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A Machiavellian Perspective on homosexuality

Samson Blinded, an Israeli blogger who keeps his identity hidden due to Israeli government suppression and persecution of alternative views, who also faces recent censorship by Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and others, has an interesting article about the acceptance of homosexuality in Reform and Conservative Judaism.

The article is an interesting read: we're seeing parallels of this behavior in left-of-center, so called "progressive" sects of the Christian Church, and I think some of the same principles apply to the Church as much as it applies to general Judaism. Like many Rabbis, many church leaders and pastors today try to essentially re-write Scripture so that it's more politically correct: more accepting of sexual immorality, more accepting of "progressive" views. (Which is to say, we ought to make humans the center of Scripture, rather than God, one ultimate goal of ages-old humanism that Paul warns against in Romans 1.)

The article addresses homosexuality quite well, but it also covers the slavery argument often used. The argument goes, "Tenakh/Old Testament basically condones slavery. We don't do that today, so why not allow homosexuality, beastiality, and any other sexual act defined as wrong in the Bible?"

The answer is that the Tenakh/Old Testament does not contain any commandment for holding slaves. The culture of the time, however, was that there were rich people that had a lot of land and assets, and other people that had to work as servants for those people. (Much like the employer-employee system we have today.) Because the culture relied on it, Scripture regulated it. Samson Blinded has this to say on the issue:

Torah [the Law in the Tenakh/Old Testament] frowns upon slavery, but accepts it de facto and regulates to near impossibility. There is no commandment to have slaves. Rejection of slavery, therefore, does not contradict Torah and likely vindicates its attitude.


Great article, go check it out.



p.s. Kudos to Rocky Moore for pointing me to Samson Blinded a few months ago.

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