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Showing posts with the label Ancient Greece

Is the Bible wrong - homosexuality is a nature state?

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Homosexuality is natural (twisted argument) In Romans 1 , Paul condemns men and women who leave their natural state. He does not condemn those who are born homosexual, who have the homosexual condition, for that is their natural state. Ancient peoples did not know of the modern ideas of a mutual, permanent homosexual union and homosexual orientation . Rather, Paul condemns either homosexuals or heterosexuals who leave their natural condition and act as something else. The Bible’s Answer Paul makes no distinction about those who are born in a particular way. Rather, he deals in Romans 1 with how Gentiles reject general revelation of God in the creation and turn to idolatry and accompanying evil behavior, including homosexuality. In verses 24, 26, and 28, he says that God has given people over to evil vices. It is inappropriate to make a distinction to limit homosexuality to a Jewish purity taboo within any one of the groups if one does not do it in all three groups. The anc...

I am not gay… I am David

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Español: Intercambio de anillos entre los novios (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Are people born “ gay ” or do they choose to be gay? The answer to both questions is no—although in many passionate debates generated by this topic, we are quick to dismiss objectivity. In reality, these questions provide a smoke screen to a much bigger problem that is pervasive in our society, in religious circles, politics, and clinical settings. The problem I speak of is the idea that homosexuality is an identity. The  Catechism of the Catholic Church   states that every individual must “acknowledge and accept his sexual  identity ” (no. 2333). This refers to the “physical, moral, and spiritual  difference  and  complementarity ” of both genders which are “oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life” ( Ibid. ). At the most basic level, our identity is rooted in the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God —”Male and female He...

The Old Testament and Jewish society speak clearly about homosexuality

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English: Lot and his daughters flee Sodom, as in Genesis 19:17, illustration from "Sunrays" published 1908 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The witnesses of the Old Testament and ancient Jewish society have implications for a view of homosexual orientation and behavior that can be described as biblical: 1. Homosexuality violates the creation order and patterns for male and female roles and for marriage (Genesis 1–2). It arises from the same internal rebellion as did the Fall recorded in Genesis 3 . 2. Homosexual rape is the only sin described in the events surrounding the fall of Sodom as a special judgment of God ( Genesis 19 ). 3. That homosexual rape was the sin of Sodom is the only interpretation that fits the larger literary context and structure of the narrative about the covenant God made with Abraham. 4. Homosexuality is the sin of the incident at Gibeah (Judges 19–20). 5...

The false Leviticus 18-20 homosexual acts equals shellfish, cotton shirt argument

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The pig is considered an unclean animal as food in Judaism and Islam and some Christian denominations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Leviticus 18–20 Revisionist interpreters devote considerable attention to passages in the Law that even more clearly address homosexual practice. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 relate, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.… If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.” Boswell , Edwards, Countryman, Nissinen, and others admit that, in Boswell’s words, “homosexual acts per se are mentioned.”75 Yet, they conclude that this passage is irrelevant for anyone except Old Testament Jews. Even Jesus and Paul considered the Levitical laws to be irrelevant under the new dispensation, such authors maintain.  Homosexualityl ceremonial unclean or inherent evil? The laws concern ...

What would the Greeks have thought of gay marriage?

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It is ironic that the proponents of homosexuality so often point to ancient Greece as their paradigm because of its high state of culture and its partial acceptance of homosexuality or, more accurately, pederasty. Though some ancient Greeks did write paeans to homosexual love, it did not occur to any of them to propose homosexual relationships as the basis for marriage in their societies. The only homosexual relationship that was accepted was between an adult male and a male adolescent. This relationship was to be temporary, as the youth was expected to get married and start a family as soon as he reached maturity. The idea that someone was a “homosexual” for life or had this feature as a permanent identity would have struck them as more than odd. In other words, “homosexuality”, for which a word in Greek did not exist at the time (or in any other language until the late 19th century), was purely transitory. It appears that many of these mentoring relationships in ancient Gree...