What is wrong with Adam and Steve?

I’ve had this blog bouncing about in the hallways of my brain for quite a while now but until today I have worried about what way to tackle the issue at hand.  An issue that oddly still to this day springs controversial opinions and debate.  Homosexuality in the 21st century is still at the forecourt of intense scrutiny with regards to certain religious groups and more specifically denominations of such said groups.  We know in general Christianity, Judaism and Islam inherently discourage and condemn homosexuality and/or homosexuals.  But within the denominations of these religious groups there are softened and hardened stances, for example the Catholic church takes a more laid back approach to homosexuality than the Protestant church.  I want to argue that homosexuality is a natural thing caused by your genes and that to persecute it today is no more different than the persecution of Jewish people (or any religion) for their religion, black people for ethnicity or women for their gender.  All previous examples of much discrimination that yes, religious texts do have surprisingly bold opinions on.

I am a heterosexual man but my opinions grew on this subject out of empathy for what I can only describe as a medieval mindset being pushed upon them.  When I hear of gay people being labeled in the same bracket as murderers, adulterers,  rapists and thieves it provoked such empathic reaction from me that it changed my once bigoted opinion.  There is a general consensus that homosexuality is much more likely to be accepted (or at least tolerated) in secular societies as opposed to religious ones.  SO inevitably, the issue I am going to talk about is the religious one.  No I am not going out to bash it but actually suggest a fair compromise that you will eventually see should be amicable for all parties.

There is leading scientific evidence of the role your genes have in your predisposition to affect your sexuality in later life.  Of course there is social and environmental factors that have been studied (and proven) to affect a persons sexuality and these have been studied under the field of psychology.  So I’m not suggesting there is a “Gay Gene” but rather than there are a host of factors that affect the potential sexuality of a person and that the mixture of these should make the potential outcome seem more natural than abominable. Tests done have confirmed that there is a biological effect to a heterosexual man’s body when he is exposed to the pheromones from a woman and further this was done to see if homosexual men reacted to male pheromones and homosexual women to female pheromones.  Turned out, they did.  So biologically it seems your body is hardwired to react to a certain sex.  There was also a study that showed that female relatives (sisters) of a homosexual man tended to have more children and in general have a higher fertility rate than women who did not have a homosexual brother.  This lead the scientists to correlate the evidence with the theory that a x chromosome is being passed down which directly affects the fertility aspect of the child if it is female and the sexuality of the child if it is male.

There are many more studies but instead of extensively listing them here, I probably would do better to move on to my next point.  So if we can agree it is biological and if you are pro evolution then this bit will be of some but familiar interest to you.  Homosexuality in animals is widespread.  You only have to watch your dog meet another dog and within minutes the bump n grind is happening regardless of how many times you shout “Rover! Leave Butch alone.”  Other mammals that include homosexual behavior is as follows : Bears, rats, cats, cattle, monkeys, dolphins, foxes, giraffes, elephants, horses, goats etc.  This is only the mammals but I think you get the picture.  I only focus on the mammals because that’s what we are and we evolved into the branch of the mammalian tree millions of years ago.  So homosexual behavior is evident in our humanistic biology and now our evolutionary family biology.  I think that if it were a sin to be gay then it is a sin you have no control over and should not be “stoned to death” as Leviticus says.

Speaking of which.  Here is my compromise.  The bible expressively declares that slavery is fine, oppression of women is fine and that homosexuality is wrong.  I would say that in the 21st century we have moved on from oppressing races and genders and that the natural step forward would be to take the same step with sexuality.  The next time you criticize or condemn a person of their sexuality and use religion as your reason why, then remember that same book told you that slavery and chauvinism were fine.

Exodus 21:7 “And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.”

Exodus 21:26-27 “And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.”

Genesis 17:27 “And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.”

or my favourite

Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”

These are just some of my favourites.  I only use the bible as an example because that is were my knowledge of religion lies and if i had a more complete knowledge of the Koran I would talk about it more too.

I think if it is acceptable to cherry pick the bits out of the bible that we as a modern society want to adhere to, then why not do the same with homosexuality.  Granted a lot of Christians are or have changed and this blog is more regarding those who still think they should stone to death homosexuals and tell them endlessly about how their love is unnatural and will wind them up in hell.  Love.. is the most important thing in the universe.  It acts as a rope intrepidly tying the soul of one to another across the vastness and loneliness of life.  Many are lucky to find love but some do not and true love is a rare thing.  Love transcends sexuality, gender, race, species.  It is  the connection of two hearts, two minds, two souls.  (I use soul in the poetic term)  I think to criticize and condemn someone for finding love is disgusting and I think it makes me a better person to accept people of differing sexualities, the same as it makes us a better society for allowing women equal rights and the abolition of slavery and the limiting persecution between ethnicity groups.  If you do have a problem with it and it is religiously fueled then the fairest compromise I am sure we can come to is “Love the sinner, not the sin.”  But I think more can be done than compromise.