...but He really doesn't like Trent Lott - Biblical scholarship by Rev. Fish

In a television interview on June 15, 1998, Senator Trent Lott, majority leader of the Senate, was asked if he thought homosexuality was a sin. "Yes, it is," he answered, expressing his concern that "in America right now there's an element that want to make [homosexuality] acceptable." Such a development would clearly be at odds with the values of Senator Lott, as well those of the Religious Right. Homosexuality is sin; sin is bad; hence homosexuality is bad. As the basis for this claim, the Religious Right point, of course, to the Bible. They say that the Bible states that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God. Naturally, this outrages the more liberal Christians, who believe that the Bible says no such thing. A loving God would never say something like that. Guess what? The Religious Right is correct.

There really is just no getting around it. Right there in Leviticus, in pure Old Testament speech. Leviticus 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Or, if you prefer the traditional King James, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Now, you can get all lawyer-ish and nitpick over the definition of "lie with", but you'd have to be a moron not to know what the priests who wrote Leviticus intended. Don't bang your own gender; God don't like it. As much as this might horrify liberals, it's right there, in plain English. (Well, ok, plain Hebrew, but you get my point.) YHWH doesn't like queers. Sorry. Does this mean that Jews and Christians should now rush to join the Right's crusade? Well, hold on a minute. You see, the same chapter of Leviticus also contains such gems as Leviticus 18:18, "And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister," thus demonstrating that God clearly has no problem with other forms of polygamy. Or Leviticus 15:19-21: "And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even... And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even." I think it's a fair guess to say that those who are condemning homosexuality as a sin against God are not out defending the illegal polygamists in Utah, nor bathing in spring water every time the missus reaches that special time. So don't rush to join them unless you're going to stay consistent about what God does and does not like.

The simple fact is, Christianity is a religion that interprets the Scriptures, not follows them literally. It has the ability to interpret Old Testament commandments, like those in Leviticus, thanks to St. Paul, who needed to pitch what was basically a Jewish religion to a Greek population -- who weren't so comfortable with all of Judaism's practices. So Paul devised a little interpretation whereby the old laws represented the old covenant, but now that God had sent Jesus, the old covenant was moot, for Jesus was the new covenant. Hence Romans 4:13: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." The result, of course, is that Christianity found itself free to disregard any Old Testament commandment that it so chose. Of course, it also found itself free to trumpet any Old Testament commandment as "God's will" whenever it was convenient. Such as now. Conclusion? The Bible does state that homosexuality is a sin. Further conclusion? That doesn't matter. And let's not forget the New Testament, for which Paul's decree does not apply. Since these writings are the new covenant, not the old, they're always relevant, right? No Pauline escape clause here. So there's no arguing with Revelation, which says that only 144,000 souls will get to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Or the Gospels, where Jesus says explicitly, "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Or where Jesus notes, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder... Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery." Jesus even declares that Moses and the Old Testament were outright wrong on that last issue. Trent Lott may be condemning gays for going against the arguably relevant Old Testament, but I doubt he's worried about those certainly revelant New Testament proclamations. I'll bet he's not lying awake at night thinking about how he's a wealthy, divorced man, unlikely to qualify for one of those 144K tickets. Senator Lott may wish to re-examine his faith. Thanks to St. Paul, God might hate gays. But He definitely hates rich, divorced guys. I'm sure of it. It's in the Bible.