Revisiting the Gay Wars....

I read an article on line (where else?) last night...about a gay man who spoke about his life, his coming out, his families reaction, etc. at a very conservative Christian college.  It was a really interesting article but...dumb me...I did not bookmark it and for the life of me....I cannot find it in my "history" on AOL or Chrome...and I can't get it to come up in a google search.  I hate when that happens! Alas...no link to the article.  Also...recently on the yahoo e-list, Christian Universalism, where I am a (mostly lurking) member, another battle in the gay wars was waged.  No winners...and one (very) conservative member there, stomped off in a huff...supposedly never to return. These two things jogged my memory about this post that was hiding out in the queue. It was written a month or so ago but shuffled to the holding tank (the Someday/Maybe file)  which comes in very handy on a morning like this when I am hung over (figuratively speaking) from staying up too late to watch Gray's Anatomy.   Queued post follows....

On the blog Pomomusings, in a post written about a year ago...

The Bible and Homosexuality, Enough with the Bible Already...

the author suggests that, for those who are steeped in condemning....or defending.....homosexuality using the Bible as their weapon of choice, they might want to set the Bible aside for a while.

Christians have a history of using the Bible as a weapon (this is a bit of a caricature – but probably not far from the truth). Whether being used to condone slavery, oppress women or support wars, it’s clear the Bible has been misused by many [insert here accusations that I as well am misusing the Bible with my hope for acceptance of LGBT folk]. When the Bible becomes used as a weapon, as a tool for discrimination, as a way in which people can justify beliefs of hatred and injustice – one has to think and wonder if we haven’t gone horribly wrong somewhere.

For some, I believe the Bible has become an idol. Some place the Bible above Jesus’ compassion and love, Jesus’ radical inclusivity, and hold steadfast onto what they believe to be the correct interpretation of a small amount of verses that speak about same-sex relations. To those who repeatedly start quoting Leviticus and Romans verses as soon as anyone brings up the topic of homosexuality, I’d suggest perhaps you stick your Bible back up on the shelf for awhile. Perhaps it should collect a little bit of dust. And maybe, just maybe, you need to go out and grab coffee with someone who’s gay. Maybe you need to hear their story, learn about what they’ve been through, how they’ve experienced Christians and the church.

He goes on to say

So I’m not arguing that we should throw out the Bible; but at least for some people, it might be more productive – and better for society – if they put the Bible aside for awhile, stopped listening to the hateful rhetoric of James Dobson & Friends, and engaged in some thoughtful reflection and conversation with the LGBT community.

Isn't that the truth?

Check out this website. Some very interesting writings reside there. Including a 7 or 8 part series summarizing the book Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers.