Fundamentalism and Errancy

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At 02:04 PM 10/15/98 -0700, you wrote:

>After the death of Matthew Sheppard, and the subsequent threat from

>Fred Phelps that he will picket the funeral of Mr. Sheppard, several

>questions came to mind. 

>Also, does anyone care to interpret the relevant passges from the

>Bible pertaining to Homsexuality from the original language? Or can

>you point me to a web site or another translation of the Bible that

>will give me new ideas of these relevant passages? The reason why I

>ask is because in Leviticus 18:22 it says "Man shall not lie with

>mankind as he does with a woman; it is an abomination." However, I do

>believe that the Hebrew noun for the word "abomination" was related

>specifically to temple prostitution, or any act that was to defile the

>religion of the Jews. Does anyone have more information?

>

>

Charles sez... READ A BOOK! <A read a few each month>
What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality
by Daniel A., Ph.D. Helminiak 
List Price: $9.95 
Paperback - 121 pages (May 1994) 
Alamo Square Press; ISBN: 096247519X 
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1,967 <I mention this because that's a lot of books>
                

>From Booklist , July 19, 1994

Believing that the translation of the Bible they use consists of the
inerrant word of God, some Christians cite a handful of passages to justify
their condemnation of homosexuality. But historical biblical scholarship
holds that these believers' conception of inerrancy is naively based, for
English versions of the originally Hebrew and Greek scriptures are rife with
problematic translations. Some scholars further maintain that the supposedly
antihomosexual passages are not blanket condemnations of homosexual persons
and acts. Indeed, in some cases, these verses aren't about homosexuality at
all; they meant quite different things to those for whom they were first
written, peoples whose social conceptions of sexuality were vastly different
from ours. Helminiak provides cogent, accessible precis of these revisionist
findings on the Bible's six major passages and few minor references that
seem to denounce homosexuality. The Bible does not condemn gay sex as we
understand it today, he concludes; those who seek to know outright if gay or
lesbian sex is good or evil . . . will have to look elsewhere for an answer.
An extremely valuable contribution to popular gay and biblical studies. Ray
Olson Copyright© 1994, American Library Association. All rights reserved 

Customer Comments 
A reader from Cape May USA , July 30, 1998  
HONEST ANSWERS TO DIFFICULT BIBLE TEXTS 
These are intellectually honest answers to every Bible quote that has been aimed
against homosexuals and homosexuality. This short volume contains the
complete arguments. A must for Bible-loving persons straight and gay:) 

A reader , April 25, 1997  
Sound, convincing scholarship refutes fundamentalist view. 
Required reading for those that think the Bible condemns what we today call
homosexuality--and for those who must defend themselves against such
condemnation. This short book is so thorough that it's almost overly reasoned.
The only drawback for some readers will be the complexity of the background
information. The methods of Biblical interpretation, and their validity, are
explained particularly well. Argues convincingly that there is _no_ such
thing as simply "reading the Bible without interpreting it." The literal,
fundamentalist method makes the obviously flawed claim that the Bible means
"just what it appears to mean, in translation, to us today"; in fact, the
Bible means what it meant to 1st-century (and older) Palestinians who spoke
ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic--the language of Jesus. 

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