Chip's letter to the editor decrying the ridiculousness of recent Chronicle letters regarding homosexuality ran today. Here it is:
I wondered how long it would take for the Biblical “scholars” out there to trot out the passages of the Bible that supposedly justify their hatred of homosexuality. Predictably, we’ve seen mention of Leviticus, Genesis, and Exodus, sometimes even with quotations from the passages that “prove” their assertion that homosexuality is an abomination.
I can’t argue that those verses don’t exist, and I’m surely not in a position to offer my own interpretations of someone else’s holy book, but I can say that it seems just a tiny bit strange that these passages are presented as God’s own immutable law, while commandments elsewhere in the same books of the Bible are routinely ignored.
Just in Leviticus, for example, followers are told that it is their duty to kill any child who curses his or her parent and to partake in ritual animal killings. Not allowed according to Leviticus? Tattoos, harvesting the corners of a field, and charging interest on loans. Where is the outrage at our society’s utter lack of ritual sacrifice and its rampant usury? Exodus, meanwhile, sets forth detailed guidelines for the proper ways of conducting slavery, including how to sell one’s own children. I don’t see anyone clamoring for a return to those Biblical values.
In fact, of the 613 commandments that God is supposed to have given to Moses, only a handful remain in force today, even among the most fervent. Meanwhile, the handful of laws that some interpret to condemn homosexuality are used as a cudgel to deny equal protection under the law.
Furthermore, interesting though these forays into Biblical studies may be, they should ultimately be of no consequence whatsoever to the current debate. Last time I checked, our country was ruled by the tenets set forth in the U.S. Constitution, not the Bible. And that’s not open for interpretation.