[Vision2020] Homosexuality

[Joan Opyr]

On 7 Nov 2005, at 21:31, Michael wrote (among other things and in 
response to Melynda):

> We may be as wounded in our heterosexuality as we are in our 
> homosexuality, but it is incoherent and unfaithful to Jesus not to 
> accept his own words about the kingdom of Heaven.  He claimed to be 
> God.  He claimed to be the Messiah.  He loved the Old Testament Law of 
> God.  He loved Jerusalem.  He honored his Father in Heaven and saw all 
> goodness springing from Him; He never speculated or went along with 
> the politically correct, easy relativism of his own time or the 
> traditionalism of his elders.  He spoke truth in love, never 
> abrogating or taking issue with the Hebraic Christian understanding of 
> sexual morality.  He rather upheld it. 

I am not a Christian; neither am I a theologian.  I do know one or two 
things about the teachings of Jesus.  The most important thing I know 
about Jesus is that he drew a strong distinction between the permanent 
and the transient in the teachings of Torah.  Jesus summed up the whole 
of Hebrew scripture in two commandments: “Love the Lord God with all 
your might,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Matthew 22.)

I realize that I’m stepping out on a limb here, but it seems to me, 
Michael, that you and the architects/theologians of Christ Church, Doug 
Wilson and Doug Jones, have made a fetish of the Trinity.  In the hands 
of Doug and Doug, Trinitarianism has become something akin to the Ronco 
corporation – it’s a pocket fisherman; it’s a marital aid; it’s federal 
husbandry; it’s the model for all poetry, all song, all laughter and 
all joy.  A joke isn’t funny if it isn’t Trinitarian.  (Try telling 
that to Henny Youngman.)

Doug and Doug – and you, Michael -- are skating perilously close to 
idolatry in the claims you make regarding the Trinity.  This was 
especially evident in the Trinity Fest this summer in the Feast of St. 
Brigid.  Do you know who Brigid was?  Maiden, mother, and crone.  She 
was a Celtic goddess; she made the crops grow, she was called upon to 
aid in childbirth; the Irish still put out bowls of milk on St. 
Brigid’s Day.  Why?  Because Brigid the Goddess had a bit of a nasty 
streak – she needed to be appeased.

Incorporating Brigid into your worship (or your Trinity Fest) is 
syncretic, Michael, but it’s bad Christian theology.  It’s heresy.  As 
long as you Celt-ify your worship with eyes wide open, fine, but I 
don’t think your eyes are wide open.  I believe that you view Doug 
Wilson with your eyes squinted up and your head tilted to one side (the 
right).  You are theologically inconsistent, and, as a Christian, this 
puts you in peril.  Know this; think about this; be clear about this.  
You believe the God I worship is “sexless” and “masturbatory.”  I 
believe the God you worship is a confused mess, an unsavory mixture of 
rank Anglophilia, sophomoric bigotry, and sexist convenience.

Now, if that hasn’t completely turned you off to the rest of what I 
have to say, then here’s a question for you: where does Jesus himself 
condemn homosexuality or homosexual behavior?  I’ve done a search of 
the New Testament (using my handy dandy Oxford concordance) and can 
find references to homosexuality only in Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 
6:9, 10, and 1 Timothy 1:9, 10.  What I find Jesus speaking of is 
unconditional love; in Greek, “agape.”  And, of course, I find Jesus’ 
distillation of the whole of Torah into the two commandments of Matthew 
22.

As a Jew, I can agree with that distillation.  In fact, I believe it’s 
especially insightful and apt.  As Rabbi Hillel wrote, “ What is 
hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.  That is the Torah.  All 
the rest is commentary.”

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

PS: I recognize that I'm well over my two-per-day posting limit, and I 
apologize.  Elections make me nervous -- even when I'm not allowed to 
vote in them.  Especially when I'm not allowed to vote.
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