This is theologically a very sensitive discussion as well as a personal inclination among certain people on the medical ground, which requires us to treat with special care. The Bible should not be taken literally to jump a quick application to this matter. (Lily)
Malay Mail(http://www.mmail.com.my)
Has the Bible failed modern families?, 16 May 2012
by Frankie D'Cruz
SPIRITUAL trajectory on issues of sexual orientation, these days, has all been downwards.
For far too long, the Bible has been used to unfairly condemn people who fail to stick to accepted norms and there has been no significant attempt to address the concerns that matter to both divides.
Scripture fails to offer modern families realistic role models. It forbids and castigates so much of modern family life that few of us would escape the judgment of a biblical jury.
It’s distressing that visceral fear is trumping rational thought, especially since such attitudes could dash the hopes of our gay sisters and brothers who are often sitting beside us, unappreciated, in church.
The insistence of the church to remain old school allows people to spew venom and prejudice of varying intensity against the non-traditional faithful.
And when the Bible is not clear, humans are all too eager to impose and promote their philosophy on the devoted.
Using the Bible as an obvious manual for raising a happy family is insensible and flawed.
In a capsule, those were my reasons for supporting gay marriage and other domestic-partnerships at a private discussion, last Sunday, at a church with several Christian ministers.
We were discussing to what extent Christians in Malaysia would be influenced by US President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex unions.
All four ministers felt that Obama was outrageously gunning for political gain and deflect the hatred of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
They opined that the Roman Catholic Church and most Christian denominations in Malaysia were unshakeable in their stand to protect the eternal marriage between a man and a woman.
They said that the impact of such domestic-partner arrangements would hardly be felt here and that the Christian concept of family would not be threatened.
Twenty minutes into the discussion, and I stood alone on the opposite side facing a canonical fort of unrelenting clergymen.
The “pulpit” was mine to hog. Finally.
First, let’s agree that an issue like this in multi-religious Malaysia churns out a thorny cluster of conflicting legal, social and moral claims.
So, any demand for change runs up against the Christian system’s fundamental rigidity. And the stakes are very high.
However, I feel that by wholly using the Bible to deny the LGBT community a happy life because of shame and scorn is wrong.
And the same is being applied to many non-traditional families who are struggling to do right to ensure family joy under strained circumstances. Think interracial couples, infertile couples and single parents.
The Bible offers no examples of what might be called “the traditional family”.
According to the catechism of the Catholic Church, artificial means of conception are “morally unacceptable” because “they disassociate the sexual act from the procreative act.”
Yet at last count, three million babies have been born to infertile parents worldwide since 1976.
There is hardly any emptiness more grief-stricken than the desire to conceive a child with your spouse, only to discover that your bodies will not cooperate in that hope.
There’s in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) but pro-life Christians would argue that the procedure poses grave moral problems since it involves creating multiple embryos, destroying some of those embryos because of possible birth defects, or indulging in fetal or selective reduction (destroying some developing children after they are returned to a woman’s body).
But, of all the biblical prohibitions, perhaps none is as stringent as the one against sex outside marriage.
The seventh commandment prohibits adultery, and Deuteronomy (defined as Second Law but doesn’t mean something different from the Law of Moses, rather a second giving of that law) establishes the crucial importance of virginity ― for women ― before marriage (under penalty of death).
But, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a US-based non-profit organisation that works to advance reproductive health, including abortion rights, nine in 10 women have had sex before marriage.
In Malaysia, a survey by a giant condom manufacturer estimated that 46 per cent of teens have pre-marital sex.
In the US today, 40 per cent of births are to unmarried women and a third of children live in single-parent homes.
Christian denominations hold a variety of views on the issues of sexual orientation and homosexuality, ranging from outright condemnation to complete acceptance.
In accordance with the traditional values of Abrahamic religions, most Christian denominations teach that homosexual relationships and sexual acts are sinful.
These denominations include the Roman Catholic Church which includes about 50 per cent of the world’s Christians.
LGBT-affirming denominations regard homosexuality as a natural occurrence.
I doubt very much if the Catholic Church in Malaysia would make an effort to help “straight” church-goers to understand these issues and to make the flock more welcoming to this ostracised lot.
I doubt if they will take the bold step of openly re-examining long-standing assumptions and prejudices against them.
There’s an incredible amount of misunderstanding and discomfort in our society surrounding the subject.
People say hurtful things about them because some passages in the Bible say so.
Take those passages that have been advanced as relevant to the issue of homosexuality when, in fact, they are irrelevant.
One is the attempted gang rape in Sodom (Gen. 19:1-29) which was actually a case of supposedly heterosexual males intent on degrading strangers by treating them “like women”, thus de-masculinising them.
Persons committing homosexual acts are to be executed. This is the clear command of Scripture.
It’s distinct: anyone rooting beliefs on the witness of the Old Testament must be completely unswerving and demand the death penalty for everyone who performs homosexual acts.
Several other texts are ambiguous.
Whatever the rationale for their formulation, however, the texts leave no room for manoeuvring.
Old Testament texts have to be weighed against the New. This deduction, however, does not solve the problem of how we are to interpret Scripture today because there are other sexual attitudes, practices and restrictions which are normative in Scripture but which we no longer accept as regular.
Just two of several examples I put forward to the learned ministers on Sunday:
• The punishment for adultery was death by stoning for both the man and the woman (Deut. 22:22), but here adultery is defined by the marital status of the woman. A married man in the Old Testament who has intercourse with an unmarried woman is not an adulterer - a clear case of the double standard. A man could not commit adultery against his own wife; he could only commit adultery against another man by sexually using the other’s wife.
• The Law of Moses allowed for divorce (Deut. 24:1-4); Jesus categorically forbids it (Mark 10:1-12). Yet, many Christians, in clear violation of a command of Jesus, have been divorced.
Why, then, do some of these very people consider themselves eligible for baptism, church membership and communion, and consecration?
These cases are relevant to our attitude toward the authority of Scripture. Clearly, we regard certain things, especially some in the Old Testament, as no longer binding.
So, why then do we appeal to proof texts in Scripture in the case of, for example, homosexuality alone, when we feel perfectly free to disagree with Scripture regarding most other sexual issues?
We need to take a few steps back and be honest with ourselves.
I am deeply convinced of the rightness of what I have been sharing with you. But I must acknowledge that it is not an air tight case. You can find weaknesses in it, just as I can in others.
The truth is we are not given unequivocal guidance in these contentious areas of everyday life.
Rather than tearing at each others’ throats, we should humbly admit our limitations.
But, what is clear ― utterly clear ― is that we are commanded to love one another.
Sexual issues are tearing our churches apart today as never before. We naturally turn to the Bible for guidance, and find ourselves mired in interpretative quicksand.
・Multiple award-winning journalist Frankie D’Cruz is Editor-At-Large of The Malay Mail. He can be reached at frankie@mmail.com.my
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