Stinky Bits

I don’t believe Islam is any more inherently homophobic than Christianity or Judaism. The Orlando killer might have been Muslim, but he was also an American, surrounded by hateful, homophobic Christians who love plucking out quotes from their Christian Bible, quotes they claim prove LGBTs are worthy of death and eternal punishment. Allowing homophobic Christians, who tend to be Islamaphobic, to point their accusing fingers at Muslims and claim it’s all their fault would be to let them off the hook for spreading hate themselves. They are guilty, too.

I don’t think religion is in and of itself a bad thing, and I don’t think it’s helpful to ask people to stop being religious. You might as well ask them to stop wearing shoes or eating ice cream. They’re just going to go ahead and do it whether you like it or not. I don’t think it’s helpful to blame religious people in general. Sweeping and broad condemnation is too easy and unfair, and I certainly wouldn’t want the shooting in a gay nightclub to lead to a shooting in a church, or a mosque or a synagogue.

I also don’t want to deprive anyone of genuine beliefs that give them true comfort in this life no matter what I think of the beliefs myself. However, I think it is right and proper to ask religious people to let go of the homophobia in their religion and to denounce it and shun it. I think it is right and proper to ask people to stop being fundamentalist.

I have often encountered LGBTs and other liberal minded people who want to cling to the brand of Christianity they grew up with by recasting it and reinterpreting the clobber passages. They will claim that all of those passages in the Bible that are used against LGBTs have been misinterpreted. But I find some of their arguments to be specious, and I don’t think this defense of biblical literalism and belief in biblical inerrancy will work. There will always be people who will interpret the Bible in the very way you don’t want them to interpret it. The Bible is simply too dense, too vague, and we are too far removed from the culture that produced it for it not to be wide open to interpretation.

I don’t think everything the ancients believed and wrote down was wonderful, beautiful and true. And I don’t think faith requires you to believe that. Belief in God and Jesus do not require you to believe Paul and the author of Leviticus were perfect. I think Christians have to have the courage to say that if the homophobic reading of Paul is correct, than that simply means that Paul, at least in regard to homosexuality, was a dumb ass. It’s not really hard to think Biblical authors were all too human if you open up your eyes and allow some of the horrendous things in the Bible to sink in. Doesn’t mean your faith is of no value or the Bible as a whole is worthless. But there are some bits in there that stink to high heaven, and I’m not just talking about the clobber passages.

Please stop making excuses and lending credence to hate.