A Christian pastor tells his co-religionists pretty much the same shit I’ve been telling them for years—that their faith’s hateful reputation is largely their own fault, that they have to learn to ignore the shit about gay people in the bible just like they ignore the shit about women and slavery and lobster—in this op-ed in Fort-Worth Star Telegram today:
I’ve had it with the bullying that comes from the church’s bully pulpit. Our history of denigrating gays and lesbians has provided the “godly” rationale for centuries of hatred and abuse. It’s a flagrant violation of the Gospel. Moderate Christians—the silent majority—need to stop being silent and speak out.
My own denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA, is considered one of the most liberal mainline denominations. But we have a rule that specifically excludes gays and lesbians from service as clergy or officers of the church. Most liberal churches will ordain divorced and remarried people without a second thought, yet Jesus speaks specifically against divorce and remarriage, e.g., Mark 9—whereas he says not one word about homosexuality. This is hypocrisy….
It is true that throughout the Bible homosexual practice is denounced. But Christians down through the centuries have ignored, moderated or outright disavowed many biblical mandates when we felt they weren’t in keeping with the Gospel. In the Old Testament, holiness rules condemn homosexual practice. They also direct us to stone disrespectful sons, forgo sex during menstruation and not to look at another person naked. We don’t take those rules seriously. Why give rules about gays more credence?
In the New Testament, there are also condemnations of homosexuality. But the resounding New Testament message is that the commandment to love always trumps legalistic barriers that separate people from each other and from God…. It doesn’t help that Christian extremists dominate the airwaves, sidelining more moderate Christian voices. But too often, moderate voices sideline themselves, not wanting to rock the boat. The recent epidemic of bullying-related teen suicides is a wake-up call to us moderate Christians: We can’t wait on the sidelines any longer. We have to speak out.
So… who among you will throw the first stone and accuse this Christian pastor of being anti-Christian?
I’d suggest that he is an anti-christianist rather than an anti-christian.
Religion is nonsense anyway, and it’s pernicious nonsense. No matter what horseshit is in a religion’s scriptures, some will take it quite seriously either in toto or piecemeal. Here’s a good one:
From Judges 19:
15-17 The Levite went and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them in to spend the night. Then, late in the evening, an old man came in from his day’s work in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim and lived temporarily in Gibeah where all the local citizens were Benjaminites. When the old man looked up and saw the traveler in the town square, he said, “Where are you going? And where are you from?”
18-19 The Levite said, “We’re just passing through. We’re coming from Bethlehem on our way to a remote spot in the hills of Ephraim. I come from there. I’ve just made a trip to Bethlehem in Judah and I’m on my way back home, but no one has invited us in for the night. We wouldn’t be any trouble: We have food and straw for the donkeys, and bread and wine for the woman, the young man, and me—we don’t need anything.”
20-21 The old man said, “It’s going to be all right; I’ll take care of you. You aren’t going to spend the night in the town square.” He took them home and fed the donkeys. They washed up and sat down to a good meal.
22 They were relaxed and enjoying themselves when the men of the city, a gang of local hell-raisers all, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They yelled for the owner of the house, the old man, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to have sex with him.”
23-24 He went out and told them, “No, brothers! Don’t be obscene—this man is my guest. Don’t commit this outrage. Look, my virgin daughter and his concubine are here. I’ll bring them out for you. Abuse them if you must, but don’t do anything so senselessly vile to this man.”
25-26 But the men wouldn’t listen to him. Finally, the Levite pushed his concubine out the door to them. They raped her repeatedly all night long. Just before dawn they let her go. The woman came back and fell at the door of the house where her master was sleeping. When the sun rose, there she was.
27 It was morning. Her master got up and opened the door to continue his journey. There she was, his concubine, crumpled in a heap at the door, her hands on the threshold.
28 “Get up,” he said. “Let’s get going.” There was no answer.
29-30 He lifted her onto his donkey and set out for home. When he got home he took a knife and dismembered his concubine—cut her into twelve pieces. He sent her, piece by piece, throughout the country of Israel. And he ordered the men he sent out, “Say to every man in Israel: ‘Has such a thing as this ever happened from the time the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until now?…'”
um wut
[awkward silence]
Amanda Banana with a lesson on how to kill a discussion thread.
In other news, Jesus Christ is the most famous radical political figure in history, teaching that it is not enough to simply give to the poor and the oppressed, but we must be driven by faith to champion their cause and take their struggle up as our own.
I see this needing to be applied still to the poor in our world today, but the LGBTQ community worldwide is certainly oppressed. And their cause is my own.
sooooo….
Is the Bible *for* concubine dismembering or agin it?
Dude should’ve had one of those No Solicitations signs to keep his place free from door-to-door gang rape.