Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 69

Out of Focus on the Family
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or practices
all Levitical law. Leviticus 24:10 clearly says, “Bring forth him that
hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his
head, and let all the congregation stone him.” Leviticus 20:14 sanctions burning
sinners to death, while Leviticus 24:11-16 calls for a community gathering in
order to stone to death those who plant two different crops in the same field or
wear garments made of two different kinds of threads. And Leviticus 15:19
commands that, during her menstrual cycle, a woman must be “put apart seven
days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean” and, of course, needs to be
punished in the name of God, as would anyone who works on the Sabbath,
including those who “work” the Sabbath for political gain.
Moreover, St. Paul’s epistles spoke of fulfilling the nature God had
given each of us:
For by Paul’s argument, the key issue is that individuals act
according to their own nature as it is revealed to them (as
Christ was revealed to the Romans). By this logic, the person
who is by his own nature homosexual would be acting against
his nature by engaging in heterosexual acts [and thereby
committing a sin]. His destiny is homosexuality, just as the
destiny of the Romans after Christ was monotheism. (Sullivan,
29-30)
Since homosexuality has existed in all cultures and in all times, from
ancient Greece and Rome to the “homosexual” Christian saints of the Middle
Ages who left a considerable body of love poetry dedicated to their partners:
He was the refuge of my spirit, the sweet solace of my griefs,
whose heart of love received me when fatigued by labors,
whose counsel refreshed me when plunged in sadness and
grief. .. What more is there, then, that I can say? Was it not a
foretaste of blessedness thus to love and thus to be loved?
—Saint Aelred, from his eulogy for his lover, Simon
From prehistoric rock paintings left by the San people in modem day Zimbabwe
to Native American berdache (who were venerated for their “Two-Spirit”
orientation), homosexuals have always been present and are often among the
most creative and well respected members of their societies. One would
naturally conclude, therefore, that homosexuality is part of God’s plan and the
specific nature the Divine ordained for some individuals throughout human
history. St. Paul urged that we be and act according to that God-given nature.
That’s the essence of his arguments in the Epistles: being faithful to one’s
nature.