On Sep 16, 2009, at 1:08 PM, farmelantj at juno.com wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> "After reading Ratso's reflections on homosex:
> <http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html
>>
> I really do wonder about that splendid "intellectual tradition." The
> language is more high-falutin' than what a Mormon would produce, but
> still..."
>
An example:
"
... in Genesis 19:1-11, the deterioration due to sin continues in the
story of the men of Sodom. There can be no doubt of the moral
judgement made there against homosexual relations. In Leviticus 18:22
and 20:13, in the course of describing the conditions necessary for
belonging to the Chosen People, the author excludes from the People of
God those who behave in a homosexual fashion..."
"no doubt?" In Genesis the supposed "anger of God" against Sodom *preceded* the incident of Lot offering his daughters to the mob in place of the angels and had nothing to do with "homosexual relations," and "homosexual relations" had nothing to do with the simultaneous destruction of Gomorrah. And the cited passages of Leviticus, in the midst of sexual prohibitions applying specifically to women, conspicuously refrain from making any prohibition against "homosexual relations" between or among women (or, for that matter, any form of intercourse by either sex with angels).
> Well that's one reason why in recent years some
> Protestant fundies have been showing greater respect
> towards the Catholic Church. People like Ratzinger
> take much the same stance on issues like gays that
> the fundies take, but they express these positions
> in a much more high-falutin language that gives it the
> appearance of great intellectual sophistication.
> For those Protestant fundies who are seeking to
> attain some degree of cultural and intellectual
> respectability, this is a temptation that's hard
> for them to resist.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos