No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that. -Leviticus 18:22
"Women are not to wear men's clothing, and men are not to wear women's clothing; the LORD your God hates people who do such things. -Deuteronomy 22:5
If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have done a disgusting thing, and both shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. -Leviticus 20:13
The first of these three verses makes the claim that God hates men that have "sexual relations with another man". This is something which the more tolerant believers cannot escape. There are two routes: rather the writers were directly inspired by God, or they were not. Rather God hates gays (apparently an all-loving god can hate), or the Bible's god does not exist (would be a character in a work of fiction). For the more open-minded believers, they may be tolerant towards gays. Tolerance is a good thing, but hypocritical at the same time — you rather believe it is the word of god, or it isn't. It appears that the majority of Believers are intolerant of gays. Scripture for them is rather a source of hate, or a way to help justify it.
The second verse: "Women are not to wear men's clothing, and men are not to wear women's clothing". I wonder how the writers were able to know that God hates this sort of thing. Were they able to talk directly to God? I suppose they would have had to (or they were making up bull@#$!). Let's say hypothetically the writers were able to talk directly to God (remember they would have to, to know he hates transvestites). If the Bible is indeed the true word of God, why didn't the writers ask better questions? They could have asked such more important questions, but they ask what this god's opinion is on transvestites? You would think the creator of the universe would think of such questions as being nonsense, and a waste of time. But perhaps when it comes to hate, the Judeo-Christian god can make time!
Now the last verse: the instruction to put homosexuals "to death". Not only does the Bible create extreme hatred towards gays, but insights extreme violence towards them as well. And then we have hypocrisy here: "they have done a disgusting thing, and both shall be put to death". Homosexuality is a disgusting behavior, but murder isn't? The end of this verse tries give justification for murderous behavior, saying: "They are responsible for their own death". These three verses reflect the ignorance and lack of empathy the Bible has towards people that are different. It assumes that being gay is a choice, a bad behavior like murder and rape — well not that bad, in-fact those acts can be, by biblical standards, 'righteous' in certain circumstances.
What I do not understand, and this is directed towards homophobes: why do you care? Me personally, I don't care what another guy does sexually. I view gay men as less competition. What another guy does with his junk is his business, and the last thing on my mind. The fact that it is on the minds of the less sexually secure, seems a bit hypocritical. People should just live and let live.
I agree, live and let live, unless you live by the bible, which basically says live and kill everyone who doesn't do what we want.
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