From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Thu Jan 23 2003 - 18:18:54 EST
>attitudes and actions that result in alienation do not reflect the patterns modeled for us in the life and teachings of Christ<
However, we must also remember statements such as "I come not bring peace, but a sword". We are not to seek to cause alienation, but the gospel can be a stumbling block as well as a light. Thus, alienation can result from faithfulness to Jesus, though our sin is much more frequently the cause.
Regarding Leviticus 18, it forbids incest, simultaneous marriage to sisters, bestiality, adultery, sacrificing children to Molech, sex during the menstrual period, and male homosexual sex. Chapter 20 has most of these plus additional non-sexual issues such as spiritism and unclean foods. I doubt that anyone here would argue in favor of incest, bestiality, or adultery, even if it involved a stable, purportedly loving relationship. Discussing the proper translation of the verses is more plausible (at least Bob's suggestion of allusion to religious prostitution, not the claim that it really means that men cannot have sex with each other in a woman's bed).
>outside of the Levitican prohibitions, there is a thundering silence throughout the OT about same-sex sexual acts.<
Several passages deal with homosexual prostitution, and there is the threat of homosexual rape at Sodom and Gibeon. I presume that you mean a lack of mention of anything that might be a stable, long-term relationship.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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