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Tuesday, August 1, 2006

God’s Glorious Gays

Posted by on August 1 at 17:32 PM

There’s been a lot of Christian bashing on the Slog recently, but today in the news room we received an Envelope of Hope. Or at least I received an Envelope of Hope; Erica C. Barnett and other staffers wouldn’t touch said Envelope because it bulged suspiciously and bore giant Disney postage stamps, so they shuffled it off onto the lowest rung of the short Stranger ladder. The envelope turned out to contain a 23-page manuscript entitled, “Article for publication: The Scriptures and Homosexuality”

Judging by the Constitution-style cursive, the deeply embedded musty smell and the sheer length of the opus, I’d say it’s written by an old guy. That, or it’s from prison. The author doesn’t give his age, but says we have “full and unequivocal permission to call me a `gay Seventh-day Adventist’ if you like, or some other expression, including `Native American gay man’.

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The most immediately legible part of the letter is the post-script, so I read that first. It says we need not fear prosecution for printing his article

“It is in no way `reviling’ the judges, nor is it `libel.’ No, I do not consider the five Supreme Court judges `totally evil.’ The judges are wicked, yes; but they are a mixture of good and evil, and can still do something good, and still fulfill a useful function in society.”

The very lengthy and rather scholarly argument of Native American gay man is that the Bible does not ban “same-sex” marriage because gender is not strictly binary as “the male comes from the woman, so he is a `he-she.’ The woman comes from the male, so she is a `she-he.’” Most of the pages are taken up with debunking traditional interpretations of the anti-gay hot spots in the Bible Leviticus, Romans and explaining God’s true, pro-gay love.

The conclusion gets a bit more Anno Domini:

This is what the Bible has to say about Judges Alexander, C. Johnson, J. Johnson, Madsen, and Sanders: `Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith… having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, FORBIDDING TO MARRY, and commanding to abstain from breads which God created to be received with thanksgiving…’ Nothing more needs be said about the five pagans who trashed Christ, expressing their utmost contempt for him. End of essay.

I tried to read through the whole letter. I really did. I made it to page three. Thanks for sending it in, anyway, gay Seventh-day Adventist. It’s always nice to know who are our most avid readers.


CommentsRSS icon

All religious people are stupid. Christians will not allow gays to marry, and Jews believe god tells them to kill Lebanese women and children. Religion is a farce.

Unpaid intern:

Please do not feed the trolls.

Unpaid intern, please publish your resume before you leave The Stranger, ok? :-)

Please, please, please print this letter. I wanna read it.

Well, I grew up Seventh-day Adventist, and I have to say that the perspective expressed by the author of this epistle is hardly representative, unfortunately. Most SDAs are fairly well-aligned with the Dr. Dobson types these days. One reason I no longer attend church is because the church took a strong "moral" stance against gay marriage while failing to do the same against the latest war in Iraq (SDAs are traditionally pacifist, like Quakers). Recent reaction against gay marriage is strong in the church, while *true* traditional church values (like pacifism) are falling by the wayside.

um, the stranger offices have carpet? fancy.

Wow. That was fascinating.

Did anyone notice that Religion is Stupid revised his traditional rant?

Good for you, RIS!

OMG - did you notice this:
"commanding to abstain from breads which God created to be received with thanksgiving"

That's the Atkins diet!!! The end times are indeed nigh. Eeeeerrriiieeee!

All christians are idiots. The believe all the rot in the bible and try to force others to believe it to. It's the christians fault there are wars and oppression.

Okay i will speak since some common sense needs to be said here.

The person needs to get out from his little bubble and quit sending this propaganda without position...he is so desperate to get people into his heresy that he brings up things that are that far out of context...anyone with a smidgeon of biblical knowledge would know that he is just full of bs.

RIS,where do you come up with this propaganda about Jews believing God ordained them to kill Lebanese women and children? When your enemies use women and children as human shields and shoots from behind them, you really have no choice in the matter.

ihc....all of us are idiots huh? We believe everything in the bible huh? There is a good reason for that...the bible is completely true. Where do you get off blaming us for was and oppression? The Roman Empire was already bloodthirsty and oppressive before Jesus came in the flesh. Furthermore, all lifestyles condemned in the bible (including homosexuality) have been shown to lead to lower life expanctancies....is this what Jesus meant when He said that He came to give us life and more abundantly?

Jews do not kill Lebanese because god told them to. The bible gave Israel to the Jewish people. Some people in this world do not respect that. If Jews drop a bomb on an apartment building, it's not their fault if the people inside die. Whoever built the apartment building shouldn't have built it where the bomb was going to fall.


Christians believe god made the world and that homosexuals are evil...it says so in the bible. That's why religion is so good and why Jews and Christians are such kind generous people.

I know plenty of kind and generous atheists and homosexuals. I have found some people of organized religions to be self-righteous and bigoted. That said, I've met many wonderful Christians. Those who I believe to be truly upholding their faith are the ones who live their lives according to their principles, and show caring for all others, even those like me doomed to a life of hellfire by their standards. Doesn't it say in the Bible, "judge not lest ye be judged?"

The Bible plainly states that God gave the Land to the Jewish people as an everlasting possession. Israel belongs to the Jews.

My favorite quote:

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, good people do good things and bad people do bad things.
But good people do bad things because of religion."

Yes, and as two different religions go into battle each believes God is on their side.

The Jews won't eat bacon bits because of religion and kill innocent people. The Christians try to prevent us from seeing porn movies and kill innocent people. All religions are for lunatics.

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