Sodomite Suppression Act

[Samven]

Guy who had to study the Bible as part of his degree to the rescuuuuueee!

I'm always extremely sceptical of people using religion to justify homophobia, primarily because I don't think it stacks up. Places like the Philippines have a very large and fairly pro-LGBT society, yet a huge number of its people (including LGBTs) consider themselves Christian/Catholic. Similarly, somewhere like Japan is largely secular and homosexuality isn't strictly-speaking illegal but the nation as a whole lacking a lot in the LGBT rights department. So, whenever I hear someone say, "I am opposed to homosexuality because God says it's wrong", it comes off sounding like "I am opposed to homosexuality - and I am going to use God as an excuse". Because I have difficulty buying that someone who refused to keep talking about love and acceptance even as he was being nailed to a cross would want anyone to victimise anyone.

What people forget is that homosexuality as we understand it is a modern concept. Homosexual attractions are as old as time but the idea of differing sexuality orientations is a relatively new idea in the grand scheme of things and, when you look at what the Bible is actually talking about, it's clear that a lot of its supposedly anti-gay narratives just don't apply to what we would call homosexual couples in the 21st Century. For example? The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often cited as a narrative where God destroys a city for the homosexual acts of its people. The problem is that this homosexuality never actually stated to be the sin of Sodom. Ironic, isn't it, given the definition of "Sodomy"? This comes from a misunderstanding of the text. In the story, the people of Sodom try to rape two angels who come to the village and the village was hit with some fires of divine retribution. Now, people have interpreted this to mean that the sin was homosexuality itself but even a casual look at human history proves that this can't be true. You can't have an entirely gay city, it's just not possible. How do you keep a city going for years and years if no one wants to keep the populace going by mating with the opposite sex? It makes no sense. No, the people of Sodom aren't trying to rape the angels because they're gay - they're doing it to victimise the outsiders, like people have done for years. You know the old Hollywood stereotype of the depraved redneck who says, "We don't take kindly to yer type around these parts - now squeal like a piggy"? Well, think of the Sodomites as an ancient version of that. They're not committing rape because they're gay, they're doing it to pick on the strangers who have come to town.

There's a few more examples I could list but I'll leave you with that one for now.

This proposed law is a dumb idea written by someone who apparently thinks Jesus was a gun totin' ultraconservative psychopath as opposed to the brown-skinned Middle Eastern Jew who went around giving away free health care and telling people to love and care for each other (and that marriage between a man and a woman is not something everyone can accept).