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Here you will find a record of all things fiction and the thoughts generated through clear lenses. All posts older than 12/16/2013 are works of thirst-quenching fiction you should explore freely, while everything onwards becomes what has struck the bell in my brain and turned into words. Enjoy!

Friday, September 4, 2015

ESSAY EDITORIAL: Against Homosexual Marriage Because of the Bible? Most Likely the Bible is Already Against You

In whichever (edited version) of the bible you choose to read, you may come across chapters in Leviticus, backed by passages in Roman as updated in the new testament, that say homosexual relations are an abomination:

Leviticus 18:22
"'Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable"
Leviticus 20:13
"'If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

And, if you take the word of the bible as literal and choose this as your own view, you can have that as a belief. So unconfessed sins of homosexual relations condemn those who practice them.
What I do not believe you can do, however, is only take *some* verses in the bible as written truths without taking ALL verses in the bible as truth. This means many people have unconfessed sins, and just about 98% of the world is going to hell unless they confess, and those seem like some huge sinful numbers over issues that might not be seen as so important, even by Christians who read the bible today. I think homosexuality is one such position that has changed in modern times, along with a few other examples I'll introduce.
The bible was a book written 2,000 years ago to give a base reference for the Catholic/Christian religions gaining popularity at the time, and reflects values and belief of that time, some 2,000 years ago.
So, if you choose to believe the word of good as written in terms of same-sex relations, you cannot choose then to ignore other verses in the bible, and must believe them in inherent truths as well, right? And we must specifically confess for sins made, lest they hang about our souls as weights that keep us from heaven? In modern society, we could spend a whole afternoon confessing and most likely still be missing a few, as they are written.
And we must, if we take those passages from Leviticus condemning homosexuality as true, take every verse of the bible as equally true. Otherwise, that means you could just choose what parts to believe and what parts to deny. That doesn't seem correct or fair, to interpret and modernize some, while still holding the text of others as infallible.
Therefore...

No more seafood, as the same chapter also declares this "an abomination",
Leviticus 9:10, "All that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you."

Slavery is okay, and people are possession to be bought, sold, inherited, as long as they are not your Israelian relatives. Again, also found within Leviticus.
Leviticus 25:44-46, "You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way."
Ephesians 6:5 "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ."
Also in Exodus, 21:7 there is reference to slavery being just fine.

Death by stoning for not listening to your parents by the council of elders is permitted (are you seeing where some of these ideas held at the time are not as acceptable now?)
Deuteronomy 21:18-21, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die."
Deuteronomy 22: 20-21, "But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you."
Exodus 35:2, if you have a busy week and work all the days in that week, you will be put to death, "For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death."

Refusal to accept anyone with handicaps or disability into chuch (I trust you let blind people into church now if they asked admittance, right, without praying for forgiveness for doing so?)
Leviticus 21:17-23 "Whosoever … hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken … He shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries."

No playing football, they are all sinners.
Leviticus 11:8, "You must not eat their [pig] meat or touch their carcasses [that's the football]; they are unclean for you."

No women in positions of power, (you do believe in equality for men and women now, don't you? But not for homosexuals, based on the same scripture that says not even women deserve respect)
Timothy 2:11 "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent."
In the King James version, being the most commonly read, they have *changed the passage to reflect the change in times* though it is still dicriminatory, to "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection."

If you disobey god, you will eat your babies, (Are you hopefully seeing some things in the bible cannot be taken so literally?)
Leviticus 26:27-30, "If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters."

And last, again from Leviticus, we must extend love to all, (strange to find this passage in so much hate)
Leviticus 19: 17-18, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke [reason with] thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord."

I can assume your position is that YOU can love them, but god will judge them. In this case, hardly anyone is getting into heaven, and you'll have millions of good people breaking ancient rules of the bible not being let through the gates of heaven, punished for rules most don't follow because it is 2,000 years later, and we know eating seafood is not an abomination, along with many other observed changes from growing together as a people that will however go unconfessed, and stain our eternal souls.

Unfortunately, I don't think any of this will change your positions. This is part of my issue with religion, the world and the people in it are changing ideas and finding ways of incorporating other beliefs from other societies that religious texts can't take account for. Therefore, you can't rely on only a religious text to purport beliefs, otherwise we'd have no sin for owning slaves but have sin for playing football with the family. At some point--and it took far too long--we realized slavery is unjust and immoral, and touching leather doesn't make one unclean. Don't you think so? Or do you still agree with the bible? Changes of beliefs progressed our societies and expanded our capacity for love--something god should have wanted, as his base message has been one of love. As with slavery and other positions now immoral or not relevant in current times, a person's sexuality should not be considered an abomination, and instead we should find a new capacity for love. And no, there is no slippery slope into bestiality, as that practice was around before god was here and is still happening now, but no one is coming forward to claim tax benefits and the right to marriage with their sheep, and there would be no point in doing so--nor would it affect the lives of anyone if someone did go around saying "I married my sheep" because he would be judged in current times as being crazy. I, however, don't think two humans loving each other is crazy. It infringes on the dignity of *people* to dictate from an outdated religious text what rights can be granted to them by the state. God didn't create marriage, marriage existed well before Jesus and the bible became well known, the bible just gave it certain rules. American government is founded on ideals of freedom, including freedom religion. Making people conform to a chosen religion is to take away that freedom, because it is forcing the religious ideals of one community to another that does not wish to have that set of beliefs. And the state protects the right of those people outside of religious qualms. If a person wants to disagree with their choices as an individual, that is another conversation--they are entitled to their opinion and belief. The summary of my points is there is no right to discriminate against the LGBTQ community through the state, nor is their legitimate ground to discriminate via religion, or that person would need to take all parts of the bible as written truths, being unable to choose which parts of holy scriptures they choose to believe and not believe.

You can disagree with this, that's fine. I'm just hoping you can at least see this way of thinking from a less biased perspective and respect the choices of other people, extending a godly love, and not damn them to an abomination based solely on scripture.

I ask that you look into your heart, your idea of love, look past the scriptures, and find a place for those with ideas differing from your own. Ask yourself, not the bible, then see how their ideas affect your own and whether it is worth continuing to discriminate against them as less than regular people. Marriage is joining two souls in a unity of love. I wouldn't want to believe hell awaits for finding love in this world.

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