Trey Smith
Using the measures and regulations of one generation or one age to govern the world is like the case of a traveler in a boat who drops his sword in the middle of the river and notches the edge of the boat to mark the spot where the sword fell; then he goes back to the riverbank that evening to look for the sword below the notch on the boat. He is far from knowing what from what.One of my ongoing critiques with so-called Christian morality concerns the issue of homosexuality. Why should people today care about the social mores of tribesman from halfway around the world several centuries ago? While homosexuality may have been an abomination in THEIR society, this doesn't mean we have to treat it the same way in ours.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
In Old Testament times, women were treated as little more than property! They were second class citizens. So, when a man "behaved" like a woman -- male homosexuality -- he was thought to be willingly accepting second class status, something no "true man" would ever want. This is why it was so roundly condemned by the patriarchal society.
We no longer treat women like property. They are not second class citizens. So, with our view of women changed, our view of homosexuality should change as well.
To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.
Life's experience is not bound by the T & C's of human 'shoulds' & until relatively recently (around the 1960's on the timeline) homosexuality was viewed as a "diagnosable" !?! psychological disorder (& in some places a man not wearing his shirt could be arrested) . . . goes to show the importantance of attitudes & awarenesses.
ReplyDeleteMan+woman..baby.man+man...poop on the penis
DeleteAnon,
DeleteNot necessarily so! Man wearing condom + woman...should be no baby. Man + woman on the pill...more than likely, no baby. Sterile man + woman...definitely no baby. Man + infertile woman...definitely no baby. Man + woman's behind...poop on the penis or the condom. Man + woman or Man + Man or Woman + Woman and oral sex...no baby.
PS. Although, everything is 'as it should be' based on the context/'parameters of box' of current human consciousness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you here Trey. These rules were written for stone age tribes and are a product of the needs of the people of that time and their culture. Why should we be bound by the moral edicts of a stone age society?
ReplyDeleteI like the analogy about the sword and the boat, I'll remember that one!
@ Richard-- Stone age? I think that's pushing it a little. Neolithic maybe, but really, if Leviticus follows Exodus, these folks were somewhat beyond stone age. Coming out of Egypt, they certainly were exposed to something way beyond stone age culture. I'm not disagreeing with the basic argument here, but we should get the timeline correct. At the same time Trey says "several centuries ago" which is also a little strange...maybe a couple of millennia?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can think of some stone age cultures (in Polynesia) where homosexuality was not considered abnormal. (Nor was cannibalism or infanticide.)
Certainly we know that when we mix social mores with religion, things get messy. It's all about specific cultural values. Since this is such a contemporary hot potato, one wonders about the cultural values that are being expressed and changed. I think it's time to read Brave New World again.