Finally, some intelligent introspection from the religious community

Baptist Minister Oliver "Buzz" Thomas has a really inspiring opinion piece on Yahoo today about religion slowly losing its credibility over the issue of homosexuality. He basically argues that it's becoming more and more apparent that homosexuality is a born trait, and therefore, releases the homosexual of any moral culpability. While I do take issue with the fact that religious people feel like they have to somehow explain homosexuality, as opposed to just accepting it as just one more option for living, it's an encouraging sign.

He begins by comparing it to Galileo proving that the sun is, in fact, the center of the universe, and not the earth, and how much damage that did to the religious community. He also takes the passage from Leviticus (you know, the one about men lying with men, and women with women...abomination...blah blah blah) and basically says, well, if you use this passage, then you have to take them all: being put to death for working on the Sabbath, not touching pig skin (no more football, folks), not going to church if you're menstruating, being put to death for sassing your parents, and on and on. He then goes on to further dissect Paul's argument in the New Testament, saying that Paul was only referring to the commmon practice of older men taking in younger boys as apprentices, and basically making sexual slaves of them. My favorite paragraph of the article:

For those who have lingering doubts, dust off your Bibles and take a few hours to reacquaint yourself with the teachings of Jesus. You won't find a single reference to homosexuality. There are teachings on money, lust, revenge, divorce, fasting and a thousand other subjects, but there is nothing on homosexuality. Strange, don't you think, if being gay were such a moral threat?

On the other hand, Jesus spent a lot of time talking about how we should treat others. First, he made clear it is not our role to judge. It is God's. ("Judge not lest you be judged." Matthew 7:1) And, second, he commanded us to love other people as we love ourselves.

Just what I've always said. One can only hope it happens sooner rather than later. Anyway, it's an interesting read.

He totally hearts the gays.