GAY TRUTH

Image via Wikipedia The King's Speech  artfully captures an extraordinary friendship between a king and a commoner. This movie, which won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice award, tells the story of the relationship between Britain's King George VI (who is also Prince Albert, Duke of York ) and Lionel Logue , an uncredentialed speech therapist who tries to help the prince/king overcome his stammering.  In the context of this most unlikely relationship, the two men develop a deep, lasting friendship, in spite of the cultural forces that would disallow such mutual affection and commitment. What does this have to do with the homosexuality of King David ? A few days ago, on January 9, 2011, BBC radio in England featured a program that was supposed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible .  In the context of this program, the playwright, Howard Brenton , who said this about King David: "David is in love with Sau...

Image via Wikipedia BBC Radio 4 has marked the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible by claiming that King David, the Jewish king of the Old Testament who slew the giant Philistine Goliath, was in the Bible’s “only gay relationship.” On a literary program, one of a series on the historic Bible translation , aired on Sunday, January 9th, playwright Howard Brenton claimed that David had been in love with Jonathan, the son of King Saul . Brenton said, “To a secular reader the story of David and Jonathan’s love is obviously homosexual, the only gay relationship in the Bible.” Brenton acknowledged that the idea is “controversial.”  The King James Bible, approved by King James I of England in 1611, is renowned even among non-Christians for the beauty of its 17th century English translation; it was the first Bible to be published in the English language . The King James was prepared by a team of 47 of the best Bible scholars of the day and remains one of the...