[Vision2020] Christianity and Sexuality Redefined

[Tom Hansen]

>From the "Letters" section of today's (April 11, 2006) UI Argonaut with a
special thanks to Josh Studor -

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Christianity and Sexuality Redefined
Written by Josh Studor -Guest Columnist 
    
Tuesday, 11 April 2006  

I am a gay Christian. I've struggled my entire life to make these seemingly
contradictory identities coalesce into a coherent theological, spiritual and
sociological philosophy. Why is it so difficult to make the two work
together? The answer is simple: The Bible is seemingly very clear and many
Christians are very dogmatic about the subject. 

Take the following excerpts:

"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them must be put
to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their
own heads" (Leviticus 20:13).

"(A mob called up to a man's home saying) 'Bring out the man who came to
your house so we can have sex with him.' The owner of the house went outside
and said to them, 'No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my
guest, don't do this disgraceful thing'" (Judges 19:22-23).

With these passages in mind, how does one square being gay and being
Christian? Many Christians would say it can't be done. Those Christians hold
one of two views on the subject: The Extreme View and The Pick-and-Choose
Views.

The Extreme View would encourage people to take the Bible as a literal
translation of God's word. That being the case, God is serious when he said
that he wants us to kill the faggots. Of course, putting that in play would
take implementing some sort of Christian Taliban. Family members would have
to report their loved ones if, and when, they decide to come out or get
caught.

But the Bible doesn't stop there, so neither could this new Christian order.
The Bible is very clear about other abominations. For instance, "If anyone
curses his father or mother, he must be put to death" (Leviticus 20:19).

Of course, the Extreme View isn't accepted by many people, except probably
the bigots at godhatesfags.com. See, in Acts 10, Peter gets a vision from
God, which basically makes it OK for Gentiles to be Christians and does away
with dietary laws. Christians take this to say that homosexuality is still a
sin and God will punish offenders unless they become saved. 

This is where The Pick-And-Choose View comes into play. Basically, it tones
down the harsh punishments of the Old Testament and ignores the stuff we, as
a society, don't like anymore. For instance, many Christians ignore the 19
times the Bible bans divorce, the 13 times it bans being drunk and the 33
times it bans charging interest but not the 4 times in which the Bible
mentions homosexuality. Interestingly, Jesus never mentions homosexuality
but instead accepts the adulterer, the prostitute and the tax collector and
gives only two basic commandments: First: ".love the Lord your God with all
your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself'" (Matthew 20:37-39).

The Pick-and-Choose View is really just a gentler Biblical bigotry because
the holders of this view grab onto anything that makes modern Christians
feel icky and ignore the sins that are more common. This very lazy
Christianity is more like the way the Aryan Nations use the Bible to "prove"
white people are God's chosen race. 

The alternative is to ask why the Bible says what it says. This idea
recognizes that parts of the Bible, and its law, were useful at the time but
may not be anymore. God may have given the law to the Hebrews as a sort of
divine command style because they were too ignorant to understand why the
law was the way it was. Now, people realize God gave us the power of reason
so that we don't have to take things like the creation and flood myths
literally anymore. Maybe it is also time to ask why Leviticus banned
homosexuality. Maybe it is just because the other societies accepted
homosexuals and the Hebrews needed to set themselves apart. 

That's how I do it. I realized it was impossible to take the Bible literally
all the time and that God loves me regardless of who I am the same way he
loves everyone else.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

" . . . wording plays a big part in understand[ing] the nature and meaning a
verse written two thousand years ago in a different language, and some
Bibles just have it plain wrong."

- Donovan Arnold (August 23, 2005)