[Vision2020] Bishop Spong on gays

[Ralph Nielsen]

Bishop Spong wrote, June 21, 2006


John Ruddick from North Sydney, Australia, writes:

"Is it possible that Jesus was inferring [implying] that some people  
were born gay in Matthew 19:12? It reads, 'For there are different  
reasons why men cannot marry: some because they are born that way,  
others, because men made them that way and others do not marry for  
the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.'"

Dear John,

It is very difficult for anyone living in 2006 to say what Jesus  
meant in the early years of the first century of this Common Era.

First, to the best of my knowledge, Jesus left no written records and  
there were no tape recorders to record his words for future use. Our  
best estimates are that the earthly life of Jesus was lived between 4  
B.C.E. and 30 C.E. He spoke Aramaic.

Matthew, who is the only gospel writer to record the text you cite,  
wrote between 80 and 90 C.E. or 50 to 60 years after the life of  
Jesus. He wrote in Greek not Aramaic. So, if Jesus actually spoke  
these words that Matthew attributes to him, someone had to remember  
them and pass them on by word of mouth for 50-60 years, translate  
them from Aramaic into Greek and finally to the English words that  
you quote. If that process can be navigated successfully and  
literally, we might begin to answer your question.

The next thing we need to raise is the issue to which Matthew is  
speaking when he had Jesus utter these words. The truth is that some  
people are born gay and others are born straight. Some have powerful  
libidos and some weak. Some are male and some female. Some are born  
with an xxy gene and others with only xx or xy. Some are castrated by  
religious zeal. Some are rendered impotent by sickness and others by  
surgery.

I find those who think that a particular text in the Bible addresses  
a specific issue today are operating out of a very superstitious view  
of the Bible. It is only when the weight of the Bible is employed in  
a particular human arena that I think it can be legitimately used. By  
this shall people know that you are my disciples, that you love one  
another. If you say that you love God and hate your neighbor, you are  
a liar. Love your neighbor as yourself. Welcome the stranger, care  
for the weak, embrace the outcast. Jesus is even made to state his  
purpose in the Fourth Gospel as "I have come that they might have  
life and have it more abundantly." These are some of the biblical  
texts that have cumulative power, that build a consensus and that  
counter the limited, mean-spirited prejudices that we human beings  
have used so often in the name of religion to violate the humanity of  
another child of God.

I know you probably wanted a yes or no answer. Unfortunately, the  
Bible does not lend itself to that kind of response.

-- John Shelby Spong




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