Have you ever noticed that some of the most vociferous opponents of homosexuality are men who either personally engage in sexual behaviors condemned in the Bible or are supportive of other men who do so?
For the sake of argument, let's assume that the Bible clearly condemns all same sex behavior in the following passages:
Genesis 19:1-5, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17, Romans 1:18-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 1 Timothy 1:9-10 and Jude 1:6-7
However, the same folks who interpret these passages in this way often ignore Biblical passages which explicitly condemn divorce and infidelity. Consider the following passages:
Genesis 2:24, Exodus 14:14, Exodus 20:14, Proverbs 6:32, Matthew 5:27-32, Matthew 19:3-9, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18, Luke 18:20, Romans 7:2, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, 1 Timothy 3:2 and Hebrews 13:4
How many of the Christian ministers and lay members who condemn homosexuality have committed adultery, divorced or been married multiple times?
How many Christian ministers and lay members support Donald Trump (a man who has sexually assaulted women, committed adultery and been married three times) as President of the United States?
Hmmm, Don't we refer to this as cherry picking?
For the sake of argument, let's assume that the Bible clearly condemns all same sex behavior in the following passages:
Genesis 19:1-5, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17, Romans 1:18-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 1 Timothy 1:9-10 and Jude 1:6-7
However, the same folks who interpret these passages in this way often ignore Biblical passages which explicitly condemn divorce and infidelity. Consider the following passages:
Genesis 2:24, Exodus 14:14, Exodus 20:14, Proverbs 6:32, Matthew 5:27-32, Matthew 19:3-9, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18, Luke 18:20, Romans 7:2, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, 1 Timothy 3:2 and Hebrews 13:4
How many of the Christian ministers and lay members who condemn homosexuality have committed adultery, divorced or been married multiple times?
How many Christian ministers and lay members support Donald Trump (a man who has sexually assaulted women, committed adultery and been married three times) as President of the United States?
Hmmm, Don't we refer to this as cherry picking?
Human sexuality is very complex in ways probably not completely understood at the time of the writing of the Bible. The writer of Song of Solomon seems to have had some understanding of fetishes. Loosely defined, fetishes are the things that people think of, other than the person they are with in bed, that "get them off". And, there are any number of these things, because the human mind is very fertile and imaginative. The more common of these are well known, and affect significant percentages of the general population. Therefore, it somehow comes off as being very disingenuous for, let's say, a fundamentalist preacher with a foot fetish (or any other fetish for that matter) to be isolating and preaching against the guys in his congregation who have a penis fetish.
ReplyDeleteI'm not attempting to explain, reduce and categorize all human sexual activity simply based on the concept of fetishes, but if honesty in sexual relationships is the ultimate criteria, there are a whole bunch of proficient participants in sexual activity who have a lot of 'splainin' to do about what really got them off. I suspect that there are a lot of glass houses out there.
BB
Yes, I'm confident there are a lot of glass houses, and I don't want to be one of those throwing stones. It still dumbfounds me that so many folks are intent on pointing out what they see as the sins of other folks (didn't Christ say that we were supposed to focus on correcting our own sins?).
DeleteI also agree with you that this is a very complex issue, and that we still don't have all of the answers. I am advocating for more thought and consideration of this issue by the folks who think that all of this was settled long ago.
This post will be successful if it causes one person to begin to see the inconsistencies between what they practice and preach. If they can see themselves in this issue (human sexuality), perhaps their hearts will melt just a little (and they will be able to empathize with other members of their kind).
As always, I appreciate your stopping by, and the comments you offer here and elsewhere.