The Evelyonian said:
The reason the Bible disagrees with homosexuality is because in the Bible God ordained marriage as between a male and female. One of the purposes of this union was to create life. That is one thing a gay couple cannot do. A homosexual union cannot produce children. That is why the Bible calls it unnatural.
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M*W: Please quote me the exact scripture where God states he has "ordained
marriage as only between a male and female," which requires a specific ceremony to establish a legal and binding union.
Please don't cite the Wedding at Cana, unless you are willing to provide evidence that it was the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalen.
If you go back and re-read Genesis, there is nothing to be cited that Adam and Eve were married as in a legal union. Eve was a helpmate to Adam, so technically, it was the first common law union as there was no marriage ceremony. Further, Eve was made out of Adam, so technically, they were related.
If you look up the history of marriage, you will find that marriages were established as social customs between a male and female who desired a secure environment for procreation and the laws of inheritance and property rights. The wife became the legal property of the husband, and the children became the legal property of the father. They were nothing more than indentured slaves, according to the laws of the day. The institution of marriage, a patriarchal invention, ensured the male was the fair and square owner of his wife, children and property.
It is also cited in the OT law that a man is required to become the husband of a deceased brother's widow. Although this may happen from time to time, it is not the norm today.
Through the ages, marriages have come in all shapes and sizes of social customs.
polygamy-more than wife at a time
polygyny-several wives at same
time
polyandry-several husbands at same time
endogamy-marrying someone within one's own tribe or clan
exogamy-marrying to someone outside of one's own tribe or clan.
common law marriage-cohabiting without official ceremony
monogamy-remaining sexually faithful to one spouse (at a time)
So, seeing how marriages were established as the social norm for property ownership (over many cultures over time), I fail to see how the bible establishes the only right definition of marriage. After all, Abraham, Moses, David, all had numerous wives (some were even their sisters)! This can easily be found in the bible and in historical texts.
In those days couples didn't marry for love but for economic and political liaisons -- with that usually being in the best interest of the male.
Pope Nicholas I in 866 AD, declared that "if consent be lacking in a marriage, all other celebrations (as in the sacraments), even should the union be consummated, are rendered void." This shows the importance of a couple's
consent to marriage. This has remained an important part of church teaching through the years. Therefore, the only true marriage is the one where both partners
consent to be married to each other. Gender has nothing to do with it.
It wasn't until 1563 at the Council of Trent where it was decreed that marriages should take place in a ceremony in front of two witnesses and a priest. Love wasn't a necessary requirement for getting married or procreating as long as both of the couple were consenting.
Homosexuality had absolutely nothing to do with invalidating a marriage between two consenting people.
On another little historical note, homosexuality was not only common practice in ancient Egypt between royal brotherhood, Moses and his brother Aaron got it on according to biblical scholars. In ancient Rome, it was not only common but encouraged to have little eunuchs around for male pleasure. Even the wives of the royals knew what their husbands were up to, and it wasn't the Boy Scouts.
Failure to procreate may have been a big no no in biblical times (i.e. Sin of Onan), just as it was accepted and encouraged to procreate with one's wifely handmaiden to begat a child if the wife be barren. Why don't you christians ever bring up these customs when are certainly no longer accepted in our society?
Even Sodom and Gommorrah was not about homosexuality. It was about inhospitability to one's fellow man.
If you must read and believe everything you read in the bible, at least read current archeological and historical research about the bible. You might just learn something **shakes head and sighs**.
