[Vision2020] Homosexuality

[Joan Opyr]

On 3 Nov 2005, at 22:26, Scott Dredge wrote:

> Michael,
>
> I realize that you've posed this question to Keely,
> but since you are airing this out in public, here's my
> take on this issue...
>
> Each person is endowed by their Creator with certain
> unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
> and the pursuit of Happiness.
>
> In general, adults are free to engage in whatever
> consensual activities they want to engage in as long
> as they aren't hurting anyone else.
>
> If you're wondering why I'm not directly answering
> your questions on whether or not homosexuality is a
> sin it's because it's irrelevant to me.  I don't care
> whether or not it's a sin as interpreted by some
> religious zealot pulling arbitrary passages out of -
> God only knows - whatever translated and hacked up
> version of whatever Bible suits his or her hate speech
> of the day condemning homosexuality.
>
> I find it very un-Christian that so-called "followers
> of Christ" so harshly condemn other human beings who
> are harming no one.
>
> Question back to you Michael, in the weakest possible
> way I can ask it...in your opinion, can a person who
> happens to harbor no ill will towards homosexuals, and
> thus does not condemn homosexuality, still be a good
> Christian?
>
> -Scott
>


Why not spread this out even wider?  The seven deadly sins in the 
medieval church were:

Wrath
Avarice
Sloth
Pride
Lust
Envy
Gluttony

This not a hierarchical listing.  The only reason I've placed the seven 
deadlies in this order is because, as an undergraduate, I memorized 
them via the acronym "WASP LEG."

It seems to me that we spend an inordinate amount of time concerning 
ourselves with sexual sin (or what some believe to be sexual sin, i.e., 
homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, non-procreative sex, and etc.) 
at the expense of examining the far more pervasive consequences of 
wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, envy and gluttony.  Why?  Why do we focus 
so exclusively on sex?  Just to stick with the stories of the Bible, 
what were the ill effects of homosexuality in comparison to those of 
wrath or avarice, pride or envy?  What led to the destruction of Sodom 
and Gomorrah?  The better Biblical translators would argue that it was 
inhospitality.  And what was the first sin, the sin that led to the 
fall?  Eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge.  Adam eating the 
fruit Eve offered.  After that?  Cain killing Abel.  When does 
homosexuality -- or, to be more acurate, acts of homosexual behavior -- 
come into the story of the fall?  When are they first condemned in the 
Bible?  Leviticus, I believe, and then only in the context of a 
wide-ranging list of kosher "thou shalt nots."

And yet all discussion about our "sin condition" with fundamentalist 
Christians (or fundamentalist Muslims, or fundamentalist Jews) seems to 
invariably boil down to "where do you stand on homosexuality?"  Again I 
ask why?  Is it because it's easier to fixate on a sinful few rather 
than the sin-filled many?  Who is willing to damn every stockholder in 
America?  Everyone who charges interest on a loan?  Every obese person? 
  Every lay-a-bed, everyone who spends too much on his or her credit 
cards, who feels that they must keep up with the Joneses?  How about 
people with "My child is an honor student" bumper stickers -- is that 
not an expression of sinful pride?  And should we not condemn the 
dog-eat-dog free market forces of capitalism?  The Archbishop of 
Canterbury, William Temple, certainly thought so.  He coined the term 
"the welfare state" and was leading the Anglican Church straight into 
the arms of economic socialism before his untimely death after only two 
years in office.

There's an old joke (I know it's old because I've been telling it for 
at least a decade) that you will never hear a fundamentalist preach a 
sermon on gluttony.  Jerry Falwell has apparently never met Jenny 
Craig.  I'm a lesbian, but relatively fit, while Jerry weighs about 
twice what he ought to.  (I also read somewhere that his wife was two 
or three-months pregnant when they got married -- the old shotgun 
wedding.)  I ask you, whose sin is greater?  Or are they equivalent?  I 
used to weigh a lot, but I went on a diet.  I used to drink a lot, but 
now I'm quite abstemious.  I used to be married to a man I didn't love, 
but I divorced him to marry a woman I do love.  I have been completely 
faithful to her in word and deed for thirteen happy years.  As a Jew, I 
don't believe in the infernal rotisserie, but Jerry tells me that 
that's where I'm headed.  Am I?  I don't think so.  But Jerry wants to 
legislate as if it's a certainty that I am.

So, where is Jerry going when pops his clogs, when he's pushing up the 
daisies, when he is, at long last, an ex-parrot?  I have no idea, but 
I'll bet Jerry (and others) will have a sure and certain answer.  
Please, share.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com