Why the fuss over gay marriage?

The answer lies at least partly in the Bible. The United States is largely a Christian nation, and Christians regard the Bible as divinely inspired. To question it is often regarded as questioning the word of God. 

Nowadays on TV you’ll hear American Christians opposing gay marriage on the grounds that “God defines marriage in the Bible as a union between a man and a woman”. That is playing fast and loose with the facts. Nowhere in the Bible does God define marriage. Presumably he does not regard himself as a dictionary and has better things to do with his time.

What these people are referring to is a passage in the book of Matthew where Jesus is asked whether divorce is permissible. He replies, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:3-6; translation courtesy of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.)

Now, there is a problem here, because God himself never says any such thing. Jesus is quoting from Genesis 2:24, where an anonymous narrator is speaking. Nothing in that passage indicates, or even implies, that God is the speaker. But that is fortunate, because if God said that a man and his wife become one flesh, he would be lying. It is a demonstrable fact that married couples do not become one flesh, although it might look that way to a near-sighted person observing them engaged in the conjugal act. If they were one flesh, it would be impossible for the wife to go shopping at Paragon while her husband went off to Soi Cowboy for a beer or three.   

The Catholic Church has always cited Jesus’ remark, “What God has joined together, let no one separate” as its primary reason for prohibiting divorce.   Many years ago it was also cited as an argument for not digging the Panama Canal. It could easily be cited as a reason not to separate conjoined twins or amputate a diseased limb, and serves as a warning against the folly of taking biblical injunctions too literally or applying them to every situation.    

Contemporary Christians cite the passage in Matthew 19 as proof that God wants marriage to be only between a man and a woman. But if they would read a little further, they would come upon a very disturbing passage indeed.  Marriage between a man and a woman is okay, Jesus seems to be saying – but what God REALLY wants is no sex at all.   

Jesus says that Moses allowed divorce because of man’s hard-heartedness, but that anybody who marries a divorced person commits adultery. The disciples object that in that case it’s best not to marry at all. Jesus doesn’t deny this. He backs off a little by saying that this teaching is not for everybody, but then goes on to make things even more difficult by saying, “There are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.” (Matthew 19:12.)

This passage has always caused much consternation among Christians, especially the men, and it’s a sure bet that not many sermons are preached on the topic. Is Jesus recommending self-castration? It certainly sounds like it.  In that case, he is leaving women out of the picture, because so far as I know, there is no way that women can be castrated. Women all over the world can breathe a sigh of relief. For male Christians who are squeamish about castration, though, there’s a way out. Jesus loves hyperbole. He’s always putting camels through the eyes of needles and gathering figs from thistles and telling people to take the logs out of their eyes. (Matthew 19:24; 7:16; 7:5.)  

Christian men will be relieved to know that this passage is usually interpreted to be a euphemistic recommendation of celibacy. Why celibacy?  Because Jesus believed, in common with many people of his time, that the kingdom of heaven was coming very quickly, and with it the end of the world as we know it. There was no point in getting married.  

So when American Christians prate about family values and say that God wants men to marry women and women to marry men, they might want to take a closer look at the verse that suggests that he doesn’t want them to marry at all – and be grateful that when Jesus recommended self-castration, he was probably exaggerating. 

The Bible doesn’t say anything about gay marriage, but the book of Leviticus, a part of the Old Testament written long before Jesus’ time,  prohibits homosexual behaviour. Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” The punishment is clearly defined: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:13.)

The book of Leviticus was a manual for priests, presumably written by priests. The entire book, 27 chapters, is a long monologue in which God dictates laws to Moses. In the ancient Middle East it seems to have been standard practice for priests to formulate laws and put them in the mouths of whatever gods they worshipped. Modern readers ought to take heed. When the Bible says, “Thus says the Lord,” what it should be saying is “Thus says such-and-such priest, prophet, or wandering nomad.”  

For these reasons, it would be a good idea if modern readers would take their scriptures with a grain of salt, keep in mind that they are the product of a bygone and primitive age, apply modern standards to modern problems, and follow what should have been the First Commandment, which I believe the priests deleted because they knew it would stir up too much trouble. The First Commandment should have been: “Thou shalt use the brain in thy head which the Lord thy God hath given thee.”

 

Ye Olde Curmudgeon is an old curmudgeon.