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The recent claims of certain Christian denominations:
Southern Baptists:
Homosexuals are not children of God:
Southern Baptist Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, which obstinately stated, "The state must use...confinement and even execution" to prevent gays and lesbians from parenting children.”
Keith Fourner, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, writes, Homosexual marriage directly attacks the family which is the most vital cell in society. The family is the first government, the first church, and the first school. We must not allow this vital cell, the rock upon which society is built, to be inculturated with a perversion that will destroy it, and with it the future of our children and grandchildren.
The Vatican says that gay men cannot be priests because they cannot image Christ: Homosexuals are intrinsically evil, objectively disordered.
Reverend Gino Concetti, a staff theologian for L’Osservatore Romano and spokesman for the pope, wrote in the Vatican daily paper in anticipation of the Dutch government’s recognition of same-sex marriage:
Homosexuals are naturally incapable of assuring the paternal and maternal image with which a child has need to grow up healthy and balanced...In modern society, there's already an army of children who are suffer because of the disintegration of the family. With adoption by homosexuals, that army will be destined to grow.
Jerry Falwell:
I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen [the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001].'
We are familiar with the words of abuse: abomination, pervert, sinner, murders, pathological, not-normal, sick, etc.
We are scapegoated, shamed, abused, and made targets of violence. This is Biblical abuse. Using the Bible as a weapon is morally and spiritually wrong. It is a text of grace….
We live in a heterosexist society: Heterosexism presumes everyone is heterosexual. It erases our lives, makes us invisible, non-existent. It trivializes at best as unsignificant and as the worst sinner.
To be a gadfly and to expose that presumption: When some tells me that the just went to a wedding. I ask, “a same-sex wedding or opposite sex wedding?” This keeps open the space that there is more than one option. In human relationships When it comes to the Bible, the presumption is that everyone is heterosexual: Naomi and Ruth? Jonathan and David? How many same-sex unions have used those lines in prayers, blessings or as readings during their service? The translesbigay community has been doing that for some 30 years. But when heterosexuals read these stories in the Bible they are blind to same-sex relationships.
Heterosexuals at same-sex unions often jolted by the fact that people attracted to the same-sex may be in the Bible. Take Back the Word; But we often are also some time surprised.
In my new book, I speak of “Heterotextuality.”
No, heterotextuality is not a new sexual orientation. It refers to the presumption of heterosexuality in reading the Bible. Everyone is heterosexual, present and past, The Bible is rampant with heterosexuality. Close examination shows that is not, even though there is a tremendous amount of begetting.
How could be otherwise if it is the word of God?
The presumption of heterosexuality has blinded heterosexual scholars and clergy alike to the true nature of today’s gospel reading.
The story of the centurion appears not only appears in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 but also in John 4:46-54. Most scholarly opinion finds the Matthean story the more original version.
Matthew uses the word youth (pais). Luke uses the term servant (doulos) in place of youth (pais) in Matthew’s version. With pervasiveness of pederasty in the Greco-Roman world, any first century C.E. reader would instantly understand the relationship between the Roman centurion and his boy as pederastic.
Human sexuality was constructed differently in the ancient world: Young girls were married when they were 12 or 13 to men usually twice their age. Marriage was usually arranged by families, and young girls did not marry because of love.
Many young boys, 12-16, entered into a pederastic relations with older males.
Biblical Robin Scroggs writes,
The practices of pederasty emerged out of the dominant social matrix of the day. In some quarters, pederastic relations were extolled, in almost all quarters condoned…it is important to keep in mind that the Greco-Roman pederasty was practiced by a large number of people in part because it was socially acceptable, while by many other people actually idealized as a normal course in the process of maturation. (Scroggs, 27)
Tom Hanks notes, “In light of the common practices of Roman soldiers, it is best understood as a sexual relationship.” (Hanks 47-8)
Fact 1: Roman centurions were not allowed to many during their period of military service. The centurion found physical comfort from his slave.
But Luke uses the word slave (doulos) rather than suggestive term “youth.” Is that any less sexual than slave? Luke notes that the centurion’s slave was precious or dear or intimate (entimos).
The slave was ill and close to death. The centurion sent some Jewish elders to Jesus. They say, The centurion is worthy of you having do this for him He built our synagogue. Not only is the Roman centurion in a homosexual relationship, but he is generous to the conquered Jewish community. He differs from the normal Roman occupiers. He has earned the respect of many the Jews within the community because he has shown respect for their religion, and in his generosity he has contributed and built a synagogue.
Jesus goes to heal the centurion’s lover. Buy the centurion again send friends:
Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.”
Jesus’ reaction is not condemnatory. In fact, he says that there is no greater faith in Israel. Did Jesus understand the nature of the centurion’s relationship with his slave? Of course, he did. He did not choose to condemn the homosexual relationship between them. He did not tell the centurion had to be celibate or to marry a woman.
How did the religious conservatives and critics deal with his healing of the Roman centurion’s lover?
The religious critics complain--- Does he not know that the centurion is one of those sinners condemned? Obviously he does not remember his Torah from Leviticus: “If a man sleeps with a man, it is abomination and they should be put to death.” Jesus should have allowed the lover to die. He deserved. In fact, they both deserve death.
Echoes of the earlier modern church condemnations:
But Jesus practiced a politics of compassion. God’s compassion outweighed religious proscriptions. Healing and restoring a love relationship were more important……
Jesus’ response: No greater faith. A centurion, having no greater faith and in a homosexual relationship. Just like reaction; you can’t be lesbian and Christian.
Certainly the early church was not concerned, about Jesus’ healing of the Centurion’s lover when confronted by a responsible, loving pederastic relationship, but rather held it subordinate to the question of faith.”(231)
This story undermines the contemporary religious righteous who maintain that you cannot be queer and Christian. Jesus acknowledges that there is no greater faith in all of Israel than in this Roman centurion actively involved in a responsible homoerotic relationship.
It is ironic for me how many years I struggled with being gay and loving Christ. Each Sunday like millions of Catholics I recited at communion time: “Lord, I am unworthy that you come under my roof, but just say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Enough such prayers may heal the internalized homophobia of many Catholics and other Christians.
Today I look around at the healing that is taking place in this community. I see many of you who have escaped religious abuse; others still struggling with past messages of religious communities that condemned you for your God-gifted sexuality. I say to you: You are gifted. God’s unconditional grace is greater than a church, greater than their abusive messages. Jesus’ compassion outweighs the religious conservatives that fail and are afraid of God’s unconditional grace. I watch the strength of this church to create a culture of love, and I thank God that I also am a part of this culture of love.
Today, I repeat the word of Jesus: I have no greater faith in St. Louis than in MCC of Greater St. Louis.
God Bless You All!
Amen.
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