One of the main supports of Republican Clevergentsia particularly regarding Health Care Insurance Reform is a sense of ordained power. This diary focuses on one crucial element of that feeling of innate superiority: the phallic privilege of a hetero masonry wall of righteousness Republicans have chained themselves to in order to elicit alms in the way of market share from the common man and woman of America.
As the title suggests, this diary will focus on an underlying issue of Anti Gay sentiment in American politics and religion. It is my belief that the so called toughness of the Republicans n the issue of Health Care Insurance Reform is essentially more of a "manhood" preservation" thing on their part.
Subsequently, their recalcitrance regarding the current HCR bill is suspect. The truth they are looking for is not in what's right or wrong or even in what is or is not affordable. They see themselves as the small guy on the beach, who some big guy gave a "sand facial" to and they want to make a statement. And when men want to make a statement and they feel as though there is no alternative, what do they do? Well, they do what they know.
What is known is not always what is seen, but is felt usually deep down inside where no one else can see.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen
Hebrews 11:1
Much of if not all of the Anti Gay Rhetoric in American Politics is done more so for effect. The nature of politics should make this an obvious conclusion. Yet, with Religion this is not so. Many Christians do believe in the passage from Leviticus:
...You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination
Leviticus 18:22
And thus, for quite a few, there is the belief that according to the word of God, there exits an inherent condemnation of such an "unnatural" practice. It is this belief, many Republican and perhaps a few Democratic fence sitters, derive a kind of "hot chocolate and fuzzy slipper" identification with many of their constituents. It's a nice warm, folksy kind of image very popular and equally very powerful. But there are "other" positions just as powerful and potentially, just as pervasive.
It is not without a certain degree of irony that Leviticus is part of the Old Testament dealing with laws and priestly rituals that were intended to define a special relationship with God. The New Testament, however with its underlying principle of the Son of God in all things in Heaven and Earth, illustrates how the canon of the Old Testament is indeed amended by the canon of the New.
....persecutors of good men, hating the truth, loving lies, not
perceiving the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to the good
nor to the righteous judgment, paying no heed to the widow and the
orphan, wakeful not for the fear of God but for that which is evil;
men from whom gentleness and forbearance stand aloof and far off;
loving vain things, pursuing a recompense, not pitying the poor man,
not toiling for him that is oppressed with toil, ready to slander,
not recognizing Him that made them murderers of children, corrupters
of the creatures of God, turning away from him that is in want,
oppressing him that is afflicted, advocates of the wealthy, unjust
judges of the poor, sinful in all things.
Barnabus 20:2
The Epistle of Barnabus comes to us an Apocryphal Text: that which is not canonical and yet in relation to a text which is canonical:
...And the King shall answer them, 'Truly I say unto you,
as you did it to the least of my bretheren, you did it to me...'
Mathew 25:40
we begin to see how the Old Testament as a code of behavior for rituals and Priestley behavior, primarily in the Judaic context, is problematized by a text such as Barnabus that describes the context in which the New Testament was originally written.
What this means for the current political debate in both the House and Senate as that discussion is indeed dictated by Judeo-Christain fundamental moral precepts is best described thus:
...But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrong doer or a MISCHIEF MAKER (Sen McConnel)...yet, if one suffers as a Christain, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God
1st Peter 4: 15-16
Basically then, as described in 1st Peter 4:8:
Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another since love covers a multitude of sins
a code of inherent consciousness that implicitly accepts all of God's creations, and by definition, all of God's women and men is suggested as a cornerstone of apostolic faith.
This suggestion is again echoed in 1st Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that in due time he may exalt you
The fact of the matter is, much if not all of the current Anti-Gay sentiment on either side of the aisle primarily operates from the position that since Homosexuality is an abomination according to those texts before either the crucifixion or the Revelation of John, then God's will must, by default, sanction the animosity. However, I argue nothing could be further from the actual fact of the matter.
But to the rest of you in Thytatira who have not yet learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden...only hold fast what you have, until I come. Revelation 2:24
Since we live in a democratic Republic, essentially, we ALL fall into to this latter category. There is no way for any of us to be absolutely certain of what is or what is not Satanic about the everyday behavior of our fellow human beings.
Given this, it stands to reason that if secular human nature gives rise to such a natural uncertainty then it is not surprising that:
...no one in Heaven or Earth or under the Earth was able to open the scroll or look into into it...and I wept such that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it...
Revelation 5: 3 & 4
As for people who are Gay then, themselves as creations of God in this context of the New Testament where the Son of God is in All Things of Human and Earthly origin, the previous restrictions dictated by the prior rabbinical statute of the Old Testament are disrupted along the lines of how the context ultimately defines the breath and scope of the artifact.
These things therefore He annulled, that the new law of our Lord
Jesus Christ, being free from the yoke of constraint, might have its
oblation not made by human hands.
Barnabas 2:6
Thus, an oblation or offering free from constraint, would by definition be open to a greatest common general circumstance of people from all across the spectrum.
...After this I looked and behold: a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples nd tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands
Revelation 7:9
In other words I assert that first, the New Testament amends that of the Old and as such, as we do to the least of our brethren, regardless of what any book other than Alpha or Omega, may dictate, we most certainly do unto ourselves as we exist in the communal body of Christ in the greatest common number.
Secondly,
By faith we understand that the the World was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was made out ofthings which do not appear
Hebrews 11:3
The rights of Gay People to exist as equal to the rest of the people who do not consider themselves so, is Just, fundamentally because God made all things and creatures and thus, only God can judge on the final deposition of that which he has, in his infinite wisdom, so divinely created.
And lastly:
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved what sort of persons ought you to be in the lives of holiness and godlieness...waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved,and the elements will melt with fire
2nd Letter Peter 11-12
In conclusion, I find it disquieting to say the least, that a minority of individuals could so hamstring a majority body to such a point wherein that body ceases to function in a judicious manner especially when that opposition employs as its base an essentially Freudian phantasm of phallocentric self-congratulation based on the flimsiest of mythic-religious flotsam.
Leviticus 18:22 is a drunken sailor that has had absolutely nothing of any lasting consequence to contribute. Isn't it high time we put "Ole Sparky" to bed and bid him a fond farewell? Whadya say Senator McConnel, so early in the morning?
Sigh!!!