Religion is the bane of mankind.
Part 8 Christian Pastors Preach Untruths
Religion is the bane of mankind.
That statement is not used lightly. It has caused physical damage and emotional harm to countless millions of people over the course of history. Statements made as fact, and later found to be incorrect have nonetheless been believed because they were included in books held to be "the sacred truth" from the god of one's choice.Biblelore was developed with emphasis on the truth about certain misconceptions and issues that continue to be preached today by misinformed religious leaders, both Christian and Jewish. Chapter 1 concluded with this statement: "Present-day priests, ministers and rabbis can no longer preach with accuracy and authority that the God of Moses hates homosexuality, and they should no longer rail against homosexual persons as sinners. They will have to look to other Biblical passages that seem to bolster their contentions."
One minister, the Rev. Pat Robertson, throughout his ministry has called homosexuality a sin -- until recently. He has now changed his tune, saying as late as June 2, 2009 on The 700 Club that the Bible says homosexuality is an abomination to God.
Who actually said that? Not Moses who lived in the 16th century B.C., but perhaps an exilic priest-reformer who lived in the 6th century B.C. That was 1,000 years after Moses' death.
Did the priest-reformer, let's call him Rabbi Holier-than-thou, actually say homosexuality is an abomination to God? Well, he or someone of his time did pen the verses in Leviticus Chapters 17- 26, which form what Biblical scholars today refer to as the "Holiness Code," a little book of laws and rules of behavior for Jews after the exile in Babylon in the 6th century; and he did say this in Leviticus 18:22, repeating allegedly what God told Moses: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Moses can be credited only for Chapters 1-16 of Leviticus, if indeed he wrote them and the other Books of the Torah. But it was the priest-reformer who introduced the verses of Chapters 17-26 with the familiar verse: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying..." (Lev. 18:1).
Rev. Robertson's statement that "the Bible says homosexuality is an abomination to God" is a notable departure from his long history of misuse of Verse 18:22, which he has preached throughout his 40+ year-ministry as "sin" until recently, but only after it was pointed out that the words sin and abomination are not synonymous. The fact that he did not appear to know the difference speaks volumes about his knowledge of the Hebrew terms used in Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 (toevah) and 19:29 (zimah).
The difference was first revealed by the late historian-linguist John Boswell in his monumental tome Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality (1980) where he examined the original Hebrew text of the of Leviticus, wherein he found the word toevah used to describe same-sex physical association ("Man shall not lie with mankind as he does a woman"). The word he could have used- zimah- was not used. Zimah was used in Lev.19:29 to denote prostitution and adultery, which is condemned as one of the Ten Commandments received by Moses from God.
Tom Horner, in Jonathan Loved David,(1978), stressed the occurence of toevah over and over again in the Old Testament in regard to idolatrous actions that were associated usually with the fertility cults of the nations that surrounded the Israelites. Those fertility practices, first embraced by Israelites in great numbers, says Horner, were later repudiated as acts of idolatry, in which cases it was the idolatry being condemned, not the homosexuality itself. (op. cit., p.52.)
Daniel A. Helminiak, in What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality (1994), said that "abomination" is a translation of toevah, which could be translated as "uncleanness" or "impurity" or "dirtiness." And "taboo," what is culturally or ritually forbidden, would be another accurate translation. He says the significance of the term toevah becomes clear when you realize the the term zimah could have been used by the authors, which means an injustice, a sin (op. cit., p.52). (So the English word "sin" would not be an accurate translation of toevah.)
This difference between the Hebrew toevah and zimah should have been known by Rev. Pat Robertson, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and other clergy who have claimed to know the Bible. June 22, 2009 Charles "Chuck" Colson, the former Watergate figure and the self-styled redeemed, born-again Prison Fellowship founder, has picked up where Robertson left off, using the phrase "homosexuality is sinful" and warning Baptist pastors they may be prosecuted under hate-crimes legislation for calling homosexuality sinful. June 25, 2009 Robertson joined Colson in warning that, with the hate-crimes legislation being considered by U.S. Senators, pastors who speak on moral issues like Biblical sanctions against homosexuality as sin could be charged under the hate-crimes bill which he believes is unconstitutional.
Apparently Rev. Robertson knows the difference between sin and abomination now, because he has discontinued preaching the false statement that homosexuality is a sin; he now calls homosexuality "an abomination to God."
Well now, is homosexuality a sin in the eyes of God? Again, who wrote Lev.18:22 and 20:13? Moses? No. Who did and when? We now know these verses are part of Leviticus Chapters 17-26 which were written and added to the Book of Leviticus Chapters 1-16 by an Israelite exilic priest-reformer in the 6th century B.C., one thousand years after Moses' death. That priest lived through the exile of Israelites in Babylon. Was this priest-reformer God himself? Of course not, no more than Moses was God. He merely spoke what he believed God's view was.
Robertson has made millions of dollars in 40+ years of preaching that homosexuality is a sin and denouncing homosexuals for their so-called lifestyle; he has built his fortunes on the pledges of credulous followers who were, and continue to be, biased against homosexuality and gays and lesbians. His hateful speech has had, and continues to have, a deleterious effect on gays and lesbians, especially young gay persons whose self-esteem is deeply affected by Robertson's negative characterization of them.
It is high time that he be called out on this fact. His damaging speech has gone on far too long. The trouble is, after he is history, there will be others to take his place, preaching the same lies as the absolute truth. And the damage to gay youth, some driven to suicide, will continue until the credulous followers of the Bible wake up to the truth.
That's why this editor says, religion is the bane of mankind. The same is true of Islam which we have addressed in Parts 1-7 and will continue to address in Religion is the bane of mankind.