Was Jesus Gay?

Was Jesus Gay?

This essay is mostly based on a public post by Rafael Romero of Victoria BC.

Modern day Christians attempt to deter homosexuality by denying civil rights to gay citizens. This flagrantly violates the golden rule:Matthew 7:12, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets, but that does not seem to put the slightest damper on any Christian’s righteous indignation.

Ironically, there is some evidence that Jesus himself was gay. I am not claiming Jesus was necessarily sexually active, only that his natural sexual orientation was toward males rather than females. There is no explicit mention of him having sex with anyone in the bible. The very notion of homosexual is a rather recent invention. Every society has quite different attitudes and taboos about same sex affection and sexual activity. What I am saying is that if Jesus were alive today, people would label him gay. His behaviour might have been considered well within male behaviour norms in his day. This essay then is more about how society’s standards of acceptable behaviour have changed since biblical times than about Jesus himself.

In other words, if Jesus came back today, the religious right would crucify him anew as a homosexual.

The Evidence

• Jesus was one of the gentlest people who ever lived. He was no John Wayne. Usually we label such gentle souls pansies no matter what their sexual preference.
• Jesus totally rejected the masculine code of valour and violence universally espoused in his time. Today such people are called commies, draft dodgers and queers.
• Jesus refused to marry. This was far more peculiar in his day than ours. Rabbis were always married in his day. The fact he was not married casts some doubt on whether he was an official rabbi.
• Jesus had plenty of opportunity to have sex with women, but he always avoided it. If a modern man did the same, we would assume he was gay.
• Jesus hung out with disreputable people, including hookers and all manner of sinners, including sodomites. If a modern man kept such bad company, we would not assume he was 100% heterosexual.
• Jesus associated almost exclusively with men. He and his friends were physically intimate with each other, putting their heads in each other’s laps to dine. If a modern North American male behaved this way, it might raise some eyebrows.
• Jesus and his male friends like to kiss each other, for example  Matthew 26:49. We North Americans are rather inhibited about kissing each other, though Greeks and Russians do it with gusto. If a North American male did this, of course, we would assume he was gay.
• Jesus’s groupies competed, each claiming to love Jesus the most.
• John 13:25 tells of John lying with his head on Jesus’s breast. Straight men don’t do that, at least not in our culture.
• A group of men met at the Council of Nicea and decided what to include in the Bible and what to censor. We like to assume their decisions were perfect and 100% divinely inspired. However,… There’s a suppressed part of the Gospel of Mark quoted in a letter from Clement, Bishop of Alexandria, to Theodore, the priest of an early Christian community, c.95 AD, that goes like this:

  And thus they come into Bethany and a certain, woman whose brother had died, was there. And coming she prostrated herself before Jesus and sayeth unto him, Son of David have mercy on me. But the disciples rebuked her.

  And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway a great cry was heard from the tomb.

  And going near, Jesus rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. And straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand.

  But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich.

  And after six days, Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over nakedness. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.
  ~ suppressed part of the Gospel of Mark

• The bible repeatedly points out how much Jesus loved Lazarus. By modern standards we would call it a gay relationship.

• Book referral for Holy Blood, Holy Grail

  	recommend book⇒Holy Blood, Holy Grail
  	by	Baigent	978-0-440-13648-4	paperback
  	birth	1948 age:69	978-0-385-34001-4	hardcover
  	publisher	Dell	978-1-4481-8342-5	eBook
  	published	1983-01-15	978-0-7393-3987-9	audio
  			B0012RMVBQ	kindle
  Online bookstores carrying Holy Blood, Holy Grail abe books anz abe books.ca abe books.de amazon.ca amazon.de Chapters Indigo amazon.es Chapters Indigo eBooks iberlibro.com abe books.com abe books.fr amazon.com amazon.fr Barnes & Noble abe books.it Nook at Barnes & Noble amazon.it Kobo junglee.com Google play abe books.co.uk O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk Powells other stores
  Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock. Try looking for it with a bookfinder.

  The paragraph is quoted almost exactly in Baigent’s Holy Blood, Holy Grail..

  Book referral for Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel according to Mark

  	recommend book⇒Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel according to Mark
  	by	Prof. Morton H. Smith	978-1-57097-203-4	paperback
  	birth	1915-05-29 1991-07-11 age:76	978-0-913922-55-2	hardcover
  	publisher	Dawn Horse
  	published	1981-09
  Online bookstores carrying Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel according to Mark abe books anz abe books.ca abe books.de amazon.ca amazon.de Chapters Indigo amazon.es Chapters Indigo eBooks iberlibro.com abe books.com abe books.fr amazon.com amazon.fr Barnes & Noble abe books.it Nook at Barnes & Noble amazon.it Kobo junglee.com Google play abe books.co.uk O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk Powells other stores
  Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock. Try looking for it with a bookfinder.

  They took the text from Prof. Morton Smith’s Secret Gospel — not a speculation book, but a scholarly treatise on existing documents. Now, after great part of the Nag Hammadi scrolls has been deciphered, the placement of the excised text within the Gospel of Mark is rather known: it’s between  Mark 14:11-12. Compare to John 11-12. It’s likely there’s a part missing in the story. The youth Jesus has raised is Lazarus, who’s mentioned by name in the Gospel of John.
• The extant text in the standard version of Mark narrating the arrest of Jesus, contains the curious verses ( Mark 14:51-52 ):

  And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body ; and the young men laid hold on him:

  And he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
  ~ Mark 14:51-52 which bears no relationship to the rest of the story unless something else is missing. If a modern man were caught in a park with a naked youth, he would have quite some explaining to do to the vice squad.

• On the Kinsey scale, about one in ten people is considered homosexual. This means approximately 10% of the people mentioned in the Bible were homosexual too, using the modern standard. Some were open, like David and Jonathan. Some were closeted like Paul. There must be a great many more of them. The most likely candidates are Jesus, Lazarus, Ruth and James and perhaps all the apostles. Since standards of behaviour were different in those days and since the very concept homosexual was not even invented, of course, these people would not have identified themselves as gay. They would have just felt they had extremely deep love or friendship for people of the same sex.

But Isn’t Homosexuality a Sin?

The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 to heterosexuals. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t love heterosexuals, it’s just that they need more supervision.
~ Lynn Lavner , a lesbian comic

Leviticus 20:13 is a the main biblical chestnut use to justify beating up, killing or even denying equal civil rights to homosexuals.

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
~ Leviticus 20:13
(literal word for word translation)
And a man who will lie down the man the woman’s naps abomination he does both-of-them death he will die their blood in them.

Clarity is not one of the deity’s major virtues. It’s almost as if God said Plant your rutabagas in a straight row and the overeager Christians took it to mean Kill all the homosexuals. It is worthy of Monty Python.

Note the other sins punishable by death in the old testament:

• not being Jewish (Deuteronomy 17:2 )
• sex before marriage (Deuteronomy 22:13 )
• refusal to obey your parents (Deuteronomy 21:18)
• gathering firewood on Sunday (Numbers 15:32 )
• eating lobster (Leviticus 11:9)

Why are the fundamentalists so lax about avoiding clear sins like gathering firewood and so ardent in prosecuting a questionable one — homosexuality. I am tempted to think they are the bad guys — the wolves in sheep’s clothing Jesus warned about in Matthew 7:15

Surely I’m not the first person to notice the Biblical verse:

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
~ Ezekiel 16:49

1. pride
2. gluttonous wealth
3. idle wealth
4. heedlessness to the plight of the poor

So fundamentalists have been lying to us about their own bible, in order to excuse their scapegoating homosexuals and excuse their own true sodomy.

Further, when I read the story of Lot in Genesis 19 for myself, I found the anal rape interpretation absurd, based on a middle English pun on the word know.

The much older Qur’an retells the same story with no rape, just xenophobia.

Check out Revelation 14:3-4 where it says the only ones who will make it to heaven are 144,000 male virgins. The only virgins you will find in our day are under puberty or are gay. This a is paedophile’s wet dream, mirroring the Islamic female virgins.

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
~ Revelation 14:3-4

Conclusion

Blasphemy! you scream. Jesus was the son of God, for Heaven’s sake. He could not possibly be one of those lowly scum. He is a great king. If you are so sure Jesus could never be one of the lowly people of society, consider these two verses: Luke 2:7 and  Matthew 13:55.

Finally consider what Jesus had to say about the unclean outcasts of his own time in Luke 10:33-37. Pay particular attention to verse  10:37.

If you accept that Jesus chose to be born a lowly carpenter, does it not make sense he would also choose to be born a lowly homosexual. How else could he teach future generations to get over their hate and judgementalness?

Links

• reader feedback on this essay.
• Kristianity: hypocritical Christianity.

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