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PART 2 (page 30 of 34)
LONGER FOOTNOTES
Footnote A - The Clobber Passages
Footnote B - Examples of Bible scripture that Raise Some Questions:
a - Should Social Customs of More Than 2,000 Years Ago Be Applied To Modern Times as God's Rules For Our Behavior?
b - Could Paul Have Been Mistaken That All Governmental Authorities Are Approved By God?

Footnote A
The “Clobber Passages” - The Scripture Passages most often used by the organized church to bash homosexuals are:  (http://www.biblegateway.com/ is a great site to do research in the Bible)

1) Genesis 1-2 - The Creation Narrative
This is a story about Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!! I have heard and read that in so many different places. The fact is that it was Adam and Eve. In “The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart”, Peter J. Gomes writes the following pertaining to the creation narrative:

Gary Lynn's Analysis:“…the authors of Genesis were intent upon answering the question ‘Where do we come from?’ Then, as now, the only plausible answer is from the union of a man and a woman…The creation story in Genesis does not pretend to be a history of anthropology or of every social relationship. It does not mention friendship, for example, and yet we do not assume that friendship is condemned or abnormal. It does not mention the single state, and yet we know that singleness is not condemned, and that in certain religious circumstances it is held in very high esteem” (pages 49-50).

In other words, Adam and Eve is the only relationship that would make sense for this specific account. It is a story about creation, and only a procreative (i.e. heterosexual) relationship would be appropriate for this particular story. If someone, in spite of this, were to base his or her opinion of homosexuality on the Creation story alone, their stance would not only be out of context, but also based on a weak argument.
(The Bible, Christianity & Homosexuality by Justin R. Cannon)

2) Genesis 19 - Sodom and Gomorrah - (a paraphrase)
God sent two angels to warn Abraham’s nephew, Lot, about the approaching destruction of Sodom. They came to the city of Sodom and Lot, who was a resident alien in the town at best himself, welcomed them into his home and prepared a meal for them. According to L. R. Holben in What Christians Think about Homosexuality-Six Representative Viewpoints,  "In the violent, tribal society of his time and place, he is to some extent a suspect personage by definition - not one of 'us'.  Add to that reality the fact of his bringing two strangers into his house at night (behind the security of the city's walls and locked gate) and a situation is created in which Lot's neighbors might well feel there was a legitimate reason for concern: the two visitors could be spies, the advance party of the many hostile nomadic groups that perpetually swept the Fertile Crescent pillaging and enslaving the more settled communities in their path."  Then based of these fears, all the men of Sodom, young and old, surrounded the house and asked where the strangers (angels) were, who came to spend the night. They basically shouted, “Where are those men who came to your house? We want to have sex with them!” Lot refused but offered his daughters instead, giving the reason: “Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. Don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof”. The crowd of men insisted on what they wanted and tried to break through the door. The angels ended up pulling Lot into the house and blinding the crowd.

The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was Not Homosexuality
Gary Lynn's Analysis: Attempted Male-on-male Gang Rape and Sodom and Gomorrah. One example of male-on-male gang rape is what conquering armies inflicted on the conquered, the aim of which was to humiliate to the extreme, reducing the conquered male to the role of a owly passive woman, who was considered little better than a slave.  Another example is what individual men or groups of men or gangs did when they wanted to hurt and humiliate men they didn’t like. Clearly this practice was not driven by sexual desire, but by brutality and hatred. Many scholars have concluded that this violence and humiliation, male-on-male gang rape, is what the men of Sodom attempted to do to the 2 strangers (angels) in the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19.  In other words, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the attempted male-on-male gang rape or extreme lack of hospitality [1], not homosexuality. If all the males in the street were homosexuals, the Lord wouldn’t have had to destroy the city to make it disappear. It would have disappeared on its own for lack of offspring in just a couple of generations. Also, it appears that Lot viewed the men in the street as at least bisexuals, not homosexuals, otherwise why would he offer his own two daughters in place of the 2 strangers (angels). We need to remember here that God had already decided to destroy Sodom previous to this story. So whatever the reason for the city’s destruction, it didn’t have anything to do with the specific sin described in this story at that later time. Also remember that Jesus himself pointed out that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was lack of hospitality (Luke 10:10-12): ¹⁰"But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near. ¹²I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. (NASB)  Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, ever.

What Was The Sin Of Sodom and Gamorrah?
Two verses in the book of Ezekiel tells us exactly what it was.
In Ezekiel 16:49,50 (NIV) it says, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen".  

An arrogant, overfed and unconcerned person, someone who does not help the poor or needy is not a hospitable person and yes, attempted gang rape is indeed detestable.                 

John McNeill, a gay former Jesuit priest, notes in The Church and the Homosexual (1976, 1993) how the modern rediscovery that Sodom was destroyed for inhospitality, not homosexuality per se, presents us "with one of the supremely ironic paradoxes of history. For thousands of years in the Christian West the homosexual has been the victim of inhospitable treatment. Condemned by the Church, he [or she] has been the victim of persecution, torture, and even death. In the name of a mistaken understanding of the crime of Sodom and Gomorrah, the true crime of Sodom and Gomorrah has been and continues to be repeated every day."[2]

Modern Christian Family Values?
Before we leave Genesis 19 let us reflect for a moment on the horrid morals displayed in this ancient society.  As Tom Horner writes in Jonathan Loved David, "Here we are face to face with a standard that strikes us as barbaric, to say  the least: women-even a man's unmarried daughters - are [of such low esteem and] not considered as important to him as these two strangers!  Behind this is the ancient Middle Eastern notion that between (male) host and (male) guest there was a sacred bond, and this bond of hospitality must not be dishonored at any cost.  Women were not important in this arrangement.  There is no need for any further explanation.  For there is nothing that can be said that will excuse the crudity of this offering of the girls to be raped instead of the men." [3]

3) Leviticus 18:22 - Israel’s Holiness Code - You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (NASB)
Leviticus 20:13 - Israel’s Holiness Code - If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them. (NASB)

Click Here for Gary Lynn's Analysis

4) Deuteronomy 23:17 - Israel’s Holiness Code - None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. (NASB)

Click Here for Gary Lynn's Analysis

5) Romans 1:18-32 - The Apostle Paul’s lengthy statement.   ¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  ²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.  So they are without excuse; ²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools; ²³and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions.  Their women exchanged natural  intercourse for unnatural, ²⁷and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to things that should not be done. ²⁹They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice.  Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  ³²They know God's decree, that those who do such things deserve to die - yet they not only do them but even applaud those who practice them. (NRSV)

Click Here for Gary Lynn's Analysis

6) 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - “malakoi” and “arsenokoitai”  (9) Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, (10) thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.  (NRSV)

Click Here for Gary Lynn's Analysis

7) 1 Timothy 1:9-10 - “pornoi”, “arsenokoitai”, and “andrapodistai” (9) For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. (10) The law is for people who are sexually immoral (pornoi), or who practice homosexuality (arsenokoitai), or are slave traders (andrapodistai), liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching   (New Living Translation)

Gary Lynn's Analysis: Now that we've dealt with the meaning of arsenokoitai (click Here to go to my review of this word), the meaning of the other 2 Greek words falls fairly well into place.   According to Robin Scroggs in The New Testament and Homosexuality on page 120-121, “pornoi”, “arsenokoitai”, and “andrapodistai” should be translated to mean “male prostitutes [primarily adolescent boys], males who lie (with them) and slave-dealers (who procure them). . . . I thus draw the conclusion that the 3 item vice list in 1 Timothy is not condemnatory of homosexuality in general, not even pederasty in general, but that specific form of pederasty which consisted of the enslaving of boys or youths for sexual purposes, and the use of these boys by adult males.”

8) Jude 6-7 - Sodom and Gomorrah and went after strange flesh   ⁶And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (NASB)

Gary Lynn's Analysis: According to John J. McNeill in The Church and The Homosexual "these books [plus 2Peter 2:4-10]. . .seem to understand that sin as a 'transgression of orders' between human and angelic beings." [4] In other words, this is talking about sex with angels since the strangers in the Sodom and Gomorrah story were in fact angels.  Click Here for more commentary based on John J. McNeill's book from the pen of Reverend Marilyn A. Riedel.  

Here is a link to very good brief analysis of the Clobber Passages on sisterfriends-together.org