Is Anita Bryant to blame?

In 1977, the singer and former Miss America took a break from hustling orange juice on television to put the squeeze on another kind of fruit. Speaking out against a gay rights ordinance in her adopted state of Florida, Bryant said, "If homosexuality were the normal way, God would have made Adam and Bruce." Bryant dropped her crusade around the same time the Minute Maid people dropped her for generating too much controversy, but the Bible continues to provide support for those seeking to justify their anti-gay views.

What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

The passage our persecutors most often quote is Leviticus 18:22: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."

It's important to realize that this passage comes from the Old Testament where, in Exodus 21:7, we find the following: "And if a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do." Three verses later we read, "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights."

Those fond of quoting the passages of the Old Testament dealing with homosexuals always grow silent whenever asked about the Bible's rather lenient views on slave trading and bigamy. Such was the case on a recent segment of Bill O' Reilly's cable talk show. The right wing host can't be counted as a supporter of the gay rights movement, but he is in favor of letting gays adopt children, believing that a household headed by two gay men or two lesbians is better for the child than an orphanage. This tolerant, if not quite accepting, point of view brought out the religious right, but once they appeared on O' Reilly's program, they never succeeded in defending their anti-gay views or the Bible passage that gives the okay to slavery.

The ultra-conservative Christians simply utter platitudes ("God loves homosexuals"), then depart with their self-righteousness intact knowing their "persecution" at the hands of O' Reilly and anyone who challenges their stand is proof that "the last days" are upon us. Their deliverance is near, as is God's final judgment.

Of course, the Bible is the book that almost everyone owns but almost nobody reads, so it's not surprising that few people really understand it. Many people see the Good Book as some sort of "how to" manual describing all we need to know to earn acceptance from God. More likely, it is a chronicle of man's inability to earn God's acceptance through his own deeds. Matthew 5:27 makes that clear by declaring a man guilty of adultery simply because he looks upon a woman with lust. God's standards are impossible to reach, hence the need for a savior.

It is in the New Testament that a savior appears, and the New Testament offers quite a contrast to the Old. Instead of an "eye for an eye," we find more passages advocating love and acceptance. In James 2:8 we read, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," and in Romans 3:23 there is this warning: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The most important passage in the Bible, the one that sums up the book's purpose, may very well be John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

I have yet to see an edition of the Bible that places an asterisk next to "whosoever" to indicate that an exception can be made for homosexuals or anyone else.

Those who condemn us also ignore Matthew 7:1 which states "Judge not lest ye be judged." But Bible toting homophobes who protest gay rights legislation by carrying signs proclaiming homosexuality a disease for which AIDS is the cure do nothing but judge, and also ignore 1 Corinthians 13:1-2: "If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal."

We'll never silence the gongs and cymbals of the religious right, but that's no reason to let them silence us. We do not have to accept their definition of God or misinterpretation of Scripture. Nobody's perfect, but our sexual orientation is not an imperfection, only a fact. The "cures" proposed by groups like Exodus International do not work because sexual orientation is not a disease. Keep in mind that homosexuals merit little more than a walk-on in the Bible's gilt-edged pages, while hypocrites and false prophets, those "ravenous wolves" in "sheep's clothing," earn the lion's share of condemnations. If you're using the Bible as a barricade to keep your closet door closed, you certainly haven't been reading it to determine for yourself what God has to say. If you want to know, open the Bible. Open your closet door, as well. Let in the light from every direction.

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