Washington Post ombudswoman E. R. Shipp suggests I am “hostile to
homosexuals.”
In the popular lexicon, that makes one a “homophobe.” I’d like to explain
why I am not a “homophobe.”
First of all, the Latin root “homo” simply means “man.” “Phobe,” or
“phobia,” has to do with fear. I certainly do not fear men. I also do not
fear homosexuals — though, as much as possible, I do avoid them, as
Christians and Jews are cautioned to do in Leviticus
18.
Why are we cautioned to avoid homosexuals in the Bible? Here’s what it says
in the relevant verses of Leviticus 18 (KJV):
22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith:
neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is
confusion.
24. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the
nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25. And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon
it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not
commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any
stranger that sojourneth among you:
27. (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were
before you, and the land is defiled;)
28. That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out
the nations that were before you.
29. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that
commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
30. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of
these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye
defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
You see, God, speaking through Moses, tells us that practices including
homosexuality will cause those involved and those around them to be spewed
out of the land — to be rejected, outcast, vomited from the land. I don’t
want to be too close when that happens. In other words, it’s not homosexuals
I fear. It is God.
“Oh, Farah,” some of you are saying, “you’re just not being open-minded. You’re
just relying on that archaic, old relic, the Bible, to form your
opinion. Don’t you know that book is just a lot of fables? You don’t really
think God inspired any of that superstition, do you?”
Well, yes, I do. And if you don’t, then you’ve got a lot more to rethink
than just whether it is appropriate for men to lie with men and women with
women. You see, all of the sexual prohibitions we accept as normal today
derive from this same biblical tradition — nothing more, nothing less.
Look at the beginning of Leviticus 18. Clearly, all kinds of abominations
were taking place in Egypt and Canaan, prior to God’s proscriptions to the
Hebrew people. There were no laws or traditions against incest — except
those, perhaps, written on the hearts of men by God from the beginning of
time. In fact, incest was considered great fun in Canaan. It was sort of the
national sport. Adultery was not discouraged. It was a normal pastime. Even
sacrificing babies to the idol Molech was considered the cost of doing
business in these lands of sexual licentiousness. Does that sound familiar?
So, if you’re going to tear down the walls of 5,000 years of law and
Judeo-Christian tradition with regard to homosexuality, perhaps you should
consider the next domino to fall. Will it be incest? Will it be pederasty?
If not, why not? If the Bible is not the authority — the ultimate moral
guide on such matters — what is? Is it the word of the American Psychiatric
Association? Is it popular opinion? Is it the ombudswoman at the Washington
Post?
Do you realize there are active efforts under way now to repeal laws against
sex with minors?
Ask yourself, if it’s not biblical morality that stops us from moving down
this slippery slope, what is it? Whatever it is, it’s going to be a losing
argument. Because lust has no natural boundaries. The thirst for perversion
is never quenched. One form leads to another and another and another.
Unless people rediscover the ancient truths of the Bible and Ultimate
Authority who breathed them into words, we are, indeed, slouching toward
Egypt, toward Canaan, toward Sodom.
