I'm still in a rage about the Schiavo thing. I can't get started. And since
Hunter,
mistersite,
scottbateman, and others are doing an EXCELLENT job on this rant, I offer another.
From Cheers and Jeers this morning, I am aware of a year-old USA Today gay marriage article: "In 1958, nine years before the Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage, a Gallup poll found that more than nine in 10 Americans objected to black-white unions. By 2002, just one in 10 thought they should be prohibited."
Well great. Now "just" 29 MILLION+ Americans STILL think interracial marriage is wrong? Wanna guess what they think about gay marriage and on what political side of the spectrum they fall?
Hate is wrong.
And I swear if anyone quotes Leviticus (either 18:22 or 20:13) to me again, I'll . . . I'll . . . sigh. I'll stay in a rage.
OK, fine. Even the people that quote Leviticus never read the dang thing. So, from the King James version:
Leviticus 18:22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Seems pretty clear, huh? Although . . . hmm . . . maybe not.
What about a woman lying, er, laying with another woman? Not a single reference anywhere in the Bible about lesbianism? Nope. Well, either lesbianism is okay because chick-on-chick sex is just plain HOT or women don't matter to the Old Testament crowd.
Neither discussion is going to be fruitful. Let's look a little further.
Hmm, apparently man or woman having sex with a beast rates only 'confusion' (Lev 18:23), but not `abomination' on the pissing-the-Lord-off scale. Although, Lev 20:15-16 updates that and notes that the Lord REALLY doesn't like the beastiality thing as you gotta kill the man/woman AND the poor, bespoiled, molested animal if that happens.
Uh, something seems amiss.
There's a LOT of killing in Leviticus. Animal sacrifice. Stonings. Beatings. Real fire-and-brimstone stuff. And a lot of abominations.
Abomination. Just what does that mean? I know what it means NOW, but (NEWSFLASH) Moses (the author) didn't write in English. Maybe, by looking at some of the other 'abominations' in the Bible, we can figure out just what this word actually means.
Genesis 43:32
Egyptians won't eat bread with Israelites, because "that is an abomination unto the Egyptians."
Genesis 46:34
"every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." This will NOT be good news to the livestock farmers in the red states.
Exodus 8:26
Moses talks about sacrificing "the abomination of the Egyptians" during the Plagues.
Leviticus 7:18
When you sacrifice an animal by burning it, even though it may LOOK and SMELL tasty, don't eat it! "It shall be an abomination."
Leviticus 11:9-12 THREE abominations for the price of one topic!
"And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you." So if you ever ate crabs, or oysters, or clams, or shrimp, or lobster . . . you get the picture. Uh-oh.
Leviticus 11:13-20 No birds of prey! Three times an abomination, just in case you weren't paying attention!
"And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you."
I think I'm okay on the birds. Still a little worried about that seafood thing though.
What about eating bugs, you may be asking? Leviticus 11:22-23 has it covered.
"Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you."
So, to summarize, locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers are ok. Other bugs -- abomination. Great, I'm good with two in a row now. How many abominations do you have to do to be truly abominable? ONE?! Oh, Jesus Christ. Wait, shit! Fuck! Oh, let's just press on...
Leviticus 11:41-42
No snakes, or things with a lot of legs, or anything creepy. Don't eat it. Seriously. "And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten." And don't think eating octopus is okay because of the "upon the earth" part above. We nixed non-fin and non-scaled seafood earlier, remember?
Do I need to keep going on? Deuteronomy is CHOCK FULL of abominations. Topics include money, other gods or items of worship, animal sacrifices with 'blemishes', stuff like horoscopes and tarot cards, wearing opposite gender clothing (man and woman), prostitutes, and bringng the "price of a dog" (?) into the House of the Lord.
The books of Samuel and Kings use 'abomination' to talk smack about others (Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, and those dang Zidonians).
Psalms has a non-specific reference to it. And then Proverbs goes overboard. Lots of abomination in Proverbs. Lying, unfair business practices, pride, lots of `wickedness' references, divers weights and divers measures (Deuteronomy 25:13-14 also warns against having them. WTF?), scorn, not listening to the truth, and being unjust are all noted as abominations.
Isaiah says incense is an abomination (Isaiah 1:13) even though I KNOW they used some in Church. And not the groovy vanilla or nice-smelling kind either. I know, I know. Isaiah is actually ranting against some people by letting them know that the Lord is not impressed with meaningless prayers and rituals. More recently, Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you're saying."
Abbrev. version: God knows when you're full of shit. And He doesn't like it.
Anyway, what we're finding out here, is that the meaning of "abomination" seems to mutate from "unclean" when Moses lays out the Jewish Kosher laws in Leviticus, to preserving their religious identity as separate from the other heathen gods of other tribes, to anger at being a hypocrite and a businessman that cares more for money than for the common man. Essentially, `abomination' means that you're breaking a Big Rule.
And if you do an abomination, expect it to be unpleasant for you. Lots of death by stoning, especially for the sexual abominations (like adultery, incest, and bestiality). I mean why such a harsh punishment for a little marital infidelity? Well, you have to consider the context. Again (SPOILER ALERT) the Bible was written a LOOOOONG time ago. Family was everything. Saying something unflattering about your parents could get you stoned (See Commandment #5). Think about that. The first four Commandments are about how we treat/interact with God. This is the VERY FIRST Commandment about how we are supposed to treat each other. Geez Louise, is there a teenager anywhere that hasn't muttered something about how their parents don't know `nuttin'? What's going on HERE?
Again, context. Men literally OWNED their wives and children. It sounds nicer to use the term "patriarchal society", but it means that men used their wives and children to build their influence and business and political base. They could sell them into slavery at any time. They could force their kid to marry somebody else's kid for political curry. Screwing around was literally screwing up their way of life.
Wait, come back! Have I gone so far astray of homosexuality? Wasn't this supposed to be about gay marriage? Stay with me, I'm getting there.
The Bible doesn't have a problem with homosexual sex. WAIT. It's true. The Bible has a problem with male homosexual intercourse. Not lesbianism. Not male on male other-than-penetration stuff. BECAUSE that specific act forced one of the men to 'change genders' and degrade himself to the status of common property (that is, a woman). And a man could NOT be the same as a woman. THAT went against the very underpinnings of ancient Hebrew society.
This was IMPORTANT. It was a Big Rule. Just like eating meat on Fridays today WILL condemn you to hell. Not kidding. There is a Church Law, and you older folks remember, where you are not allowed to eat meat on a Friday because Jesus died on a Friday and any flesh meat is 'unclean' on that day. Is eating meat wrong? No, but the offense goes against a religious responsibility. Just like gender roles in the time of Moses. Is that shrimp and scallop linguine I ate last week going to make me burn in eternal damnation for all time? What about that steak last Friday? I hope not. But I don't make the rules. But Church Law, both now in the case of steak on Friday (especially during Lent) and eating shrimp in the time of Moses, deemed that it will. Because it is 'unclean' and against the teachings of the day.
Times change.
Just because you live waaaaaay inland and lobsters are so weird looking they give you the heebie-jeebies is probably not the best way to go about building a religion. Likewise, pigs don't chew their cud. All other land animals chew their cud (well, not camels either) and that's weird so pork is OUT. The birds mentioned earlier eat meat. Most birds eat fruit and grains. So the carnivorous birds are OUT.
Purity Laws or Holiness Codes or superstition? Well, AT THE TIME there were very good reasons for them, or at least that was the prevailing thought. I'm not so worried about black cats or walking under ladders or the number 13 so much, but they used to be a big deal.
Everyone has their own way of viewing the world. Other, new ways are strange or weird or bizarre to us at first. Just like it took a while for the church to agree that it was okay to make clothing out of more than one type of cloth (former abomination), we have come to understand that "not popular" does not equate to "evil".
Women used to not be allowed to talk, let alone vote or take leadership roles. The ancients didn't see it that way -- women were to be seen and not heard. But that was THEIR culture, not ours.
Blacks were once popularly believed to be sub-human. The 'racially-superior' whites could buy/sell and do pretty much what they wanted because of the misguided beliefs of the day. It was recognized to be an abomination. We changed the rule.
Jesus TRIED to strip away the outdated teachings of the Old Testament and said that you should:
- Love God with all your heart and soul and mind; and
- Love your neighbor as yourself. (emphasis on that period)
"On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets". (
Matthew 22:37-40)
That's it. Not love your neighbor as long as he's heterosexual. Not love your neighbor if he has a lot of money. It's not supposed to be this difficult.
Love. Not hate. Tolerance. Not fear.
End rant.