The Homophobic Obsession Of The Catholic Church

[Bionca]

Hermaphrodytus... Where the term "Hermaphrotyte" comes

was a Greek deity made from the union of Hermes (Logic and reason) and Aphrodyte (Passion and Beauty). This deity had the sex characteristics of both male and female and was thought to represent perfection.

History has a number of examples of religiously significant people who would probably be termed "transgendered". The imported Roman Goddess Cybele had priests who would castrate themselves and dress and live as women. The Goddess Ishtar/Ashera/Innanna had priests who lives as priestesses and bestowed the blessings of the goddess sexually to the male population. In the US the natives had the "Berdache" or "Two-Spirit" people - men and women who were understood to be both male and female and neither ast the same time. There were ceremonies that could only be performed by one of these special people, and taking one as a wife (or husband since not all of them liked men) was an honor. They performed the labor of both men as women and were thought to be better able to communicate with "spirits" because of their understanding of both male and female.

As far as the Abrahamic faiths go, there is a long history of supressing the feminine. Both homophobia and transphobia have their root in this as well as "good old" sexism. The Church needs a strong Male deity, so women and "not-men" must be week and weakness must be punished. That and sex is scary, especially sex for pleasure not for babies.

[sesame]

Hermaphroditus: son of Hermes and Aphrodite with whom the nymph Salmacis merged to form one body, and the urge to fuse was all her's (obsessive possessive #@%%***). He was practically raped by her. All the poor guy ever wanted was to be free to move around far and wide exploring the universe!

[Joebad]

I have read the Bible cover to cover numerous times. I've gone to Bible school and a school for Christian ministry. I also was a licensed minister for several years.

I guess I'm going to have to be the dissenter. The Bible clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin in both the old and new testaments. The Bible also teaches that the books of the Bible were written by men who were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (literally, the Bible was "God Breathed").

Having written that, I should also write that Jesus Christ Himself said,
"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."


We are all sinners in need of salvation, not just homosexuals.

[BlueRaven88]

Christianity

The belief that a cosmic jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.....yeah makes perfect sense.

[Joebad]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven88

Christianity

The belief that a cosmic jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.....yeah makes perfect sense.

Well you can scoff all you want, but that "cosmic jewish zombie" changed the whole world. His teachings are believed by Christians and respected by Jews, Muslims and Hindus.
His existance is historically recorded and his birth, death and ressurection were predicted as far back as 700 years before he was born.

[russellwu]

You do not want to mess with darth sidious/palpatine!

"God spoke a book..."
...Which was promptly and mercilessly torn apart by the old Church!
And now we have a pope who's like, "Well, y'see, this whole child-molestation thing...the problem ain't that these guys are molesting children, it's that they're homosexual!"

[TheSkronkDonkey]

Originally Posted by russellwu

You do not want to mess with darth sidious/palpatine!

LOL!

Some brilliant responses in this thread.

And, to sort of keep this on topic, here is what the CREATOR of Darth Sidious / Palpatine, and the fantastical world he inhabits, Mr George Lucas, has to say about his feelings on the world:

I would like to see our society mature, and become more rational and more knowledge-based, less emotion-based. I'd like to see education play a larger role in our daily lives, have people come to a larger understanding -- a "bigger picture" understanding -- of how we fit into the world, and how we fit into the universe. Not necessarily thinking of ourselves, but thinking of others.