Which tradition?

[vakkotaur]

temujin9 has mirrored an article that claims gay marriage wasn't always a problem for the Church.

Comments

[vaeladven.livejournal.com]

I find that extremely odd... now I've never read the Bible myself, but I do know there are a few references in there somewhere. The only one I truly know though is the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah.

Not that it matters to me anyway.. this is one of the subjects of the Bible I don't believe in.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Boswell is the leading modern researcher on this subject. Of course he has an ax to grind, being a campaigner for gay rights within the church. His first book on the topic was published years ago. Many others have found similar evidence, too.

The problem is that those who oppose gay relationships so bitterly are driven by emotion and not by logic. These types of arguments are easily dismissed as "wishful thinking."

As for what the Bible actually says, well, it's ambiguous. Mind, I do not believe that civil law or social acceptance should be controlled by the scriptures of a single religion anyway. But even if they were, the New Testament is almost silent on the subject, the only strong reference being a rather dubious one in Paul's epistle to the Romans. And Paul had his own axes to grind and his own paranoias. The Old Testament does have some explicit statements that are quite clear, but in context, we find that if we eat shellfish, wear mixed fiber clothing, or fail to stone prostitutes to death on sight, then we have no reason to repudiate gays or abuse them either.

Personally I don't think civil recognition of gay marriage is all that good an idea. It still leaves us with a society that discriminates badly against single people, even if it does slightly increase the number of non-singles.

--'Tivo