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"Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn't bother
anyone." ---New York Times editorial, January 3, 1941 Sexual Orientation: Homosexuality IS Abnormal!!I know that there are going to be those who pull out the Bible and start throwing quotes at me. To that, I can say only that those passages of the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. When Jesus taught, he spoke in parables. There is often a moral to a parable, but what that is depends on how literally you read the story. For example, a completely literate interpretation (involving no personal interpretation)of the parable of the prodigal son can be made. It tells us that a father (not a mother) must forgive the youngest (not oldest or middle) son (not daughter) only after that son has wasted his inheritance before his father dies. It goes on to describe the feast that must be thrown to welcome that son home. That is the ONLY way it can be interpreted in a completely literal manner. A much more "liberal" interpretation would be that no matter what we do on this earth, God will forgive us and welcome him home when we tell him that we realize we made mistakes and are sorry for them. But such a liberal interpretation depends on "adding" to the literal words of Jesus. I feel that if Jesus had meant to have only one interpretation to his teachings, he'd have found a different format in which to teach, knowing that parables can be interpreted on many different levels. So I must conclude that Jesus knew the parables would be interpreted in the manner right and proper for the person reading it. Many would argue that such additions take away from the Bible's inerrancy as the word of God. These people feel that any outside interpretation is wrong. But unless one knows how to read Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek, chances are that there has already been some interpretation in the actual translation from these ancient tongues to English. For example, the Hebrew word for round also means spherical. There are those who read the Bible "literally" and say that Jesus was teaching that the earth was spherical long before Columbus sailed to the New World. But such an assertion is based on the interpretation of the word for "round". Everything that is spherical is round but everything that round is NOT spherical. When the person doing the translation from the ancient tongues to English (or more likely to some other language that was then translated into English, multiplying the "interpretation" factor"), did they understand that term to mean round or to mean spherical? There is, in truth, no way to know. And anyone who claims to know is already "guilty" of personal interpretation. But back to the original debate... For those who use scripture to argue against homosexuality, I can only say that my interpretation of those passages most often pointed out differs from yours. For those who say it is unnatural, I ask them to take a look around at nature and watch the behavior of male dogs. Or to read about the species of monkeys recently discovered who use sex-- even homosexual sex-- to keep the peace in their colony. These behaviors were NOT taught to these animals by human beings but are part of their instinctive nature or a learned behavior on their part (as in the case of the monkeys). Homosexuality occurs in nature and, for those who use the Bible do decry it, nature was created by God, so God created homosexuality. Therefore homosexuality cannot be bad, because God does not create things that are bad. I must admit that at one point in my life, I was one of those who strongly believed that anyone who was homosexual was disgusting. But as I matured and began to formulate my own ideas and find my own spiritual beliefs, that rapidly changed. Perhaps one of the reasons I felt so adamant about the issue was that part of me already realized that I was bisexual. I do remember being around ten or so and wondering why I didn't have crushes on boys the way all the other girls did. I remember trying to tell myself I felt a crush on someone (male) while at the same time being more drawn to a female. It's often said that that which we dislike most intensely in others is the thing we are afraid to see in ourselves. When it comes right down to it, for those who rely on Biblical interpretations to determine that homosexuality is immoral, there will be no changing their mind unless they choose to accept that there is more than one interpretation of the passages quoted. For those who choose to say it is unnatural, they simply refuse to see or are not informed of the many instances in nature where homosexual relationships are used. And as in human society, homosexuality is not the "norm" in nature. But then again, nature is more concerned with the survival of the species than humans are. In nature, every "mating" is done to procreate the species. Mankind has already overpopulated this earth and therefore has removed the NEED (maybe not desire) to procreate from the sphere of intimate relationships. This enables us to more completely explore the "reasons" we fall in love. And for some, the realization has come that love is NOT based on the gender of the body, but of the soul within that body. Love knows no bounds, no limits-- except those we impose on love. If we allow love to flow freely in our lives, there's no telling where it will lead us. This I know from personal experience. I also know that when we let love from freely in our lives, we are able to realize that level of happiness that so many of us seek and never find. It took me 37 years to realize that level of happiness. It is my hope that someone reading this may come to that realization much sooner than I did. We all deserve to be happy and to be loved. May you find the love and happiness I have found in my life.
 
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