More from Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s interview on NPR’s Diane Rehm show on Thursday, June 29…
Diane Rehm reads an e-mail from Lynn in Georgia asking “Please discuss your opinion on gay life in biblical times, what the Bible says about gay life, and where she sees the gay community participating in organized religion in the near future.”
Katharine Jefferts Schori: I think the first part of her question is highly significant. Because the few places in the Bible it does say something about same-sex relationships–when we do the scholarship, we quickly discover that a number of those are really talking about situations of exploitation, or situations as obtained in the Roman Empire where a centurion or other Roman male often kept a slave. A young boy, or a pubescent boy who served him in a variety of ways, including providing sexual favors. That is often what Paul is excoriating in his commentary.
Katharine Jefferts Schori (continued): The passages in Hebrew scripture that speak about same-sex relationships are really speaking out of a different kind of understanding of the world, where it was not appropriate to mix kinds of things. It wasn’t appropriate to mix the kinds of clothing that one wore, it wasn’t appropriate to mix spotted sheep and plain-colored sheep–it comes from a different understanding of what “right order” looks like in the world.
The second part of the question, she asks about the place of gay and lesbian people in today’s church. I firmly believe that gay and lesbian Christians bless us all by their presence, and we need to continue to work at finding a way to include them in all aspects of the community’s life.
Maybe some of the above can come in handy next time someone goes on about “what the Bible says” about homosexuality. As with much of the Bible, it’s all about context, baby. And a lot of people never go to the trouble of learning about the culture and times the writers were addressing.
More of the Jefferts Schori interview here.
http://realreligiousleft.blogspot.com
Thanks Renee. This was quite a rather de j’vue experience for me. These same questions and discussions were very prominent in 1972 when I participated in them. In fact, for amoment I thought. . .”What? haven’t we already been there and done that?” But generations have grown up since those days and surely there are many more that have not been involved in such discussions than have these days.
Perhaps all of progress and the painful inch by inch movement forward is nothing more than a forever repeating of what is known for those with the integrity and desire to educate themselves.
Hugs
Shirl
Thanks for the hugs. 🙂 It does certainly feel like we should have “been there, done that” already. But so many people have never even really talked about these issues. They’ve got these “gut” responses, and unfortunately there are people out there who are very good at manipulating those to advance their own goals.
I’ve just been writing some thoughts on the “fish wars” (Jesus fish, Darwin fish, etc.) Click.
And related to the topic of this post, Susan Russell, President of the Episcopalian GLBT group Integrity, just told her “coming out” story on her blog. (It was 10 years ago today.)
Homosexuality is an abomination. That is adjacent to the passage that indicates that combining the fruits of the animal (wool) and the fruits of the field (cotton, linen) in one garment is an abomination.
SO why do all the people who abhor homosexuality on biblical grounds mix the fruit of field with the fruit of petroleum?