made the same point, so I will quote one of the best and most concise lists of other Biblical 'rules' about behavior that none of us would want enforced. This list is from MyOutSpirit.com, and you can see the original here:
* DEUTERONOMY 22:13-21
If it is discovered that a bride is not a virgin, the Bible demands that she be executed by stoning immediately.
* DEUTERONOMY 22:22
If a married person has sex with someone else's husband or wife, the Bible commands that both adulterers be stoned to death.
* MARK 10:1-12
Divorce is strictly forbidden in both Testaments, as is remarriage of anyone who has been divorced.
* LEVITICUS 18:19
The Bible forbids a married couple from having sexual intercourse during a woman's period. If they disobey, both shall be executed.
* MARK 12:18-27
If a man dies childless, his widow is ordered by biblical law to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bears her deceased husband a male heir.
* DEUTERONOMY 25:11-12
If a man gets into a fight with another man and his wife seeks to rescue her husband by grabbing the enemy's genitals, her hand shall be cut off and no pity shall be shown her.'
So much for the idea that we should allow scripture to dictate our behavior. And, the above list doesn't even mention the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, so often quoted as biblical proof that God hates homosexual behavior. Religious conservatives claim that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because the inhabitants wanted to have sex with Lot's house guests who just happened to be angels. Lot, the hero of the story, offers both of his virginal daughters to the mob to be raped in place of the angels. He feeds the angels and gvies them a place to sleep. (Do angels eat and sleep?) Later Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for the grave sin of curiosity, and Lot has sex with both of his daughters in a cave. It was their fault, of course, his daughters got him drunk and seduced him. One can only assume that the people who continue to quote that particular biblical story as proof of anything have not really read it for themselves. If you want to read this for yourself, you can start with Genesis 19.
Other religious leaders claim that we must hate homosexuality because it is unnatural. Writing in 'The Catholic Online', Deacon Keith Fournier says, 'The reason that marriage and the family founded upon it has become the foundation of civil societies across ethnic, geographical, religious and racial communities is because it is an institution revealed by the Natural Law. It is not some social construct which can be discarded, redefined or ever replaced.' You can find that article here:
www.catholic.org/politics/story.php
Marriage is 'not a social construct?' How wrong can you be? If we use other mammals as a guide as to what's 'natural', isn't there usually one alpha male in each herd that mates with most of the available females, while the other males are run off? This was also the situation with powerful, Old Testament figures such as Abraham and King David, who had multiple wives and concubines. God did not destroy any cities to show his displeasure about their sexual behavior, because it is all too natural for powerful men to want to procreate with more than one woman at a time. Nature intends for us to want to spread our own genetic material as widely as possible. That's what's natural! I'm not saying that I'm not happy that my husband has no other wives, I might even agree to have him stoned to death if he ever cheats on me. I'm just saying that, over time, we have changed our minds about what is a normal and good relationship. Change for the better is a good thing.
Jesus had nothing whatsoever to say about homosexuality, but he had quite a bit to say about peace and social justice. He was also, supposedly, unmarried and spent almost all of his time with his 12 male followers. He couldn't be too much further away from an example of a stable, married man. So, where does this obsession with wanting everyone to agree that only marriage between a man and a woman is natural? It's not from Jesus' teachings. It's not from our natural world. It's from a desire to judge and condemn those who are different from us and a fear that they will force us to tolerate behavior that makes us uncomfortable. This prejudice is not harmless. It is the cause of terrible suffering, violence and even death and, because of that, I think the only proper word to describe this dangerous, irrational prejudice is sinful.
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