Part IV



JUDE 7 AND SUMMARY

I promised to address the "seven texts of terror" so I'll quickly address the last one,
Jude 7.

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

"Strange flesh" in this instance is translated from the Greek term heteros sarx, meaning "different flesh." If this doesn't mean angels then it must mean women, because a homo sexual doesn't "go after" hetero sex. Or, at least in the salaciously and selectively literal Biblical sense, it wouldn't be a sin if he did. Really quite silly.

A final argument used to justify the use of these verses to condemn homosexuality is, "What else could they mean if they don't condemn homosexuality?" What else, indeed? The Bible says we "see through a glass darkly" (1 Corinthians 13), in other words we don't understand everything. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55.

We don't make the Bible true by filling in the blanks with our own prejudices. If we are to err, let us err on the side of mercy and justice.

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
Micah 6:8

AFTERWORD

Many people write saying that I "twist scripture" to justify my own guilt at being lesbian ("...if you really are a woman," they add). I am not, however, gay. Why do I, a straight woman, care about gay people? Because they are my sisters and brothers. Because I, also, am judged as incidental or inimical to Biblical truth, and find I have more in common with others thusly judged, than I do with those that have the most to gain from exploiting my/our, supposedly inferior status. I care because Jesus does not belong to those who judge—he belongs to "the least of these," the people outside the acceptable religious viewpoint—a viewpoint Jesus fought against and excoriated.

"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
Matthew 15:9

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