The Bible and Homosexaulty

[rainbow]

Hi All

 

I saw this in a email i was sent. It took my interest. It was a talk

give by a Prof John Boswell. I be interested in your responce.

 

Rainbow.

 

John Boswell:

The Church and the Homosexual: An Historical Perspective, 1979

 

 

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Excerpts from the keynote address made by Prof. Boswell to the

Fourth Biennial Dignity International Convention in 1979.

 

 

 

"Homosexuality," Plato wrote, "is regarded as shameful by barbarians

and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy

is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the

interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their

subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which

homosexuality is particularly apt to produce." This attitude of

Plato's was characteristic of the ancient world, and I want to begin

my discussion of the attitudes of the Church and of Western

Christianity toward homosexuality by commenting on comparable

attitudes among the ancients.

 

To a very large extent, Western attitudes toward law, religion,

literature and government are dependent upon Roman attitudes. This

makes it particularly striking that our attitudes toward

homosexuality in particular and sexual tolerance in general are so

remarkably different from those of the Romans. It is very difficult

to convey to modern audiences the indifference of the Romans to

questions of gender and gender orientation. The difficulty is due

both to the fact that the evidence has been largely consciously

obliterated by historians prior to very recent decades, and to the

diffusion of the relevant material.

 

Romans did not consider sexuality or sexual preference a matter of

much interest, nor did they treat either in an analytical way. An

historian has to gather together thousands of little bits and pieces

to demonstrate the general acceptance of homosexuality among the

Romans.

 

One of the few imperial writers who does appear to make some sort of

comment on the subject in a general way wrote, "Zeus came as an

eagle to god

[Caliboy]

 

Great article, Rainbow. Thanks for sharing that.

 

As a Christian (Anglican), it seems to me that Christianity doesn't really have any meaning apart from Christ, His actions and His teachings. The Christ who never said a word about same-gender relationships, but said annoying things like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", "love your neighbour as yourself", "do not repay evil for evil, but repay evil with good" "blessed are the peacemakers", "love one another as I have loved you", etc. Odd it is that so much of so-called "Christianity" in our day does such a lousy job of living out these teachings of Christ, while constantly obsessing over stuff Christ never mentioned.

Edited June 5, 2005 by Caliboy

[JamesSavik]

There are some people that argue that homosexuality and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Thankfully, that is changing. Many Christian denominations that are more tolerant and/or accepting of gay people than they used to be.

 

There is a large presence of gay Christians on the web. Here's a few sites that are particulary good.

 

 

http://www.whosoever.org/

 

 

http://www.truthsetsfree.net/

 

 

http://www.gaychristian.net/

 

 

I come from a time and a place where churchs made it clear that they didn't want gay people around.

 

It's a good sign to see this changing.

[Guest zzbb]

I'm both Christian & gay, and I feel of two minds about this. On one hand, I think the persecution of gays (or indeed, of ANY group) by organized religion is obviously wrong...it's just prejudice and hatred hiding behind the mask of religion. On the other hand, I also find that efforts to "explain away" passages like the ones in Leviticus 18 or Romans 1 with translation slight-of-hand stretch beyond my own limits of credulity. And since I'm predisposed to be favorable to gay people (being a gay person myself), if I'm in doubt, how convincing are these explanations going to be to non-gay Christians?

 

My own feeling is that there isn't a resolution to the conflict. I just accept that there is a conflict. Then the question becomes which side to choose. At least for that, the Christian has the explicit admonition that the greatest commandment is to love.

 

My 2c.