This is the place:
This is the place:
THE BIBLE - ON THE HYPOCRISY OF THOSE WHO USE LEVITICUS TO CONDEMN HOMOSEXUALITY
Leviticus 18:22:
"You shall not lie with a male as those
who lie with a female; it is an abomination."
Leviticus 20:13:
"If a man lies with a male as those
who lie with a woman, both of them have committed
an abomination and they shall surely be put
to death."
Author's Note: Both of these verses refer not to homosexuals
but to heterosexuals who took part in the
baal fertility rituals in order to guarantee
good crops and healthy flocks. No hint at
sexual orientation or homosexuality is even
implied. The word abomination in Leviticus was used for anything that
was considered to be religiously unclean
or associated with idol worship.
Because these two verses in Leviticus (18:22
and 20:13) have been used more than any other
Bible texts to condemn and reject gay and
lesbian people, the following material is
given to help you think objectively about
traditional abusive use of the Bible regarding
homosexuals.
The use of Leviticus to condemn and reject
homosexuals is obviously a hypocritical selective
use of the Bible against gays and lesbians.
Nobody today tries to keep the laws in Leviticus.
Look at Leviticus 11:1-12, where all unclean
animals are forbidden as food, including
rabbits, pigs, and shellfish, such as oysters,
shrimp, lobsters, crabs, clams, and others
that are called an "abomination."
Leviticus 20:25 demands that "you are
to make a distinction between the clean and
unclean animal and between the unclean and
clean bird; and you shall not make yourself
an abomination by animal or by bird or by
anything that creeps on the ground, which
I have separated for you as unclean."
You can eat some insects like locusts (grasshoppers),
but not others.
Leviticus 12:1-8 declares that a woman is
unclean for 33 days after giving birth to
a boy and for 66 days after giving birth
to a girl and goes on to demand that certain
animals must be offered as a burnt offering
and a sin offering for cleansing. Nobody
today who claims to be a Christian tries
to keep these laws, and few people even know
about them! Why do you think that most people
don't know about them?
Read Leviticus 23 to see the detailed regulations
concerning "complete rest" on the
Sabbath day and demands of animal sacrifices
to be carried out according to exact instructions.
Leviticus 18:19 forbids a husband from having
sex with his wife during her menstrual period.
Leviticus 19:19 forbids mixed breeding of
various kinds of cattle, sowing various kinds
of seeds in your field or wearing "a
garment made from two kinds of material mixed
together." Leviticus 19:27 demands
that "you shall not round off the side-growth
of your heads, nor harm the edges of your
beard." The next verse forbids "tattoo
marks on yourself." Most people
do not even know that these laws are in the
Bible and are demanded equally with all the
others.
Why don't fundamentalists organize protests
and picket seafood restaurants, oyster bars,
church barbecue suppers, all grocery stores,
barber shops, tattoo parlors, and stores
that sell suits and dresses made of mixed
wool, cotton, polyester, and other materials?
All of these products and services are "abominations"
in Leviticus. When have you heard a
preacher condemn the demonic abomination
of garments that are made of mixed fabrics?
The warning is given in Leviticus 26:14-16
that "If you do not obey me and do not
carry out all of these commandments, if instead, you reject
my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances
so as not to carry out all my commandments ...I, in turn, will do this
to you: I will appoint over you a sudden
terror, consumption and fever that shall
waste away the eyes and cause the soul to
pine away; also, you shall sow your seed
uselessly, for your enemies shall eat it
up." The list of punishments and
terrors that will come from not keeping all of the commandments continues through many
verses.
Read what Jesus said in Matthew 7:1-5 about
hypocrites who judge others. "Do not judge lest you be judged yourselves...
Why do you look at the speck in your brother's
eye, but do not notice the log that is in
your own eye? ...You hypocrite!"
If you have been led to misuse Leviticus
and other parts of the Bible in order to
condemn and hate and reject people, you are
on the wrong path. Jesus quoted only
one passage from Leviticus: "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself." (19:18).
Jesus used Leviticus to teach love. Many
false teachers use Leviticus and other writings
to condemn, humiliate and destroy.
I know which approach seems truly Christian
to me. Jesus never condemned homosexuals
or even mentioned anything that could be
taken as a reference to sexual orientation.
Any charge against Gays and Lesbians based
on the life and teachings of Jesus has to
be dismissed for a lack of evidence!
The use of Leviticus to judge and condemn
anyone today is ludicrous and absurd in the
light of the total content of the book.
To call the content of the Book of Leviticus
the "word of God" and try to enforce
any part of it today is without support in
the teachings of Jesus and in the letters
of Paul.
Jesus in Mark 7:18-23 chided his disciples
for their lack of spiritual understanding.
Jesus and his disciples had been condemned
by the religious leaders because they did
not wash and eat according to the Law.
Jesus said, "Are you too so uncomprehending?
Don't you see that whatever goes into your
mouth from the outside cannot defile you;
because it does not go into your heart, but
into your stomach, and is eliminated? (Thus
Jesus declared all foods clean.").
And Jesus added, "That which proceeds
from within you, out of your heart, defiles
you. Evil thoughts, abusive sex acts,
thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting,
wickedness, deceit, not caring, envy,
slander, arrogance and foolishness: all of
these evil things proceed from within and
defile you."
Paul also rejected the absolute commands
of Leviticus in Colossians 2:8-23, where
he said, "If you have died with Christ to the
elementary principles of the world, why,
as if you were living in the world, do you
submit yourself to decrees, such as, 'Do
not handle, do not taste, do not touch!'
(which all refer to things destined to perish
with the using) in accordance with human
commandments and teachings? These are matters
which have, to be sure, the appearance of
wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement
and severe treatment of the body, but are
of no value against human indulgence." (2:20-23). Paul declared in 2:14 that
Jesus has "canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us which was
hostile to us; and Jesus has taken it out
of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
Many people have answered the argument that
most of the "abominations" in Leviticus
referred to food by saying that the people
back then knew that pork was unhealthy, and
that is why pigs were declared to be unclean.
If you follow that logic, you would declare
anything that is unhealthy to be an "abomination."
We know that cigarettes, alcoholic beverages,
fat food and many other things are unhealthy;
so why are they not also called "abominations"
and condemned by the rabid Bible literalists
with protests and pickets against cigarette
machines, all liquor stores and bars, all
fast food outlets, and any store that sells
anything that is unhealthy? The reason
is simple. The use of Leviticus to
condemn and reject anyone is impossible to
justify in the light of the facts.
The use of Leviticus to condemn and reject
homosexuals is absurd and makes literal legalistic
bible based religion look ridiculous.
- Excepted from "The Six Bible Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuals," by Rembert Truluck, via Steps To Recovery From Bible Abuse