Stonehenge to Stonewall
or Gay History in a Nutshell

Abominable? No, Ma'am!

by Charlie Emond

Contrary to what the Christian Right would have you believe, not a single one of the ten commandments given to Moses prohibits same-sex activity! In fact when Moses brought them down to the Israelites from Mount Sinai (Exodus:19), he found them worshiping Baal in the form of a golden calf. Remember Baal? He was one of the homoerotic gods of the Canaanites. This made Moses so mad that he smashed the tablets. Maybe he thought that there should have been an eleventh commandment!

Anyway, let's take a look at all the references to homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible. There are actually only two such references: the Holiness Code of Leviticus and the Story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis (which I'll tackle next month).

Now, these references make up about two pages altogether -- a pretty small part of my Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), which runs more than 1000 pages in length. Once again, the impression given by the Bible thumpers is one of continuous condemnation from cover to cover. Not so!

Making It in the Desert

The ancient Hebrews who produced the book were trying very hard to create a name for themselves out there in the desert. As a small, underpopulated tribe, they were concerned about increasing their numbers. One way to do this was to prohibit same-sex activity, which, as we well know, does not produce kids! This might account in part for the Levitical prohibition.

Also, their 'vision thing' was based on the idea that they were singled out by God -- a 'chosen people.' They needed to make this obvious to all comers, so they started on the purity kick. One of the first things to go was the homoerotic temple worship that they'd been just fine with before the Babylonian exile in 700 BC!

It's also thought that, during their captivity in Egypt, they might have been on the receiving end of the ancient Egyptian custom of punitive sodomy. According to The Church and the Homosexual, Egyptians had the custom of sodomizing male prisoners after a battle as a symbol of punishment and domination (and the best our army can come up with is "Don't ask, Don't tell?"). Anyway, this just might have affected the Hebrews' sense of dignity enough to change their thinking on the whole idea.

The Abomination Thing

The Holiness Code of Leviticus is not used at all today -- except for two verses (18:22 and 20:13) often worked into your typical Sunday sermon in Utah: "Thou shalt not lie with man as thou would with a woman; it is an abomination."

What they neglect to tell you is that this is from a long list of 'abominations' nobody cares about anymore.

To begin with, the word "abomination," used in the King James version, is a poor translation! According to Boswell, a clearer translation is "you may go astray because of it." This would certainly be true if you were cruising the nearest oasis while your wife was waiting back at the tent.

What Mr. Preacher also neglects to mention is that this Holiness Code commands you not to eat shrimp, lobster, oysters, rare steak, or sausages. It dictates that if you sleep with another man's wife, both of you must be put to death. It says that you can't get tattoos or read your horoscope. If you are a farmer, there are a whole load of restrictions -- every single one of which is broken by every farmer in America today.

Another 'abomination' is the wearing of fabrics woven of more than one type of fiber. Yet another rule prohibited cutting your hair or beard. Where would we be today if they enforced these? (No, you may not use these verses to establish a local branch of the fashion police!)

Circumcision?

The ritual purity demanded by the Levitical code, though still a distinctive characteristic of some Jewish society today, was put aside for Christians at the Council of Jerusalem in 49 AD. The reason? It was thought that your typical Roman or Greek convert to Christianity would quit if he had to follow it. Another part of the Code required circumcision (before the invention of anesthetics!). And they wondered why it was hard to get converts in the early days! Leviticus was pretty much ignored by early Christian writers.

You ask why fundamentalists selected just these two 'abominations' and ignored all the rest? Well, they were just following a long established Christian custom. When you think that something might be good or bad in your society, first preach on it and then look into the Bible to try to find references that might prove it to be the word of God. Hey, it works every time!

Next month: Leave those angels alone!

For more information on the subject of the Bible and Homosexuality, get The Good Book, Peter J. Gomes, 1996. This preacher to Harvard University recently came out as a gay man. He eloquently tackles a number of other issues and his book should be required reading for every Christian!

Charlie Emond has a bachelor's degree from Queen's College and master's degrees from Dartmouth and Keene State. he teaches college history courses in Springfield, VT, including one he developed: Hidden From History: Homosexuality in Western Civilization.