[Vision2020] Melynda, Keely, and Dick

[keely emerinemix]

Melynda beat me to the "children and animals can't consent" punch, and her 
analysis was much better than what I would have written.

Dick, a conservative Christian, might also avail himself of Lewis Smedes' 
work on homosexuality, which he will find compelling.

Dick might also stop writing me off-list to suggest that guilt over some 
issue in my past motivates my "quick to anger" response to his posts.  Dick 
is starting to really piss Keely off.

keely


From: Melynda Huskey <melynda at moscow.com>
To: rvrcowboy <rvrcowboy at clearwire.net>
CC: Vision2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Beastiality and Incest
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 21:57:38 -0700

rvrcowboy wrote:
>I sincerely hope people here do not take this post the wrong way but there 
>is a question that has been troubling me for some time.  As far as I know, 
>and believe me I am no expert here, many of the same cites in the Bible 
>which speak directly about homosexuality also speak directly about 
>beastiality and incest.  I have heard people justify their homosexual acts 
>by stating that these passages of the Bible also ban other things, like 
>eating pork, etc..  Since many here are openly homosexual, or gay if you 
>prefer, I would like very much to know your views on beastiality and 
>incest.  Do you believe these are also a matter of choice that the Bible 
>does not take seriously?
Dear Dick,

Levitus 18 has one such string of prohibitions, starting with all the 
forbidden degrees of incest, and then moving on to  no sex with a 
menstruating woman, with a kinsman's wife, no infant sacrifices to Moloch, 
no man-with-man sex, no bestiality (and for the first time, we see a mention 
of women as sexually active--women are forbidden to have sex with animals, 
too).  In Leviticus 12:24, we're told why.  "Do not defile yourself in any 
of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out have 
defiled themselves."  These are ritual prohibitions, having to do with the 
religious practices of the surrounding nations, the Baal and Ashtoreth and 
Moloch worshippers of the region.  The Jews are being called to keep 
themselves entirely separate from their neighbors, to practice a specific 
and well-regulated kind of animal sacrifice, to eat in a way unlike the 
people around them, and to completely dissociate themselves from their 
Gentile neighbors.

None of the gay people I've known practiced or were proponents of incest or 
bestiality, whether they were Christian or not.   For myself, as a Christian 
and as a lesbian, I find both practices repugnant.  Neither children nor 
animals can consent to sex; they ought never to be exploited for the 
satisfaction of more powerful people.  "Then he took a little child and put 
it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes 
one such child in my name welcomes me . . ." (Mark 9:36-37)

I believe when gay people object to having certain passages of Scripture 
used as weapons against them, it is most often because the people who are 
doing so don't themselves abide by every Levitical or Deteronomical 
injunction.  If you wear blended fibers, or plant mixed crops, or eat 
shellfish, I am less likely to take seriously your demand that I stop being 
gay because the Bible says not to.

Melynda Huskey

_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the communities 
of the Palouse since 1994.                 http://www.fsr.net                
                 mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/