Love Thy Neighbor as...

Governor Christine Gregoire, of the great State of Washington, recently shared with her citizens that she plans on introducing legislation that will allow same sex marriages.

Can you hear the intake of breath from those that are sure this will be the end of mankind, as we know it??!!

The Pope chimed in last week with the following on marriage and same sex marriage, “…“This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself...”

Next thing you know, he and the other flame-throwers, will be quoting the “Good Book.”

Lets take a stroll through their source material.

In the Old Testament, called that by those that put slightly more stock in the New Testament, don’t know it is more accurately referred to as Holy Scripture, the Bible or the Tanakh, the Hebrew acronym for its three major sections Torah (the five books of Moses), Prophets, and Writings.

There are 5,888 verses in the Torah, and homosexual behavior is mentioned in just two of them. Leviticus 18:22 reads, "Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman. It is an offensive thing."
Leviticus 20:13 repeats the prohibition, and claims that such an act to be a killing offense.

That's it! Nothing else about who can lie with whom! Interesting it says nothing about women so presumably the boys of old were as intrigued by ladies getting frisky as they are today-

Rabbi Mark S. Glickman of Congregation Kol Shalom said it so clearly in a recent Seattle Times article.

“…Note that the Bible only discusses sexual contact between two men; it contains no prohibition whatsoever of lesbianism. If the Bible is to be our guide, we'll be hard-pressed to find a reason to forbid women from marrying women.

More generally, the meaning of these two verses isn't at all clear. The Hebrew term for what they prohibit is "mishk'vei-ishah" literally, "woman-laying." A man isn't supposed to "woman-lay" with another man. I suppose "woman-laying" could refer to any sexual contact whatsoever, but it could just as easily mean something else.

Maybe the Bible is prohibiting certain sexual positions. Or maybe it doesn't want sex between men to be a matter of conquest as it often was between men and women during antiquity. Maybe the Bible just wants homosexual activity to be different from heterosexual activity.

Regardless, the Bible doesn't mention same-sex marriage at all. Same-sex marriage hadn't been invented back then…”
Neither had the internet, MySpace, Facebook, Studebakers or Tutti Fruti ice cream.

So, now what?

Perhaps the righteous will claim the bible meant to say something that is not in the book, or impose upon the books hidden meanings and codes telling us how bad all this really is for all of us.

Okay, how does any same sex marriage impact anyone else?
If a traditional marriage arrangement lives next door to a couple of the same sex is that going to influence their loving relationship?
Will kids run amuck if they uncover that some neighbor is married to someone of the same gender?
Will a hetero’s medical insurance soar because “they” are getting equal coverage?
Will traffic lights stay red longer?

Maybe all these overly excited people should delve into the real message of all holy books and try to live their lives accordingly.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” might be a good place to start.