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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Adam and Steve

I’ve always been an advocate of gay rights, and on the heels of the New York vote to legalize same-sex marriage, I’ve been listening to and reading a lot of commentary. Having done extensive research on the topic, little of the discussion was new to me. Typically I dismiss the biblical rationale as unfit for a civic discussion. Not that the Bible should be dismissed as a personal guide, but it has no place in government – like it or not. But this time I started wondering a little more about what the Bible-thumpers were really saying and why. And that took me down an interesting path. The funny thing about this is that gay marriage is really the last place where it seems ok (even expected) to bring the Bible front and center in a political discussion. Even abortion opponents can only go to church doctrines and Vatican pronouncements – the Bible just doesn’t talk about it. But gay marriage? BIBLE BIBLE BIBLE all the way.
So I’d like to share a couple of thoughts about the Bible and gay marriage. There are only about 6 passages in the Bible that even arguably have anything to do with homosexuality and the Bible doesn’t invoke marriage at all. It’s just a background civic construct that seems to be achieved simply be declaration, not a defined “thing” and certainly not in any sort of ‘ordained by God’ kind of way. Sodom and Gomorrah? Every scholar with any understanding knows it wasn’t about the gay sex, it was about the lack of hospitality. The gay sex part was about domination of strangers who deserved welcome.  And we can’t rely on anything Lot said or did – he wasn’t the sharpest tack in the box. I suspect he was a little mentally challenged, truth be told. Letters from Paul to random people were just that - what some guy thought, not bearing any sort of divinity or inherent truth.  Leviticus is all about ritual and kosherite law – not broader concepts of sin or God, telling people how to live ritually. Leviticus’ declaration that man lying with man was an ‘abomination’ is surrounded by other, equal abominations like shaving your beard, not eating the fruit of newly-planted trees until their fourth year, and not committing adultery on pain of death. Interestingly, the biblical prohibition against homosexuality is VERY specifically a ban on male homosexuality (“if a man also lieth with mankind as he lie with a woman” Lev. 20:13) not on lesbians.
But the biggie is Adam and Eve (oft noted as “not Adam and Steve or Madame and Eve”).  And leaving aside the fact that there are at least two and probably three distinct genesis stories in the book of Genesis, as well as the obvious fact that Adam and Eve were very obviously not (and obviously not intended to be) the first people on Earth (since Cain and Abel took wives and Cain was marked on his face so all those other people would recognize him), here are a few thoughts that I’ve never heard make their way into the conversation. I give them to you not to challenge the Bible itself or the word of God or Christianity (since Christ never even mentioned it), but to challenge the hateful and judgmental use by people seeking some noble reason for their own fears.

1)      Adam and Eve weren’t married. In fact, it could be said that they were twins (same genetic fabric). Ignoring the super-tight incestuous overtones of that, THEY WEREN’T MARRIED! They weren’t sexual beings at all in Eden. The Adam and Eve story is a virginity parable about “eating the fruit of knowledge.” “Knowing,” in the biblical sense, casts one out of the garden of innocence and irresponsibility, and into the wilderness of adulthood. But at any rate – even it was a place with walls and trees and they got thrown out – why? Why did they get thrown out? Because they became sexualized. They became aware of their own bodies and their own nudity and were banished. And childbirth was inflicted upon Eve as a punishment. There were no babies before that, and if they had followed the rules, probably never would have been. Babies were God’s punishment for not following the rules. Before that, God just borrowed spare parts to make more humans.
2)      SO – here’s another idea: how do you KNOW they weren’t gay when they were made? There was no sex or breeding in the garden and there doesn’t appear to be any reason to believe it was originally intended. They were companions, never intended to be romantic lovers. Even once they were cast out, if you believe the literal text, then they were ostensibly the only two people in the world. Well, gay or not gay, once the sex-switch has been flipped, sex is a powerful drive. Many, many gay people experiment with the opposite sex when their sexuality is developing, and straight people have often experimented with same-sex relationships as well. So now imagine that the only person available is (if you’re straight – the same sex as you ; if you’re gay – the opposite sex). Well, point one, how would you ever know that the relationship was less fulfilling than it could be with a more appropriate partner? And point two, so what? You’re the only two people ON EARTH! You’re going to get down, no matter how unappealing or less-than-fulfilling it is. The bare fact that they reproduced does not, in itself, speak to whether or not they were gay or straight – only that they were isolated and sexually aware, with no operative option to discover which gender they would choose as a partner.
3)      OK, so let’s presume that if God really did intend for Adam and Eve to propagate the species. It makes sense that they would be straight. But why does the genesis of the species operate in the social (biblical) consciousness as the terminal function? Why should we believe that the beginning of a journey indicates its end? And not only the end, but the only acceptable operation along the path? So God created two breeders to breed. Why would it offend that plan if some of the bred were not breeders? Is that all humans are? Breeders? We’re here to multiply? Wasn’t there a bunch of stuff in the Bible about honoring God and caring for each other and tending flocks and running the family farm and so forth? So it seems to me that God created a species with much more to do that just beget. But hey – if you want to think of humans as gerbils, go ahead. I prefer to see something unique in our mental capacity. In our ability to conceive of God in whatever meager way we can, in our abstractions and philosophies, we are more than our genitalia. When you start building a house, you lay a concrete or brick foundation. Then you build wooden floors and frames, add insulation, drywall, roofing, electrical wires, granite counters, and all the things that make it a home. Similarly, you begin a species with breeders and then move on to all the wondrous variety of people we have now.
4)      God is genderless. God is not “both man and woman” – God is more than that. But if that’s all you can get your mind around, it’s a useful framework. So what that means is that God is not gay or straight, because God is both gay AND straight AND bisexual AND asexual. If we are created in God’s image and God is genderless, then it’s a shameful fallacy to imagine that God must exist (even if you accept that God is not an old man with a beard) as EITHER a straight man or a straight woman. God is neither and both and more. Is god reproductive? Perhaps through His creations. Does God feel romantic love? If we are created in her image, then we must assume so. If so, why is the love of God so limited by the flawed representations that we are? The nature of God is a huge and unresolvable question, but I cannot conceive of God as having a gender or suffering from the kind of self-hate that people who think “God Hates Fags” must imagine s/he feels. If there is no gender, there is no opposite gender. Therefore, no hetero or homosexuality. Therefore no dominance of one over the other in goal. Only in initiating functionality (creating breeders to make more humans at the beginning).
5)      And finally, homosexuality is only all about sex to people who don’t understand it or who fear it. To gay people, it’s about love. It’s about walking into a room and seeing that one person you haven’t met yet who makes your heart pound and your eyes glaze over. The one person you glance at from the corner of your eyes as you pose and preen and laugh and do everything you can think of to make them notice you. It’s about the person you think about when you imagine your old age and your quiet moments. Sex is sex and it’s a critical part of most relationships, of course. But it’s not what defines a person. Except to other people.