On why homosexuals are often holier than some other people.

Romans 2:12-24

           Last night I saw the most excellent movie For The Bible Tells Me So for the second time. It was instrumental in helping me understand life as I navigated through coming out seven or so years ago. It was equally informative now and it's richness has not faded in the least.  One of the things that the movie portrays is what I call Bible Thumpers or Literalists (my terms).  They use cherry picked passages to support their condemnation of the gay community as an "a-bomb-nation!". There are several problems with this.

             First, if you are going to be so literal and take people to task over passages you should be sure you pay attention to all the passages, not just the ones you think are the most important. In the famous Dr. Laura letter, are we still allowed to sell our daughters into slavery? Can we wear cotton-poly blends without risk of being stoned to death? Can we own slaves as long as they are from neighboring countries? Who is the arbiter? What is the arbiter?  One excellent choice is the love of God, that is the answer, that is the arbiter. Love. For rule obeyers that might not be adequate enough, they might only like things as black or white. But the fact remains, you can't simply cherry pick passages.  We have no right to say it's all the word of God but we only have to obey these rules because we feel they are more important than the others. 

           Another problem are actual translations and cultural references that they had and we don't or visa versa.  The term homosexuality was not even invented until the 19th century. Even the concept of a loving committed relationship out of love and respect is not a ancient idea, it's a modern one. "Marriage" in Biblical times was a business transaction and was arranged. If there was love it grew from an arrangement that suited the men out of a need ( of money, property or title ). Our idea of marriage, our one true love, our soul mate is more of a modern notion even if there are some notable examples of such in the Bible (although they are 'gay' examples, Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan.)

         As for translations, we all know of the words that are difficult to translate even in our own time. Give me a good definition of Chutzpah in English. It is not easily translated. Try then to translate from one language to another to another across cultural barriers and philosophies.  ( Aramaic > Greek > Latin > English and then a Hebrew view of the world vs. a Greek view of the world ). Translations are not what you would easily be able to swear to. The accuracy of English words is certainly questionable since many of the words and terms would be quite foreign to the ancients. 

         There is one thing that is certain in my mind though. Just as 'those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword' , so too the people of today who chastise, judge and condemn by cherry picking verses will be condemned by their very own hands according to this passage.

         Those of us that may not be Bible thumpers or literalists but yet know love in the heart are already holier than those judgemental fools.

            

           Kudo's to you if you realized that  passage I wrote about yesterday was really the passage meant for Friday. So today, friday, I will comment on the passage I should have written about yesterday. 

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You that boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’