Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Controversy involves some misconceptions about genes, sex, norms

While I don’t want to get involved with the argument with Mr. Ellis, I feel I must make some points that are key to the future of both your arguments: Recent studies suggest that homosexuality is the result of a gene variation and is quite common in nature. Homosexuality has been witnessed in bonobo apes, seagulls and penguins, which means it is hardly unnatural.

While the gene may not definitively make a person gay or straight, it may instead make a person more male than female and vice versa, meaning that the person has no choice about to whom they are attracted. Simply stated, the gene probably determines why we feel male or female (this may explain why so many homosexuals feel like their body traps them in the wrong gender).

Going off of this, the person may be a “female trapped in a male body” and will actually be marrying a person of a different gender if they marry another male (and vice versa). In all fairness, a male (according to this theory) who has inherited through the gene more female traits will be more prone to be attracted to men and cannot help it.

This could also mean that homosexuality is a natural form of population control; this could be very useful today. Gay couples would more likely than not be forced to adopt than actually “breed‚” thereby keeping the population stable and giving a home to an otherwise unwanted child (and, this is very important, the vast majority of children raised by homosexual couples actually turn out to be very open-minded heterosexuals).

But again, this is still a new field of research. Who knows what they will find in five years when they locate exactly the gene proper?

One more thing: Back in the good old days‚ as some Southerners call them, marriage between blacks and whites was the violent taboo. Those marriages were eventually accepted. It is inevitable that gay marriages will travel the same route and become a societal norm.

Ah, yes. I would be wary of saying that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of homosexuality. Their homosexual crimes are widely known only because of recent interpretations and translations on the text. In the original texts (the Jewish ones) the crime is never distinctly stated and is open to interpretation. You must go elsewhere. Ezekiel 16:48-50, Deuteronomy 29:22-26, Amos 4:11, Jeremiah 23:13-14, Matthew 10:11-15, and Matthew 11:20-24 actually state the real reasons for the destruction of the cities (any Bible reader and scholar should know these passages): Bearing false witness, having another god before YHWH, selfish living, not giving to the poor and lacking faith or belief. Homosexuality is never mentioned anywhere in the original texts in any passage relating to the cities. Not even Jesus mentioned it when talking about them.

In today’s society we work on the Sabbath, utter the name of YHWH out loud, read the name of God in books, write the name of YHWH out, fail to observe the proper reading ritual laid out in the mitzvoth, bear grudges, witness anti-Semitism without stopping it, reap entire fields, live in Egypt, covet, degrade women, inter the executed on the day of the execution and so much more. All of these are sins equal to homosexuality according to the original 613 Mitzvoth (commandments).

Yes, there are more than Ten Commandments and they are right there in the Bible. Jesus himself lived according to these mitzvoth. We remember him but not the laws he adhered to. Why?

Looking at this in perspective, every one of us is as mired in sin as the homosexuals so many people treat poorly today. We are no better than them and we may be worse.

We claim to be one of the greatest societies ever known, the new Rome. But every ancient or great civilization accepted homosexuality (the Greeks and early Romans actually preferred it and only slept with their wives for the sake of continuing their great race). How can we hope to be counted among the greats if we ourselves cannot keep the same open mind? And, no, I am not in any way suggesting that all males should participate in homosexuality just to be like the Greeks and Romans.

We may not understand what people see in dating and marrying people of the same gender but we cannot judge. We must take the planks out of our own eyes before commenting on the grain of sand in someone else’s.

Dixie Eska-Thedra

Fayetteville, Ga.