> I only mention this sordid little incident because of the trend among > religious zealots in the country to push for constitutional prohibitions > on sodomy and gay marriage on the grounds that these actions are morally > and religiously repulsive, and that legislators should enshrine these > religious beliefs in American law and the American Constitution. > Homosexuality, we are told, was clearly identified as an abomination in > Leviticus. Well, so is a ham and cheese sandwich. For what it's worth, > Leviticus tells us that anybody who tucks into an Easter ham in April, as > a practical matter, is no better and no worse than a sodomite. There's > something to chew on. > > Of course, no one would accept that basic proposition as true. And there > are just as many scholars who would tell you that the prohibitions in > Leviticus against certain acts and certain conduct only apply to Jewish > people, and that there is something more than vaguely hypocritical about > anti-gay crusaders picking and choosing in Leviticus for their > scriptural-based obsessions. Some would say that there is no difference > between an attempt in England to ban kosher meat and an attempt in > America to define marriage according to scripture. >
EVERYONE selectively quotes the Bible to support what they've already decided to believe. Even the most fundamentalist of Christian fundamentalists, the ones who insist that every word in the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Even they interpret. But they say that ONLY they can interpret, and no one else can. And that they can impose their interpretations on everyone else. The Bible says hardly anything about homosexuality: a handful of sentences. (And some Jewish scholars think that was more out of revulsion at pagan rituals in which homosexuality occurred than against ordinary daily life. The Torah is positively paranoid about the Israelites being tempted by idolatry and paganism and their neighbors' religious rites.) I'm reminded of a scene in "The West Wing" in which President Bartlet thunderously queries an extreme right-wing commentator about all the other laws in Leviticus that she DOESN'T espouse along with her supposedly Biblically-based condemnation of homosexuality. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org "I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last." - Dr Jerry Pournelle _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
