From: frhavican@aol.com (Fr Havican)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: GLBT Spirituality: Discussion-Fundamentalism
Date: 20 Jan 1995 17:15:07 -0500

Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to
homosexuality.  Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, I Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46
and II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution, by men and women.

Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and Leviticus 20:10-6) are part of
what biblical scholars call the Holiness Code.  The code explicitly
bans homosexual acts.  But it also prohibits eating raw meat,
planting two different kinds of seed in the same field and wearing
garments with two different kinds of yarn.  Tattoos, adultery
and sexual intercourse during a woman's menstrual period are
similarly outlawed.

There is no mention of homosexuality in the four Gospels of the New
Testament.  The moral teachings of Jesus are not concerned with
the subject.

Three references from St. Paul are frequently cited (Romans 1:26-2:1,
I Corinthians 6:9-11 and I Timothy 1:10).  But St. Paul was
concerned with homosexuality only because in Greco-Roman culture
it represented a secular sensuality that was contrary to his
Jewish-Christian spiritual idealism.  He was against lust and
sensuality in anyone, including heterosexuals.  To say that
homosexuality is bad because homosexuals are tempted to do morally
doubtful things is to say that heterosexuality is bad because
heterosexuals are likewise tempted.  For St. Paul, anyone who puts
his or her interest ahead of God's is condemned, a verdict that falls
equally upon everyone.

And lest we forget Sodom and Gomorrah, recall that the story is not
about sexual perversion and homosexual practice.  It is about
inhospitality, according to Luke 10:10-13, and failure to care for
the poor, according to Ezekiel 16:49-50: "Behold, this was the
iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and
abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did
she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."  To suggest that
Sodom and Gomorrah is about homosexual sex is an analysis of about
as much worth as suggesting that the story of Jonah and the whale
is a treatise on fishing.

The same Bible that the predecessors of Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson
used to keep white churches white is the source of the inspiration
of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the social reformation of
the 1960s.

The same Bible that anti-feminists use to keep women silent in the
churches is the Bible that preaches liberation to captives and
says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, slave nor free.

And the same Bible that on the basis of an archaic social code of
ancient Israel and a tortured reading of Paul is used to condemn
all homosexuals and homosexual behavior includes metaphors of
redemption, renewal, inclusion and love -- principles that invite
homosexuals to accept their freedom and responsibility in Christ
and demands that their fellow Christians accept them as well.

Just a thought...

Rob 

Fr. Robert H. Havican, O.S.F. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             P.O.Box 16181, Austin, TX 78761-6181              
         [Reformed Catholic Priest/Texas Police Officer]   
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