Dear Dr. Laura

An Abomination

A few years ago, Dr. Laura Schlesinger said on her radio show that homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstances.

A letter to her appeared on the internet a few days later:

Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual  lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination.  End of debate. I do need some advice from you however on some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness (Leviticus 15: 19-24). The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking but most women seem to take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Leviticus 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Leviticus 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?

7. Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20 or is there some wiggle room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Leviticus 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/poly blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Leviticus 24:10-16). Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Leviticus 20:14).

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I’m confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

Dan Savage

A few days ago, gay activist, and founder of the “It Gets Better” movement, Dan Savage got into trouble for imploring that parts of the bible are bullshit, and calling some teens who walked out of his address “pansies”.

Jay Michaelson over at The Daily Beast has some good arguments. Letters like the one above to Dr. Laura, and speeches given by Dan Savage that call parts of the bible “bullshit” often play into the hands of homophobes who will use those actions to back up their claims that we are a godless bunch of pedophiles. Never mind that the religious right gets to pick and choose their bible verses.
In my family, we are burdened with not one, but two preachers. Lots of other nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins also express varying degrees of religiosity, ranging from “I go to church on Easters and for funerals” to “Praise the lord, look at that bird that God made, sitting so pretty on the fence today.”
While I have not taken a census, it is a sure bet that more than half of my family either actually cast a vote for Rick Santorum during the presidential primary run, or would have, had he gotten to their state before he dropped out of the race.
All of these people, my family, profess to love and care about me. Some of them do so without reservation, and I’m comfortable when I’m around them, but others in my family will say things like “You know I love you, but I can’t accept your lifestyle” or some other version of the worn out “love the sinner, hate the sin” maxim. It is hurtful, especially when I think they are being hypocrites, but I say nothing because the alternative is to be completely isolated from family.
And, there are a few in my family who are so uncomfortable around me that they rarely speak to me, or won’t acknowledge that I have a partner, or, should my partner actually be present, they avoid him like he had just crawled out of a septic tank. I’ve decided to just avoid those members of my family as much as possible, even though it sometimes makes me a bit sad.
I think that people who lead a Christian lifestyle are basically good people, and that it is a good life to live. There are lots of things about being a Christian that benefit society as a whole, and it can be like having a large extended family, with lots of positive social implications.
I’m not asking anyone to follow me into the bedroom and observe my sexual habits. Of course, they are welcome to watch if that’s their particular thing, but what I do in bed, and who I do it with is no more an indication of the type of person I am than it is for any of my relatives who are heterosexual and have wives. I’m not asked to express my opinion on their private lives, but I wonder what it would be like if they found themselves in my shoes for a month?
Imagine a society where every advertisement, every billboard, every major television show was dripping in sex appeal. Perfumes, lotions, soaps, cars, clothing – all using sexual images to market them to make you feel younger, sexier, more attractive and worthwhile. Sounds silly doesn’t it? (I’m very tongue in cheek here, by the way.) Now – imagine that all of these images you saw that were promoting toothpaste, underwear, cars, perfumes or clothing were addressed primarily to the homosexual male community, and that heterosexuals were marginally accepted, and certainly made to feel excluded, left out, or even criminal.
That’s the kind of world I grew up in – where even among those I loved the most, I felt I had to pretend to be someone or something I wasn’t. Just so I could feel warm, loved and happy. It was a struggle that I often lost with myself – especially into my teen and young adult years. When you spend all your energy being one person on the outside, and another on the inside, you are exhausted.
It is confusing to me why so many supposedly intelligent people accept the Bible at face value and believe that every word in it is true. Or, if you believe it is 100% true, why pick and choose those parts of it that you obey? If you are going to use Leviticus to condemn homosexuals, why don’t you also use the other parts of Leviticus? What makes homosexuality any worse of a biblical crime than cutting your hair or eating pork? They have the same religious penalty. Like Dan Savage, I call bullshit.
Using the bible, or your religious belief to deny any segment of society civil benefits is just wrong, especially here in the United States where we formed our country based on a desire to separate government and religion.
I suppose there is no solution to this mess. Even though slavery was outlawed 150 years ago, in many parts of our country, people of color were treated as 2nd hand citizens in the law until just 30 or 40 years ago. Women could not vote, and were considered property, with any belongings they brought to a marriage considered property of the husband. We’ve corrected many of these injustices with laws, but it hasn’t changed how people feel in many parts of the country.
Accept me or not, it is your call, but I ask that you don’t base your decision on a dodgy old book of uncertain origin that has been badly translated over and over again until there is no way to know what it may have originally been. And, if you insist on using that book, then don’t be a hypocrite about it — follow all the rules within it, not just the ones you like.

1 comment

  1. Well said. Some Christians have a way of promoting their own personal prejudices and hatreds by simply using the Bible as a shelter to hide behind. If they followed biblical instruction to the letter about shellfish, for example, the fishing industry would go bankrupt. It’s a terrible level of hypocrisy, but many feel safe being ignorant. Not knowing facts is so much more comfortable…and so much easier. Human beings will always fear what they don’t know about. Despite computers and other technology, for many Americans, the year is not 2012…but still 1611…the year the King James translation of the Bible was completed.

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