Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 06:31:14 -0400 (edt)
From: Sam Damon <damon@dorsai.org>
Subject: Biblical references/Gay Atheists

> In that case, the media needs to be strongly criticized.  If there is
> factual errors contained in the Bible, then someone would have pointed
> them out in a factual, non-political context unless there was a covert
> effort to silence such ideas.

I don't know how helpful they would be but you can contact the American Gay
Atheists for some information from a gay perspective (address and Hotline
below).  They will no doubt have a lot of information arguing against
Biblical condemnations of homosexuality (I believe there are 7 references in
the King james version).  I once read a scientific analysis of Sodom and
Gomorrah, for example, but I'm not sure if it's from them (probably not
since I'm not part of the organization).  Or maybe they won't have any
information; the beauty of being an [gay] atheist is that one doesn't have
the need to disprove Biblical homophobia by adaptive interpretations (i.e.
that Sodom & Gommorah was actually punished for inhospitality and not
homosexuality).  Gay atheists simply shrug off the whole text.

Of course, the late John Boswell of Yale claims in his book "Christianity,
Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" (U of Chicago Press, 1980) that
Biblical condemnations of homosexuality do not exist in the original text at
all.  Biblical homophobia then is a result of later translators imposing
social beliefs of their times.  Boswell claims that none of the original
Hebrew, Greek, Syriac or Aramaic manuscripts indicate that the "concept of
homosexual behavior as a *class* existed at all." Most scholars, however,
view his conclusions with skepticism, as they did with his findings of
gay Medieval Christian weddings.

You can contact American Gay Atheists at:
Box 66711
Houston, TX  77266
Fax: 713-862-3283

They have a 24 hr recorded commentary/information hotline thats been
operating for over 10 years: Dial-A-Gay-Atheist 713-880-4242.  They also
provide visibility for lesbigays at annual American Atheist conventions.