Gay Marriage

LGBTQ

Liverpool

Gay Marriage

Introduction

Hello Ken how things hope you are good.
I would like to ask your thoughts on something if you do not mind and if you have the time.
It is about gay marriages, I was asked my opinion from a Muslim friend who gave his reasons why he was against and I gave response to his comments which I am for in general but in some cases in the case of fairness to all parties some common ground should be found.
If u not to busy I can forward no problem if you do not want to take part. Your thought would be valued.

Friend’s name withheld, in confidence. Request is a direct unedited transcription

I

Hello, great to hear from you. I certainly understand from where your friend approaches.

At the day's end, whether Muslim, Christian, Jew, et cetera, if the subject is tackled from the angle of one's religious faith, then it will be that particular religion and its 'official stance' on any subject - not just gay marriage - that will hold sway.

This is just a 'short' answer at the mo., as I'm finalising Being Gay Being Bi Whatever.

I agree that there must be common ground. As with everything, there have to be exceptions to the rule.

II

However, I view with disfavour the religious view (as in current christian doctrine in some, but not all, denominations) that it is perfectly acceptable for people of the same sex to continue in their civil partnerships where one is a bishop or priest, so long as they both take a vow of celibacy, when the same requirement is not placed upon a heterosexual bishop and his good wife. The latter couple would be apoplectic. Very rightly so.

If Islam decides that it too can adopt this stance, it would be viewed with considerable disfavour by me, and 99% of the LGBTQ community.

III

We need to have 21st Century thinking on 21st Century subjects.

Literal applications of ancient or medieval religious texts, whether it is the Koran, the Bible or other Holy Writing are out of order. Literal religious application leads to tyranny. Tyranny leads to victimisation, outlawing communities, physical violence that the state turns a blind eye to, and eventually killings, and ultimately genocide.

Adopting that approach creates division and strife, alienates entire communities worldwide, which inevitably leads to strife, sectarianism … That approach ultimately ends in people losing their lives.

I make no apology for emphasising this.

We have the precedent already : the Holocaust 77 years ago (70 years ago at the time of writing this).

IV

Scripture must live and breathe, be vibrant, coming off the page and into the heart.

When scriptural or koranic texts are merely learned off by rote, prayers too become by rote and fail to reach the deity they seek to address. Such petitions are not from the heart. For me, rote religious texts are similar to ships lying dead in the water. Lifeless. Without means to make headway. Soon, the seas begin to damage and to corrupt. Rivets come loose. Water seeps in. It is only a matter of time before the ship, now a wreck, retreats beneath the waves, now a lifeless hulk on the seabed.

We've all, without exception, fallen occasionally into parroting prayers that merely confirm a duty done. Now give me the man, woman, child even, who is able to use the text to frame their own prayers! Liberation follows. For they very quickly spot the approach of corrosive salt water.

V

On one of my visits to Israel I was enjoying a walk round King David's Castle in Jerusalem - fabulous views. I remember asking the tour guide, a Jewish Lady in her fifties, this question.

If we worship the same God, how is it that around the Dome of the Rock across the valley is the declaration 'Allah is the God that has no Son', apparently from the Koran; yet in the Tanakh in Proverbs 30:4 is the declaration: 'G-D has a Son and His name, if you know it!'

I use this as an illustration only.

She was surprised. Is that so? I’ve never been told that. How strange. What a contradiction.

I mention this not in order to argue that this would suggest that the Koran has an error, perhaps just a mistranslation, but rather, that the Jew, the Christian, the Muslim, will all have slightly different road maps that, nonetheless, enable them to find their way to the same destination ~ eternal life.

VI

No one religion has the answer to any of these things.

All religions permeate and breathe, and they will dovetail. A religion that has not breath is a dead religion. It is moribund. Cast it over the side as useless baggage.

Humankind must "move with the times" if I can put it like that!

If not, then we will, even in this 21st Century, bring a level of torture and premeditated murder and insurrection upon whomever doesn't agree with what our preferred interpretation of our particular creed requires.

That is very, very dangerous.

VII

Religious fundamentalism carries concepts to extremes.

There will always be weak people who become putty in the hands of others, who will be convinced that their way is right, and only their way.

Simply put, that is brainwashing.

More ominously, it is the gateway to terrorism unleashed on an unsuspecting populace with horrendous consequences.

VIII

With regard to gay marriage : I address your friend’s question with two questions :

• Why shouldn't two people of the same sex enjoy matrimony?

• Who says that this is only for people of the opposite sex?

IX

I hear, often, that we must exclude gay marriage as it will encourage homosexuality, and thereby, cause the human race to eventually 'die out'. What a load of hogwash. Haha. As if?!

Hope this helps in formulating ground for common discussion and a meeting of minds.

Let us be encouraged by what He said to Abraham when Abraham was having a hissy fit and into a bit of a quandary over the five cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the plight of righteous people that might be in those cities when G-D carried out the intended destruction.

'"Come, [Abraham] - let Us (i.e. you and Me and the Spirit) reason this out together", says the LORD.'

Which in 21st Century English might be :

'Abraham, I'm more than ready to discuss
whatever it is that exercises your mind at this moment,
regardless of the subject.
I can take it.
But be mindful that at a given point
I might take over
and I will do the speaking
and you will do the listening
and with no right of reply!!’

Game set and match to Him, or Them and, wait for it, maybe, Her. Hey!!’ 

In other words, we just might be a little surprised that Their reply doesn't fit with our interpretation!

Bring it on!!

If you ever get the chance to visit Israel, it is an amazing thing to see the archaeological outline of these five cities from the cable car that take one up to Masada. I laughed. Cities? They are just large encampments. As a child, I accepted the bible’s description of cities, countries and kings as being literally akin, in size, to the towns and cities all around me here, in Britain, and that all these kings were the same as Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace and everything else. It was a very rude awakening to discover that my cities were encampments, my kings were meddlesome, warring tribal chieftains, and so on.

X

Listen. It is really good that your friend has asked about this and is formulating his views. He has a huge responsibility on his shoulders, a responsibility that leads direct to the Person He worships.

This is an incredible Century.

It thrills me when I see people of all faiths, religious leaders of all faiths, people of all atheistic and agnostic persuasions being able to comfortably sit down together and reason these things out.

Extremists aside.

There is never room for extremists. They are the elephant in the room.

We are endeavouring to make this wonderful place a better planet for all of us.

Not an easy task, given that ‘evil stalks the lands like a hungry, roaring lion, seeking whom it may devour.’ No marks for the origin of that last sentence.

XI

I end on this parallel - something that Jane Austen hit society with, a literary sledgehammer when she dared to expose slavery in her masterpiece and blunt political novel - Mansfield Park - 200 years ago.

For a very, very long time, elements of the church argued that, in certain circumstances, it was absolutely right for people to be enslaved; and they would quote the Levitical laws in support.

But time passes and reason takes root, burgeons forth and then is full blown : another tree of life.

But it took an awfully long time to get there. In short, human nature still resembles a twig on a branch of that tree.

Very best

Ken

END

Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool and Gloucestershire

June 29, 2022
All Rights Reserved

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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

One of the Fifteen Founding Members of Leaders Lodge

First written February 21, 2013

Main Image : Photo by Maico Pereira on Unsplash