Isn't That The Holy Spirit's Job?

You know, I love it when something seems to fall from cyberspace....kerplunk...right into my lap. I take it as confirmation....like God's go ahead...his "a-okay" concerning  some of these more controversial issues I take a look at and voice an opinion on.

Sometimes I do pause, wondering what the more conservative folks who happen to end up here on my blog....by chance or by choice....think about some of this stuff.  There are several I know who visit here regularly. But a girls gotta' do what a girls gotta' do...and so I write.  And God has been so good to lead me on these exhilarating google searches where the most interesting and varied tidbits of information appear (like magic) on my laptop screen.

Today I was a bit surprised how stumbling on the blog post by Nadia...and the subsequent "research" about her fits so well with what I have been writing about.  I wasn't surprised that she is considered a rebel...but it appears that she is very gay inclusive. There is no hint in anything I've read about her that she herself is gay...just that she is very inclusive and supportive of gays. Where did I find a lot of this information?  Oh...where I often find some of my best quotes and information about heretics.  The "anti sites." 

Anti everything and everyone. The particular anti site that I happened upon via google is an amazingly PERFECT example of the kind of self righteous, error exposing, sola scriptura Christians who raise the hackles on the back of my neck. They totally...totally...piss me off.  Modern day Pharisees at their absolute best (worst?)

This one is called Apprising Ministries...following is their mission statement:

This time in which we find ourselves is one of rapid change, revisionist history and so called "postmodernism." Is it any wonder that people wonder what to believe, and even who they can trust?

(snotty remark from Cindi...perhaps they should trust the Holy Spirit...you know the Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby (ty Amplified Bible) that Jesus promised would lead us into all truth)

Today faithful believers in Christ face more and more pressure to be “politically correct” — which in the end is simply a mask for relativism. And while the nature of God, and the beautiful simplicity of His Gospel remain the same, the cornucopia of attacks leveled at our Lord’s Church by the enemy are increasingly fierce and constantly changing.

Apprising Ministries is a non-profit and tax-exempt labor extending as a fully integrated auxiliary from Connecticut River Baptist Church (CRBC). Rooted in classic, historic, orthodox Christian theology, AM, as in Awaken—It’s Morning, is actually to be a bit similar to the type of ministry done by Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), founder of the Christian Research Institute, only in an updated fashion. The idea is to also handle Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, apostate Roman Catholicism as well as to deal with issues related to semi-pelagian postevangelicalism and the postliberalism of the Emergent Church in addition to counter-cult evangelism.

As they say in "As Seen On TV" commercials...But wait!!! There's more!!!  I found an anti site blog that is a "reader's digest" of sorts...Reformata. It compiles about 10 or so anti-cult blogs under one roof.  One stop shopping.  You need never be caught unaware of some new perverted, heretical doctrine because this group of "humble" bloggers are on top of things and with all those eyes peeled looking for heretics, none will slip under their radar.  Their self description follows:

Because the Church must always be reforming, we believe we must ever be analyzing our faith and practice and adjusting it into greater conformity with God’s unchanging Word. This involves defending the truth by addressing and exposing error, false doctrine, and sin within the body, as well as edifying believers through the clear proclamation of biblical Truth.

(Again, usurping the clearly stated authority and function of the Holy Spirit who "will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment")

This must always be done circumspectly and humbly,

(Humbly? ROFLMAO)

yet boldly and with Scriptural clarity. The cancers of sin and heresy must be condemned for what they are, yet the antidote, God’s grace in the Gospel, must always be presented.  It is for these purposes that the Reformata blog network exists. May God be glorified in using weak vessels such as ourselves to proclaim the glorious Gospel of his Son.

More tomorrow about Nadia's sermon presenting her views after the historic ELCA vote to include gays as clergy in their denomination.  More about Nadia (the more I read about her the more I like her) and my thoughts and notions about her views and her ministry. 

Some Thoughts On Evangelical, Christian Fundamentalists....

A few months (or so) ago, while surfing around the internet, you know..."researching"...I came upon the Sojourners web site.  It is an emergent, Christian political activist, "love your neighbor as yourself" kind of web site.  Jim Wallis' God Politics blog resides there.  It is a collaborative effort of quite a few emergent, Christian political, "love your neighbor as yourself" activists like Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, Bart and Tony Campolo...and others whose names do not ring a bell.  It definitely leans left of center.  I would say that 99.9% of the contributors (and readers) voted for Obama.  Their readership probably does not include the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart etc. etc. etc. etc.

While I am not very politically inclined, some of what they write resonates with me.  And because I signed up for email updates, I find Sojo in my AOL mailbox every morning.  I probably would rarely go to the site otherwise.  I have so many interesting, thought provoking, inspiring sites stashed in my bookmarks/favorites... sites that I rarely go to.  So many sites, so little time.  But Sojo shows up in my inbox and so I do sometimes click the link and visit.  I visited this morning.  I checked out their verse of the day, their prayer of the day and scrolled down the list of recent God Politics Blog entries.  This one caught my eye....

God Does Not Heed My Snotty Opinions About Evangelicals

When I read this blog post written by Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, I found that I do, indeed, share her snotty opinions about evangelicals. As proof of this, I could probably spout off a dozen or so snotty remarks about all of those people I singled out by name at the end of the first paragraph. And I admit, I do have a problem with some (most?) evangelical, Christian fundamentalists. They seem so cocksure that they not only have God's ear but also a total understanding of His heart.

They remind me so much of the Pharisee in the parable in Luke...the one prefaced with:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable

Jesus said:

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- robbers, evildoers, adulterers -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

Hmmm...the first thing that seems amiss is that the Pharisee   prayed about himself." A "pat himself on the back" kind of prayer (but that is a topic for a whole other post) He went on to say (obvious paraphrase) "Thank you Lord that my sins are so much less serious and so much less of an abomination in your eyes than the evildoers...like, for instance, that guy over there...that tax collector.

But am I exempt from this self righteous mind set?  I admit that I have a very difficult time not judging those who set themselves up to subjectively judge the actions and beliefs of others based on their own (narrow) interpretation of scripture. Yet am I ...in a way...doing the same thing? Judging my brothers and sisters? Somehow I think there is a distinction, a difference, that I would be hard pressed to explain...a difference that makes my righteous indignation against the Ann Coulter's of the world somehow less offensive than her righteous indignation against....well against just about everything that does not mesh with her mean spirited, right wing world view.  Even Jesus got pissed at the Pharisees!!

Like I said, the distinction is difficult to define or explain...so along with the tax collector in this parable, I will simply have to throw myself on the mercy of the court and proclaim.....God have mercy on me, a sinner.  

I have more to say on this subject....for instance....a few quotes from and comments about the blog post by Nadia Bolz-Weber.  She is quite interesting...with a full sleeve tattoo and a blog site named The Sarcastic Lutheran.  She is also the pastor of the the House For All Sinners and Saints.  I want to post something annie wrote that touches on this left wing/right wing, conservative/liberal, evangelical/progressive feud. 

I am closing this post with a quote from Anne Lamont for all the aforementioned either/or's to ponder:

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out he hates all the same people you do."

More to come...

A Few Links...

The night got away from me. Gray's Anatomy is fast approaching and my brain is definitely not working at lightening speed.  I've been typing and writing and forming words into sentences all day. Nothing very interesting mind you. Things like compiling the results of the latest Environment of Care self inspection at the hospital, the minutes from a meeting or two...and about a zillion emails.  A large part of my job involves Outlook Express.  So all this to say that I really don't have anything much to say tonight...or at the very least, I don't have the thought process required to get it from brain to cyber paper. So I am going to give you a bit of remedial reading to do.  Following are a few links to some writings I have come across the past few days that I think are worth taking a look at.  

Christianity and Homosexuality Reconciled by Rev. Joseph Adam Pearson, Ph.D.

What The Bible Says and Doesn't Say About Homosexuality by Mel White

Does the Bible Condemn Homosexuality?  An Interview with Dr. Reverend Cheri DiNovo 

And check out this web page with 175 various and varied articles. 

Perhaps the peanut gallery will post a few thoughts tomorrow but for tonight, the most my poor, tired brain can handle is a visit to Seattle Grace Hospital in greater downtown TV land. 

The Chapter on Homosexuality - 4

Coincidentally...and not instigated by me, there is a discussion about homosexuality on EU.  We have discussed it before...there and on other lists...dating back to the hey days of the Wider Universalist Fellowship.  My opinion has not changed a lot since then.  My friend annie, who is one of the most loving people I know, has evolved a bit in her views.  I think, perhaps, they are still in a state of flux....not solidified into a doctrine. 

The other day she posted an article written by Bishop Spong...a rather militant article aimed at those who view homosexuality as an abomination.  The Jerry Fallwells, Pat Robertsons, James Dobsons of the world.  She disagreed with many points in the article...and especially the tone...which was an "us vs them" kind of theme.  annie believes (and I've witnessed her trying to live it out in her day to day life) that we are all one.  The Pat Robertsons and the Bishop Spongs....the gay and the straight....the liberal and the conservative.  Divisive rhetoric is not her style.  She posted the article mainly to discuss it...as we often do on EU...looking at all points of view...seeking to learn even from those we disagree with. 

Spong begins his article by saying:

A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!
I have made a decision. I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance that emanates from so many right-wing Christians about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, as if that point of view
still has any credibility.

...the tone of the article does not change much.  Some more quotes from here and there in the article follow....

I will no longer take the time to refute the unlearned and undocumentable claims of certain world religious leaders who call homosexuality "deviant." will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that "we love the sinner but hate the sin."

 

I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn't. Justice postponed is justice denied. That can be a resting place no longer for anyone.

Therefore, I will from this moment on refuse to dignify the continued public expression of ignorant prejudice by engaging it. I do not tolerate racism or sexism any longer. From this moment on, I will no longer tolerate our culture's various forms of homophobia. I do not care who it is who articulates these attitudes or who tries to make them sound holy with religious jargon.

and he concludes with:

I invite others to join me in this public declaration. I believe that such a public outpouring will help cleanse both the church and this nation of its own distorting past. It will restore integrity and honor to both church and state. It will signal that a new day has dawned and we are ready not just to embrace it, but also to rejoice in it and to celebrate it.

annie mused that perhaps by shutting down the dialogue with those he deems "other" (the religious right) that no change will ever come.  She posted something this morning that made me cry.  I don't think I have heard this story before...perhaps I missed it in the avalanche of posts on the WUF and now on EU.  It expresses a side of the "gay wars" that is so often not seen by the religious right sadly, I think, because they choose not to see.

yes...  perhaps he's not abandoning the call, but rather passing the mantle.  after a fashion, it's easy to take up the cause of the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized.  but, if we're all truly one, do we not have to care for the privileged callous, the fundamentalists, the ones that are harder to feel empathy for?  i feel somehow that if we simply persist in reaching out to them there will come a point where they simply cannot deny the Love...  tis the kindness/goodness of God that leads men to repentance. 

it was witnessing love that first began to open my mind.  in 1983 i cared for my first aids patient.  ironically, it was a guy i'd gone to high school with who dated my best friend.  i would have never dreamed warren was gay (although he was into drama and quite flamboyant with 20/20 hindsight).  i wouldn't have recognized him - all of his thick dark hair gone, his emaciated frame practically glowing yellow from his failing liver, covered in the purplish kaposi's sarcomas.  but, i recognized his name on the chart when he came into the ER where i was called to draw blood gases on him.  basically, he came into the hospital because he had nowhere else to go.  his family had disowned him.  it was just him and his life partner, the two of them against the world.  ken never left his side in the 3 weeks it took him to die.  the nurses barely had to care for warren because ken took care of everything...  when he threw up or defecated in the bed, ken was always there to clean him up - gently, lovingly.  everything i thought i knew about an 'abomination to God' flew out the window.  the only words that came to mind were 'greater love hath no man than this'.  it wasn't some sick debauchery i witnessed.  it was genuine unselfish overwhelmingly sacrificial love - to the very end.  it broke my heart as i watched ken leave the hospital that last time - alone.  my heart broke again when i read six months later in the local obits that ken had died too.  i wondered if he died alone, no one to give him the kind of care he had so lovingly given as he poured himself out.

i was forever changed by that encounter.  not by angry gays marching (though i've come to understand what drives them).  it was years before i saw it as anything other than an illness, saw them as 'wounded'.  but, i never again thought of them as 'wicked'.  i think more hearts will be changed by love that cannot be denied than by whatever theological arguments one could make...  just remembering...  namaste - annie

Thanks annie...you always say things so well....

But there ARE theological arguments for those who have to reconcile their beliefs with scripture.  I am not saying that is a bad thing...just that sometimes it takes some digging to understand what scripture REALLY says.  I think it is similar to reconciling UR with scripture.

I've found some really good resources that take a candid look at what the Bible really says about homosexuality, cult worship, temple prostitution, idolatry.  I've touched on it in previous posts but will delve into it a bit deeper in the next post or two...and provide some links for anyone who wants to explore it more "on their own time" :)

 

The Chapter about Judging...

No..I am not done with the series on homosexuality.  Just like I am not done with the series on everyday mystics, Christ in you, the Third Eye, and probably a half dozen or so other series that I started but then got distracted.  I am coming back to all of them eventually.  I am a hopeless, perpetual digresser. 

I read Chapter 5 in Adam Hamilton's book, Seeing Gray last night before I went to sleep.  Finding the Sweet Spot. It is the chapter du jour today in Sunday School class. 

Okay...it WAS the chapter we talked about in today's Sunday School class.  The first two paragraphs of this post were written early this morning.  This is now late afternoon...headed toward evening and hopefully I can finish it before all the to-ing and fro-ing of the next few hours. 

One of the original couples showed up today!  I was glad to see them there.  Jeff was out of town and the two college students (Josh and Brandy) who were absent last week were there this morning.  Matt was not.  So there were 6 of us.  Every couple of classes there is a video to watch.  Today was video day. 

I really like what Adam Hamilton has to say about this topic.  According to Hamilton, the sweet spot "spiritually speaking" is somewhere about midway between legalism and anything goes.  Keith and I sort of had this same discussion yesterday at Denny's.  How does one determine was is permissible...what is ethical...what is pleasing to God.  Not everything is okay, is it?  Keith quoted Paul...all things are lawful but not everything is expedient.  True.  So how do you decide what is okay?

Well...Keith told me long ago that he viewed the 10 Commandments more as the 10 Promises.  When Christ has been fully formed in you, there will be no need of a commandment that tells you not to steal from your neighbor, kill him, commit adultry with his wife because you will love him as you love yourself.  It will not be in your heart to do such things.  And will we need a commandment to tell us have no other Gods before us if we love God with all our heart, soul and strength?  When we reach the point where we love God with all our heart and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, that is a pretty good backdrop from which to judge right and wrong etc.

In the video today, Hamilton listed the following four points to consider when we try to determine what is right in the situations we encounter in our day to day lives.  Some very serious...some not so serious. 

• The first point is directly related to the love God part of the condensed version of the commandments ...from the lips of Jesus.  What would honor God in this situation?
• The second point is a question I have heard phrased in various ways...What is the loving thing to do?
• The third point is to consider the golden rule.  Sounds trite I know but putting ourselves in another's shoes can help us determine the right thing to do. 
• The fourth point to consider is another tried and true cliche'...although a bit more modern than the Golden Rule.  WWJD.  What would Jesus do? 

He talked a bit about the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  Interesting perspective that I will perhaps discuss another day...

The book mentions the verses in Jeremiah 31...

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord....

After Sunday School, during the praise and worship portion of the church service, the praise team sang a Hillsong tune...Till I See You.  One of the lines in the song captured my attention...

You are the whisper my heart that speaks to me

Perhaps, when trying to figure out cases of "situational ethics," right and wrong, how to handle the many circumstances we encounter every day that defy black and white solutions, we should strain our ears to hear the heart whisper...the still, small voice in which he speaks to each of us. 

The Chapter About Homosexuality 3

Since I've been getting email notifications via my Borders Reward account announcing "free wifi" at Borders stores starting in October, I thought I would give it a try.  I had to pick Beth up from work at 7:30ish...so I went up an hour early expecting to sip a cup of their oh so strong coffee while cruising the net. To my disappointment, the Borders I frequent not only has no FREE wifi....but still has no wifi at all. 

So I looked through some of the documents I have saved on my flash drive in the "Homosexuality" folder. I saved some of these documents quite a while ago.  As I've mentioned, I've "researched" this topic several times over the past ten years or so.  Not an all out investigative effort...but with enough thoroughness to come to the conclusion that the commonly held Christian view of homosexuality could very well be (and most likely is) a sacred cow that needs tipping.  At the very least it is not in a special category of sin.  It is not the ultimate abomination in the eyes of God.  Non promiscuous, monogamous homosexual relationships do not strike me as an abomination.  How do I get around what the Bible "says"??

I am a Universalist....a Christian Universalist.  I realize there are verses in scripture that SEEM to say there is a hell....a hot hell...an everlasting hell.  Yet...if those verses are dissected, if meanings of the the Greek and Hebrew words are understood, if the verses are taken in context with some understanding of the times and the customs of that time period, the Bible declares no such thing as an eternal hell. I think a very similar case can be made for the verses that condemn homosexuality.  Hasn't the Bible also been used to justify slavery?  It has been used....and in many circles is still being used...to prevent women from full participation in the ministry.  I think homosexuality may be the next stronghold to crumble.  I hope it is. 

In this post...and probably the next few posts, I am going to take a brief look at some of the verses/arguments used to clobber homosexuals. 

         

But WHAT did He REALLY say?  That is the big question.

The article I read last night is from the Rainbow Alliance web site.  The article is called Cultic Temple Prostitutes and Homosexuality - A Christian Hoax?

It quotes from a book entitled The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology by Mark D Jordan.

The link leads to a limited preview on google books. Looks quite thorough. 

Also...check out Jordan's bio.

Mark D. Jordan, a renowned and wide-ranging scholar whose academic interests include the varieties of theological rhetoric, the performance of religious identities, Christian teachings on sex, and the work of Thomas Aquinas, has been appointed as the first Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. He will take up the new post in January 2009, moving to Harvard from Emory University, where he has been Asa Griggs Candler Professor since 1999.

Although today's post is getting quite wordy, I am still going to copy and paste a rather longish excerpt from the Cultic Temple article...more on all of this in my next post....

QUADESH: THE CULTIC TEMPLE PROSTITUTES
The KJV mistranslations I mentioned earlier are of the Hebrew term "quadesh" (male), "quadeshah" (female).  This term refers to cultic temple prostitutes, probably connected with the rather prevalent worship of Ashtart found generally throughout the Semitic world at that time.  Ashtart was known by a number of similar names, Ashtart, Asherah, Ishtar, Astarte, etc.  Ashtart was the consort of Baal. 

First a bit of background.  The Bible itself tells us that Ashtart (Asherah, etc.) was worshiped even in temple of Jerusalem for about 2/3 of the time it stood.

1 Kings 14:21-24 Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon. The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done. They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country.

2 Chronicles 33:1-6
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the Lord. He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for the worship of Baal, made images of the goddess Asherah, and worshiped the stars. He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the Lord had said was where he should be worshiped forever. In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars. He sacrificed his sons in Hinnom Valley as burnt offerings. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger.

The Book of Kings describes the removal of the artifacts and courtesans of Astarte worship from the temple.

1 KINGS 22:46
He (Jehoshephat) got rid of all the male and female prostitutes who were left in the land from the time of his father Asa. 

2 KINGS 23:7
He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the Temple prostitutes.

Now back to the Hebrew term 'quadesh' 'quadeshah' …

In the Zodhiates HEBREW-GREEK KEY STUDY BIBLE, you find the following,

"It [the masculine form] means a consecrated one, a devoted one, a sacred person; a devotee to a licentious idolatry, a cultic prostitute or priest of Astarte..."

Zodhiates goes on to define the feminine form thusly, "It means harlot, whore, sacred temple prostitute.  Prostitution received official sanction from the Canaanite religion which made reproduction part of its summum bonum.  As in India today, at the Holi festival, there were seasons of sexual orgy associated with Astarte.  The temple precincts became an inglorious brothel..."

The 1611 King James Version of the Bible contains a rather stunning mistranslation of the male form, "quadesh".  When studied in context, it is hard to imagine that the error was due to ignorance or simple error.  It appears to be deliberate.

Deut: 23:17 uses both the male and female forms of the term "quadesh".  The KJV translates them as follows: There shall be no whore [quadeshah] of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite [quadesh] of the sons of Israel. 

The more modern and accurate NIV translates the passage this way, "No Israelite, man or woman, is to become a shrine prostitute."

The KJV rendering of two entirely different meanings of the same word root is nonsensical. It is so nonsensical it is difficult to accept the possibility it could be an innocent error. 
There are others as well.  Among them:

1 Kings 15:12
KJV: "And he took away the sodomites [quadesh] out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made."
NIV: "He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made."

The KJV translation is not only a stunningly inaccurate translation of the word "quadesh,", but in this instance it breaks up the continuity of thought within the sentence. It is another gross error.  How could it have been accidental or irresponsible?

LEVITICUS AND TEMPLE PROSTITUTION: TOEVAH

The Hebrew term "toevah" is found in the oft-quoted verses of Lev. 18 and 20. It is one of a number of terms translated to "abomination" in English. And it seems to be the favorite verse of those who use the Bible to justify prejudice and discrimination against homosexuals.

The Canaanite god of the sun, Baal and his consort, the fertility goddess Ashtart (Ashtoreth, etc.)  were commonly worshipped in the area.  The term "toevah" appears throughout the Law to denounce idolatrous practices. In fact it is used over 100 times in the Old Testament in the context of idolatrous practices. Temple prostitutes participated in the worship of the fertility god "Baal" on an altar-like bed. The incident at Baal-Peor (Numbers 25) was about idolatry with Baal prostitutes, not mere sex. The cult temple prostitutes had sex with anyone who paid money and worshipped Baal, whether man or woman. It's nothing more than political dishonesty to define a cult prostitute as a homosexual.

We are told three times that the laws set forth in Leviticus chapters 18-20 are to prevent the Israelite priests from engaging in the religious practices of the Egyptians and Canaanites (18:2-3; 18:24; 20:23). Chapter 20 even begins with a discussion of the god Molech, who was worshiped in Canaan.

Leviticus reserves other terms such as "zimah" to refer to immorality or sin. For instance it is used in the references to rape, incest and child sexual abuse.
Clearly the Levitican passages made a distinction between things that were immoral and/or sinful (zimah) and things that involved idolatry.

And the following excerpt from the article seems to be expressing, in more detail and with scriptural references, what Peggy Campolo believes.  Paul was not speaking out against monogomous, same sex relationships but against temple prostitution. 

PAUL AND TEMPLE PROSTITUTION
There can be little disagreement that the early Christians were concerned about the competing religions. Many texts that we have from Christians of the first few centuries represent documents explaining the deficits and evils of the other religions. The many texts quoted above attest to the fact that not only were the church fathers aware of the goddess religions, but were confronted with them to the extent that they dedicated several specific attacks on them in their writings. This isn't surprising, given the popularity and influence of the religions on the Greek and Roman cultures.
That Paul would have been familiar with the goddess religions seems inescapable. Temples and shrines to Cybele, Artemis, Venus/Aphrodite, Astarte, and others were scattered densely around the region of Paul's upbringing and missionary travels (Asia Minor, Greece, Cyprus, etc.). Vermaseren describes (via Pausanias) the area surrounding Corinth.  'First there were two shrines of Isis and two more of Serapis; then there were altars of Helios and a sanctuary of Ananke and Bia. Above this there stood a temple of the Mother of the Gods with a stele and a marble throne.'[M. J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult]
As Jeremy Townsley shows us in Paul, the Goddess Religions and Homosexuality, Paul's letter to the Romans most certainly describes one of the non-Christian religions of the area.

Rom 21-22: They claimed to be wise but were foolish:
The galli [eunuch priests of Cybele] claimed to tell people's fortunes, but everybody thought they were mad due to their frenzied dancing and self-mutilation. The Greek texts describe the "mania" of their rituals.

Rom 23: They made images of man and animals to worship:
The Cybele/Attis temple statues were primarily of Attis and/or Cybele, who were typically surrounded by images of other animals, particularly lions, birds and snakes. In addition, these temples were often filled with birds, because the galli believed they were too holy to touch, to chase them away.

Rom 26-27: They exchanged natural relations, etc:
One of the primary goals of the galli was to remove gender differences. This occurred through transvestitism, physically cutting off one's genitals and the exchange of sexual roles. The male galli would serve sexually "as women" to male worshippers in the temple. Women had sex with men (and possibly with other women), but in order to avoid pregnancy, they would have anal sex, not vaginal, as indicated by early church writers such as Anastasius, Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, and two apocalyptic texts.

CONCLUSION
Christianity has a long history of trying to make the case that the many Biblical condemnations of cultic temple prostitution are condemnations of homosexuality.  Although the work of numerous scholars has corrected the errors, the message just isn't getting out. Too many Christians have adopted a "KJV Only" mentality and refuse to benefit from advances in knowledge made over the last 400 years.  Even more Christians find that the errors serve as very convenient excuses for the promotion of hatred and discrimination.   

What Peggy Campolo has to say...

The article I am going to talk about in this post is a transcript of a discussion about homosexuality between Peggy and Tony Campolo from...1996.  Outdated perhaps, but with opinions and sentiments that are hot button issues 13 years later.  I touched on their views in the first post in this series.  As I said, both she and Tony believe that Christians have screwed up the mandate to love our neighbor as ourselves and have openly persecuted homosexuals.  Not all Christians of course...but the Jerry Falwell's, Pat Robertson's, James Dobson's and Fred Phelps' who claim Jesus as their lord yet have fallen short in the "and the greatest of these is love" department. 

And the Campolo's also agree that homosexuality is not a choice but Tony believes that the Bible mandates celibacy.  Peggy does not.  In reference to one of the most oft quoted portions of scripture declaring homosexuality an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, she says the following:

I'd like you to note that Paul wrote Romans in the city of Corinth where the prevailing religion was the worship of Aphrodite. Aphrodite was a hermaphrodite with both male and female sexual organs and in the worship of Aphrodite people played the role of the opposite gender and engaged in sexual orgies with same sex prostitutes who were available in the temple. It was against these orgies that Paul wrote in the first chapter of Romans. There is an obvious connection between idolatry and homosexual practices in Romans one and what Paul says here cannot be applied to the kind of relationships created by loving homosexual partners who are making a lifetime monogamous commitment to each other.

I don't think that that's a proper use of the Bible. Some people, including my husband, say that those who believe as I do about Romans one are stretching the passage to agree with our own a priori beliefs. They say it is arrogant to declare that 19 hundred years of church history and tradition are in error. I would remind these people that all those years of church tradition supported an interpretation of Timothy 2:11 and 12 that disallowed women from church leadership. We only know what the church fathers said because those who might have been the church mothers had no voice.

Later on in this series I will mention a few more scholarly writings that more or less say the same thing, but for this post, I want to quote what Peggy has to say about her time "in the closet."  Even though she was a minister's daughter, until she was 47 years old she faked a relationship with God.  Peggy "met" him at the deathbed of a dear friend of hers.

My husband got in trouble some years ago for saying that Jesus is a presence inside of every person whether or not that person is a Christian. Furthermore, Tony said the place to find Jesus is in loving service to poor and oppressed people. Some in the Christian community argued that Jesus dwelt only in those who believed in him. Right here in Chicago there was actually a heresy trial in 1984 which ended with the jury saying that Tony was not a heretic but did need to be more careful about how he stated things.

But later that same year I learned first hand that Tony was right about where to find Jesus. It happened at the bedside of my dear friend Helen who was dying. Helen had always said she believed in God but now she didn't have any assurance about heaven or peace about dying and there I was, her best friend in this world, not even remotely in touch with God, with Jesus or any hope of heaven. I felt more inadequate than I'd ever felt in my life.

Helen needed God to die and I needed God desperately if I was to be any comfort at all to Helen. So I decided I would tell my friend all that I had ever heard about God and going to heaven. And after all those years in church I knew it well. Helen held my hand for dear life and I know she heard me and as I shared God's grace and love with my dying friend, the presence of God became real to me.

Helen grew too ill to talk after that day but I could talk to her and I did and I believe God did take her home to heaven even as I know God has remained with me. It was in my caring for Helen that I had come to know God. My husband's quest in theology about finding God in those who are in need or being oppressed became a reality to me that day in the hospital. You do stand with God when you stand with and for those who suffer.

She goes on to explain how she came to the realization that God was calling her to stand with and for homosexuals. 

Interesting article...interesting lady.  And for more from both Peggy and Tony, there are four audio messages (two from Tony/two from Peggy) on Gay Christian Network.  I haven't had a chance to listen to them so if anyone has...or does...comments are very welcome here on this blog....