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ONAN AND HOMOSEXUALITYIf you are familiar with the story of Onan, you are probably wondering what this story has to do with homosexuality. It is a good question. The story of Onan has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality. He was not a homosexual. The account says nothing about him knowing of homosexuals or his attitude toward them. However, the Jewish sages, responsible for the Talmud, use his story to condemn homosexual liaisons. Let us look at the basic story. Onan was the middle of the three children of Judah, son of Jacob and father of the tribe which eventually produced both Kind David and Jesus. His older brother died without producing an heir. In those days, it was customary for the younger brother to take his deceased brother's wife and provide that brother with an offspring. So, Judah, Onan's father, ordered him to do such. According to the account, Onan realized that his biological son, produced in this manner, would not be considered his own. I believe that there was more involved than that. If Onan provided his older dead brother with a son, that child would inherit both the seat of chief of the tribe as well as the oldest's portion of the estate. It meant that Onan would be inferior to his own biological child. It also meant that Onan would lose "financially." The laws of inheritance in those days required that the older brother receive a double portion. This meant that if Onan provided his brother with an heir, Judah's holdings would be divided four ways, with two fourths (or one half) going to this child while Onan would only receive one fourth. However, if Onan retained his status as oldest surviving son, the inheritance would be divided three ways, with Onan receiving two of those thirds or about one and a half times more. It doesn't take much to do the math. Onan would be much better off if he failed in his assigned duty to provide his brother with an heir. According to the scriptural account, Onan insured his failure by practicing the most ancient form of birth control known, premature withdrawal. For this, God struck him dead. Let me pause here to mention the girl, Tamar. I do this because no one ever mentions the girl. They are so hell-bent to use the story of Onan to condemn whatever "sin" they use this story to condemn that they forget that a girl, Tamar, was involved. Tamar had just lost her husband. The account says that her husband committed some sin so grave that God killed him, although it doesn't specify the sin. Now, her husband's younger brother commits a sin, with her, and he is struck down by God. Or, to put it in another perspective, this man sent to her to provide her dead husband with an heir, has sexual relations with her. He pulls out before ejaculation, "spills his seed on the ground," to use the KJV vernacular, and dies on the spot. How did Tamar feel? How did she react to this? Since most of those who use this story to condemn don't even know the name of this girl...since most of those who use this story to condemn never stop to think of the psychological effects of this event on that girl, I have to conclude that their hearts are very cold. How could a feeling person read this story and not wonder how this experience affected Tamar? Now, returning to our theme, what was Onan's sin? Greed might be his sin. He plotted to receive two thirds of his father's estate, or about two and one half times what he would have received had he followed his father's orders. Power mongering might also be his sin. As the first born surviving son of Judah, he would be the patriarch of the tribe instead of just another younger brother. Also, he violated the seventh commandment, "honor thy father and thy mother," the only commandment, as Paul points out, which comes with a promise. What does tradition say Onan's sin was? The Roman Catholic Church used this story to condemn birth control. It overlooked the obvious, Onan's greed and lust for power, as well as his disobedience, and concentrated on the fact that he practiced birth control! According to the Roman Catholic Church, all these other things are inconsequential in comparison to the fact that he engaged in non-productive sex. The conservative Protestant church used this story to condemn masturbation. Many a young man, raised in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, grew up in fear of nocturnal emissions because they had heard that God struck down Onan for masturbation. These young people didn't even know who Onan was, or the circumstances of his so-called masturbation, just that God struck him down for it and that this proves how God loathes those who engage in this activity. Here again, we find the idea of non-productive sex, but even so, masturbation is quite a stretch. However, the most far fetched interpretation of this story was mentioned at the beginning of this essay. The ancient Jewish sages, who wrote the Talmud, relate this story to the practice of homosexual behavior. The Talmudic text reads that homosexuality is a sin because "they Onanize one another." That is homosexuals commit the sin of non-productive sex on each other. Again, the scripture says that Onan realized that his own offspring would not be considered his own, and that is as far as the scriptural account goes in interpretation. A little bit of knowledge about inheritance practices of the day allows us to add to this the idea of greed and usurpation of power that was not his own. We can also easily throw in disobedience of parents. Onan's practice of premature withdrawal was only a tool that he used to achieve his means. It was no more the crime than driving an automobile is a crime when it is used for the purpose of going to a bank to rob it and then making the get away. The case is often made that the driver of the get away vehicle participated in the robbery, but not that he committed a crime because he drove a car. Nor should the case be made that the means Onan used to accomplish his purpose was the crime. If I were Onan today, I would resent all these interpretations. All he wanted to do was ensure a better stake in life, something that most of us today would not have a problem with. In fact, if this story happened today, on the cusp of twentieth/twenty-first century in America, most of us would condemn his father and not him. Yet, those who make a practice out of bending scripture for the sake of proving their prejudices have made Onan into a sexual deviant, no matter which of the three erroneous above interpretations you consider. Surely, we strive to be better than this, today. PREVIOUS ESSAY NEXT ESSAY |