Leonce Gaiter: Fags and Witches

Fags and Witches

15/09/05 17:12

Vox populi vox Dei—“The voice of the people is the voice of God.” An extremely effective means of inculcating absolute loyalty to a government “of the people,” this principle also proved fatal to persons—like Jews, gay people and “witches”—whose life-styles differed from those of the majority: a voice not in harmony with that of “the people” was ipso facto out of harmony with God and hence punishable.

- “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality”, John Boswell



In its most desperate lurch back to the 15th century, the Catholic Church is engaging in an Inquisition against gays in US seminaries, according to an article in the New York Times. This has put the lie to the fine distinction on which Christian rightists have relied to shield themselves from accusations of rabid hate. This has nothing to do with hating the “sin” of homosexuality, but loving the “sinner.” The Church will be purging those “with strong homosexual tendencies.” (One assumes these will be identified by record collections, underwear styles, and the décor of rooms.) No. This is not hating the sin and loving the sinner. This is burning the sinner because he IS the sin.

This news sent me back to an extraordinary 1980 text by the late John Boswell, a professor of history at Yale. In his book “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality,” he examines gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the 14th century. He makes clear that religious belief and piety have little to do with hatred. He writes:

If… prohibitions which restrain a disliked minority are upheld in their most literal sense as absolutely inviolable while comparable precepts affecting the majority are relaxed or reinterpreted, one must suspect something other than religious belief as the motivating cause of the oppression.

You don’t see the Church purging straight men who may lust after women, though the Church prohibits heterosexual sex among its priests. The Church is only hunting gays. This, they will insist, is due to the biblical prohibitions and condemnations of homosexuality. However, Boswell’s exhaustive research—both textual and historical—thoroughly debunks any idea of biblical imprecations against gays. He exposes those in current Biblical texts as purposeful mistranslations of the originals, or metaphorical asides only tangentially associated with homosexuality.

It is, moreover, quite clear that nothing in the Bible would have categorically precluded homosexual relations among early Christians. In spite of misleading English translations which may imply the contrary, the word “ homosexual” does not occur in the Bible: no extant text or manuscript, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, or Aramaic, contains such a word. In fact none of these languages ever contained a word corresponding to the English “homosexual,” nor did any languages have such a term before the late nineteenth century.

For instance, discussing the famous quote from Leviticus, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. [18:22], Boswell explains that the word “toevah,” which is translated as “abomination” actually means that which is ritually unclean for Jews, like the shaving of one’s beard or having sex with a woman during menstruation. It is suggestive of a ritualistic differentiator between Jews and gentiles. No more a condemnation of homosexuality than of shaving.

He points out that the sins of Sodom were sins of “inhospitality,” not “homosexuality,” and that none of the Old Testament passages that refer to the wickedness of Sodom make any suggestion of homosexuality. Such associations were tacked on centuries later.

As for Paul’s writings that supposedly condemn gays, two refer not to gay sex, but “wonton” or “unrestrained” individuals. These, Paul says, will be denied entrance into the kingdom of heaven. As Boswell notes, “…to assume that either of these concepts necessarily applies to gay people is wholly gratuitous.”

Paul’s passage from Romans I:26-27 states “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”

Here, Paul’s argument is about lack of fidelity, not sexuality. He is condemning those who turn their backs on their old ways. He is not condemning gays. In fact those he condemns are NOT gay. They have rejected their calling and abandoned their wives. He is not condemning their sexual acts, he is condemning their abandonment of their usual, natural order (being straight men) for one Paul finds less appealing. It is a metaphor for the Romans, who turned their backs on monotheism.

Boswell’s book will quickly convince the literate that there is no religious reasoning behind prejudice against gays. It comes back to the opening quote: “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” For a city-state determined to subordinate private rights for the public good (like the Church, or the America of right wing Christians), any voice not in concert with that of the majority is ungodly and inherently evil. Gays, Jews, Blacks, and women (as witches) have all taken our turns over the centuries.

The Church’s hatred toward gays has nothing to do with religion. The Church is seeking to squash that which it hates. The Church and those like it consider gay men, and gay sex, the ultimate expression of “untamedness.” Thus, they cannot believe that we live in stable relationships and make good parents. To them, freedom from the strictures of heterosexual marriage means chaos and licentiousness. If you’re straight, those bonds can be replaced by the bonds of the priesthood. If you’re gay, however, no bonds are strong enough. For no voice so different from theirs can be allowed to flourish.

American blacks have suffered similarly. Freedom from whiteness implied chaos and licentiousness. Black men were ravenous wolves out to devour white women—utterly lacking in self-control, and therefore evil. Black music corrupted good white teenagers; a voice so different from theirs… Black women “wanted it” from white men. As Boswell said, “a voice not in harmony with that of ‘the people’ was ipso facto out of harmony with God and hence punishable.”

Vox populi vox Dei—“The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the “people” have spoken.