Ancient of Gays

The BBC news site has two tabs at the bottom, for stories most read and most emailed. I often start my browsing there. But I do wonder how many times something has to be emailed to qualify as "most". I'm guessing not many, because every now and then something extremely old floats up from the bottom of the archives, which obviously someone has discovered and shared with their friends. The man who had to marry a goat (February 2006) is an old favourite in this category.

Or there's this one today, which I've not seen before, from October 2003. "What does the Bible actually say about being gay?"

As superficial overviews go, it's as good as you're going to get. In fact it's quite informative. The pro-gay argument about David and Jonathan - which I've heard before - always makes me angry; I mean, jeez, can't two guys just be friends??

(I once heard a talk from China Mieville in which he compared socialists to Canadians: both feel themselves part of a minority; both will eagerly jump on anything that remotely shows their kind in a good light and claim it as their own. To this category I will also add Christians and gays, and the above argument is just one such example.)

But the rest gives pause for thought. My biggest problem with this kind of thing is that it gets all technical and lawyerly, with people bending over backwards (rather than forwards) to put in contortedly subtle shades of meaning. It's a bit like talking to a Creationist. But gay theology wasn't worked out by theoreticians or as a deliberate plot to undermine the Kingdom of Heaven. It comes from people who are faithfully Christian, and homosexual, and have to work it out for themselves.

I have never been a fan of telling people with practical experience of a subject that, based on my theoretical understanding, they must be wrong. As a Christian ex-public school science fiction fan from a military background, that's four key areas of my life where even people who talk good sense in the other three can get it totally and utterly WRONG.

I will make no definitive statements either way. I will say that I once, somewhat to my surprise, found myself at the blessing service for two women that I knew from university. This was about 10 years before civil unions became possible. It was a wonderful, moving celebration and the rafters were lifted with worshipful choruses singing praise to Jesus Christ. One of the women, through the ministrations of the other, had recently become a Christian by now too. Was it the devil's work? If it was then surely convening a church service full of worship of Jesus was a bit of an own goal. The subject is just way too complicated for either side to get right in a straightforward black and white manner.

Now if you'll excuse me, I just saw a coat made of mixed fibres that I rather fancy buying.