Gays Are Taking Us to Hell?

Part of me wishes right-wing zealots like Fred Phelps or the ones who far too often post on Associated Content (because no one else will, right?) were really straw men set up by left-wing activists to make Christians look silly. Unfortunately, by all accounts, the Westboro Baptists are genuine, and a surprisingly high number of Christians in the United States and abroad think that acceptance of homosexuality is making God turn his back on America, or will bring the end times, or some other complete hogwash such as that, especially since they talk of our society accepting homosexuality and not themselves as a person.

For the record, here are the Ten Commandments, and how often their violation is accepted:

1. No gods before God - Isn't our society fueled mostly by money and material consumption? Isn't the Dow Jones Index more of a "God" to our people than the one in the sky ever was or will be?

2. No Idols or Graven Images - Broken all the time, depending on your interpretation.

3. No using the Lord's Name in Vain - God damn, we break this one all the time - Christians, too.

4. Remember the Sabbath Day - First, the papacy moved the recognized Sabbath day centuries ago. Second, people work seven days a week all the time - and we as a society actively promote this without thought. In fact, a time-tested tradition of protestant America is the Sunday dinner, prepared with full effort on the holy day. Saturdays and Sundays are no more sacred to most Christians or Americans than Wednesday.

5. Honor your Father and Mother - Why doesn't Westboro protest children who mistreat their parents? Why don't they hold up signs about neglect?

6. No Murder - Why don't they protest the military or capital punishment?

7. No Adultery - Why is this not protested the way homosexuality is?

8. No Theft - Why aren't petty thefts protested as much as homosexuality?

9. No False Witness - Isn't it hypocritically incongruent that they lie about homosexuals in order to vilify them?

10. No Coveting - HA!!! Almost everywhere you look in this country there is advertising designed to get you to covet what all the cool people already have. Whether it's the hyper-expensive clothes or the grill at Wal-Mart, our economic promotes - heck, is even based on - people coveting what their neighbor has. So often those people who blather on about how gays are destroying America head straight to Target or Sears to buy more useless crap they don't really need because someone else had it and they thought it was cool.

With all these commandments being routinely broken by both Christians and non-Christians, I find it hard to take these people seriously. We have a whole economic system founded on violating God's Commandments, but apparently the USA is going straight to hell because two people of the same sex act on some kind of attraction and I don't care about it. Okay!

So what Biblical basis does the anti-homosexuality have? Well, there is one line in Leviticus that says God doesn't like it and another that says you are to kill both men who engaged in sex. There are some other references spread throughout the Old Testament, but let us remember that this is all part of Mosaic Law. For the uninformed out there, Mosaic Law was the law given to rule the ancient Hebrews.

Also included besides the laws against homosexuality are the Kosher Laws (a lengthy section about not eating pork, clams, oysters), instructions on how to sacrifice animals properly, special laws about menstruation I won't go into, a provision against men with damaged testicles worshiping God, special provisions about touching dead things, disgusting laws about semen I won't go into, a provision about marrying your sister-in-law, and a law against wearing fabrics of more than one blend.

For the record, that means homosexuality in the Bible is the rough equivalent of mistouching a dead animal, wearing a polyester blend jacket, eating some bacon, having testicular cancer, or ejaculating "outside the proper area."

Not to go too deep into Protestant theology, but the reason Christians do not worry about Mosaic Law anymore is that common thought dictates that a) it was more of a societal code for the ancient Hebrews and b) Jesus created a new, greater Law for humanity. Does Jesus Christ - THE Lord and Savior - ever say one stinking word about homosexuality? NO. In four canonized gospels and a few other apocryphal sources, not one line does Jesus speak against homosexuality. NOT ONE.

As a divine being incarnate, don't you think Jesus would have maybe said something if it bothered him that much? Maybe mentioned it at breakfast some day? Remember, he lived during the Roman period of rule - it's not like homosexuality was a big secret.

"But," you hear Mr. Right Wing Loon claim, "the Apostle Paul said that homosexuals can never get into heaven!" For this I have two responses. First, Paul was a fallible mortal like all of us. His words simply do not carry the weight of Jesus' or Moses'. Second, he includes homosexuals in a list also including the following: drunks, fornicators, and extortionists. Each of those independently has a much higher percentage of the population than homosexuals, with fornicators being well over 95%.

So why is it the homosexuals that are leading us to hell? Why, when our whole society has been accepting other sin for years? Why, with so little biblical basis and so much other sin occurring - much of which directly violates the teachings of Jesus Christ - do these people (mostly men) focus their assault so heavily on homosexuality?

Is it because they think they've chosen an easy target and do not want people to question their beliefs? Or is it because they have a secret fear of homosexuality, as some recent psychological research has pointed out?

I have no problem if Christians want to rip on homosexuality - as long as they do it in proportion, place the works of Jesus first, and make sure they're living by the same law that they preach. Unfortunately, hardly any of them are.