Friday, February 26, 2010

Let me enter this as a point of bigotry. The Religious Right takes scripture out of context. Romans 1:27. The Anti-Gay Stand.

Below is a picture of a Roman Legion or some darn thing. It was taken from this site (click title to entry - thank you). The site argues that one of the reasons the Roman Empire fell was due to a Eunuch Uprising. The timing is right. The Roman Empire is considered to have ended about 475 AD.

The Great Eunuch Uprising of 476 A.D.



27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

The passage above is from the Bible. Like I said before it is a very old book. The passage is taken out of context. The passage is considered a Pauline Epistle. No, Pauline is not a woman. The Pauline Epistles are the writing of Paul the Apostle.

And of course everyone knows whom Paul is, right? No? Hm.

Paul changed his name when he became an Apostle. His name was Saul. Saul is a Roman name. Paul was a Roman. He gave up that venue of 'status' to preach the word of Jesus Christ. So, in writing the book of Romans, Paul had an intimate knowledge of Roman society and its underpinnings.

I had no idea up to last week that the Religious Right was using this passage to facilitate hate toward gays. I heard it on a Conservative Christian radio. They are not correct. But, they don't care. They see words on a page and preach hate in order to create the most powerful Christian nation on Earth. I mean every word of it.

But, to get back to Paul and the passage.

This is Romans I in case one should want to read the entire entry to the Bible. (click here)

Basically, Prop 8 is based ONLY in bigotry. There is no religious basis and certainly no constitutional basis for it.

But, back to Paul.

Roman society was run based on power structures and the ability of 'families' to control outcomes to 'friends' to insure elections went there way. Romans were bigots themselves. They were also polytheistic. The Italian Rome was not a good fortress either. The Italian Rome was 'the power seat' to the Ceasars. I could get into the other Emperor families like the Antonians and all those folks, but, for the most part when people think of the Roman Empire they think of Ceasar.

The Ceasars held power over the military of Rome, including the calvary and navy. Their power was 'godlike' and undiluted. It was nearly impossible for anyone outside that 'family structure' to rise to power in Rome. But, IF, a 'smart' Roman were able to overthrow the empire from within by 'let's say, a theology shift' it might actually work and someone like Paul could take over control of the empire.

In actuality, that is exactly what occurred. The power in the Italian Rome diminished in time and shifted to The Byzantine Rome. The Byzantine Rome was the Eastern Empire (click here) with its capital in Turkey.

The point is that the writings that 'became' the Bible were written in a very different time and under very different circumstances. In the case of Paul, his writings had a 'Anti-Rome' political theme. That 'theme' was picked up on and there was a huge theology shift from polytheism to monotheism.

Yes that monotheism was facilitated by the Hebrew beliefs, but, Jesus Christ was a Rabbi and a teacher. Okay?

The passages by Paul (The Pauline Epistles) are somewhat a political writing, especially, where it is written in the Book of Romans. The Book of Romans was suppose to demonize the social practices of Rome. It most certainly did exactly that.

In the passage of Romans I, line 27, there was a lot of social practice that included all sorts of sexual pleasures including
eunuchs as servants. Creating a eunuch from a man was not only dehumanizing it was dangerous to the person's health and also a human rights violation. The Romans didn't care about human rights. At all. They were a society based in conquest. Rome itself would have fallen far earlier if it hadn't conquered Egypt.

But, the point here is that Paul wrote these passages to defeat the polytheism of Rome and break down the power of the Emperors in order to have a paradigm shift. This passage uses 'gender' to raise the sexual practices of the Romans to the level of 'SIN.' It has nothing to do with godliness or procreation or any of the values that the Religious Right proclaims this passage to be about. In actuality, the passage has absolutely no relevance to a free society where people live within the understanding of 'equity.'

Basically, the Evangelicals are liars. They are simpletons that USE Biblical passage for their own purpose without AT ALL educating their flock. Their use of this passage is pure bigotry and nothing more. The ONLY deciding factor of any sexual being is based in genetics. There is nothing evil about being gay. Nothing. Get over it.

It seems so apropos for the Religious Right to propagandize their hate based in this particular POLITICAL passage. I find it hysterically funny that Paul is still alive and well in the Religious Right after his conquest actually succeeded, especially considering the eunuchs would be the end of the Roman Empire as the Ceasar like lineage would remember it. The Eunuchs wanted freedom. I am sure the Gay Community finds nothing funny about it at all.

This entire situation in the USA is hideous beyond belief.