Another "Educator" with mixed messages on Homophobia ...

another article with hypocritical posturings, using religion and the Sodom and Gomorrah story used as justification to enforce points, we have heard that before, what about just plain tolerance? we have a long way to go..... H

Keith Noel
A challenge to our homophobia
GLEANER Oct 1

I, like many in our society, for long believed that all forms of homosexual behaviour was unnatural. It was 'easy' for me to think thus because I have always been repulsed by the idea of homosexual lovemaking. However, I considered myself quite liberal as I was one of those who advocated treating homosexuality like all other sins (including gambling, lust, lying and fornication) and so accepted gays simply as fellow sinners and prayed for them.

The theoretical basis for our homophobia lies in our Old Testament attitudes. We believe that the Bible has made it quite clear that any and all forms of homosexual relationships are sinful and its perpetrators should either be expelled from our churches or should be counselled and prayed for.

The logic is that this behaviour, being terribly sinful, is 'of the devil' - the creator and instigator of all that is sinful. So in the churches that are more demanding of their members there are cries for the expulsion of persons who are found guilty of this behaviour. In churches where the tone is less stringent and more nurturing, the consensus would be for the priest (and whoever else in the church is qualified to do so) to counsel the guilty persons and for the church to pray for them, exhorting God Almighty to drive this demon of unnatural lust from their souls.

Sodom and Gomorrah

The position we take is quite clear - and quite simple. God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve or Madam and Eve. Every person should find a mate from the opposite sex and 'go forth and multiply'. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is instructive. We believe that God himself brought these cities to ruin because they were overrun by sexual deviants and homosexuals.

And we are very strong in our objection to these behaviours. We believe these malfeasants, especially the male ones, should be jailed (which seems ironic - to penalise a man for being attracted sexually to other men by incarcerating him in a prison filled with other sex-starved men!). So we keep buggery laws on the books.

We are violent against the perpetrators as well. I remember some years ago, I was warned that I should be careful because the persons to whom I had rented a house I owned were suspected to be "nasty lesbians" and there were persons who might be plotting to stone the house. The person who was warning me was worried that, if that happened, it could escalate and the house burned down.

So the recent flurry of comments about Caster Semenya, the South African athlete, has interesting reverberations for us. We hear in the news that the IAAF will not penalise her because she did not cheat. She had lived her life as a woman and believed herself to be one. She had taken no hormones, no operations, nothing to give her masculine characteristics. Yet the reports are that she is not entirely female. These scientific studies are forcing many to realise that there is a masculine-feminine continuum and that some persons fall closer to the centre in this continuum.

Male characteristics

This means that some women have more male hormones than most and would therefore have some obvious male characteristics. The converse is also true in men. It forces us to consider the significance of the fact that there are persons who are born androgynous or hermaphroditic and can neither be identified as clearly male or female.

There are medical facilities devoted to work on sex-change operations, where persons who were brought up as one gender type and who find themselves thinking and feeling like the other undergo operations to 'correct' their sexual confusion.

Not sinful

These persons, according to all the scientific evidence, are not sinful, corrupt 'weirdos', but persons who, at birth, (like Ms Semanya) had only some of the organs of the gender to which they belonged and, internally, had some of the organs of the other.

All of this seems to challenge an aspect of our Adam/Eve theory. If physically, persons are not placed so firmly and definitely in one gender by the Maker, what about psychologically? Does it not follow that some persons could, quite naturally (i.e. because of how they were born) find themselves attracted to persons who belong to the same gender? Or is it heresy to consider this?

Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com