If You're Against Homosexuality Because the Bible Says So, Think Again
Today (or at some point in the very near future), the Supreme Court of the United States may rule on the legality of two laws designed to regulate same-sex marriages: the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and California Proposition 8.
Each legislates homosexual relationships in different manners, but it’s likely that both will be invalidated. If you don’t agree with that reasoning, this post is for you.
Should either law be struck down, there will be some who continue to believe homosexuality is a sin as old as Christianity itself. This is due to the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, as told within the first book of the Bible. Both cities were supposedly rife with going-ons after strange flesh, supposed allusions to acts ranging from bestiality to homosexual sex.
But what if that wasn’t the case, that those twin metropolises were wiped from the face of the earth for a entirely different offense? And that the causes behind Sodom and Gomorrah’s downfall — homosexuality & other deviant acts we continue to persecute to this day — are themselves almost 3000 years older than that instance of Jehovah’s wrath?
So if you’re against homosexuality, and you’ve made it this far, I invite you to check this out:
11th-13th Century English Attitudes Towards Homosexuality
It was my first graduate school paper, and it dealt with tolerance to homosexuality in England during the post-Anglo-Saxon era. When I first stumbled upon the subject, I was shocked to find out these facts and events. And as the national debate regarding gay marriage marches forward, I am as shocked the history of the church’s early tolerance of homosexuality never gets mentioned. At least, by someone besides myself.
So please do me a favor and read what I wrote. And if you have questions, rebuttals, or anything interesting — and supported by facts — to say, please add it to my paper’s comments thread.
Photo credit: Sergius and Bacchus on Wikipedia
