Homosexuality, Irony And The Bible
With the coming election of a new president, one of the hot distraction topics is gay marriage, or for that matter, gay anything. American terrorists, aka fundamentalists Christians, are again outraged by “queers in church.” Neither a Christian or a queer, I don’t give a damn, except to continue to be amazed at the rationalization by the Christians to keep homosexuals out of churches, and by extension, destroy them.
Until the Reformation, about 500 years ago, Christianity was, for the most part, under the auspices of Catholic Rome. The Crusades, a 200 year endeavor to annihilate Muslims during the 12th and 13th centuries, was one of the bloodiest periods in history. During this entire time, about 1500 years, mass was given in Latin, because it was thought that common folks could not understand and interpret the word of God. Only priests had the power to do that. I’m not so sure that way of thinking has changed much, even if a sermon is preached in English.
Repudiation of papal authority began with Henry the VIII. Henry authorized The Great Bible, the first English translation of the bible. Even then, it was only read aloud in church; the common folks couldn’t read. And that brings us to The King James version of the Bible, the version I see most often used as the definitive “word of God.”
In the King James version of the Bible, there are several references to homosexuality, most similar to this:
Leviticus 18:6 “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.”
Well, it sure as hell is not something I would do, but not because of King Jimmy’s Bible.
But what has all this to do with the current Christian fundamentalist church, and the use of the King James Bible? James I of England was a blatant homosexual. He not only screwed most of the male court, but even one of his own relatives.
More than a few very intelligent, well-educated professional people, men and women I would call friends, have left their church because of the gay issue. Anytime I observe irrationality used to justify a false premise, it piques my interest. What is so chilling about it is, these are the conservatives who voted for George Bush. And that is where my interest is more than mere curiosity.
Thomas Hardy said, “Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.” And this is why I will never be a Christian as defined by the majority in America today.
