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Paperback
Publisher: Alamo Square Distributors
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| One more attempt to whitewash Judeo-Christian bigotry |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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One more attempt -- following in the footsteps of John Boswell and Derrick Sherwin Bailey -- to deny the historic crimes that the Abrahamic religions have committed against gay men. Let me make my own position clear: I am both a gay man and a gay liberationist and also a secular humanist. I believe in truth -- free enquiry, the use of reason and evidence. I am opposed to blind faith, intolerance, and superstition.
When John Boswell's magnum opus -- Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality -- was published in 1980, it was immediately hailed by gay Christians, who hoped it would rescue them not only from hateful religionists, but from non-religionists (atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, rationalists, etc.) as well. If one believed Boswell's central thesis -- that religious belief, Christian or other, was in no way responsible for intolerance directed against gay men -- then a gay men could still be a good Christian. Jesus would still want him for a sunbeam, to shine for him each day. Alas! The facts of history speak powerfully against the notion of a gay-friendly Christianity.
I and two of my colleagues in the New York Gay Academic Union publicly discussed Boswell's book, and published our talks in a monograph, which is now on-line. (Do a search for Warren Johansson, Wayne R. Dynes, and John Lauritsen -- "Homosexuality, Intolerance, and Christianity: A critical examination of John Boswell's work".) I concur with the conclusion of Johansson's essay, which applies in force to Daniel's new book:
"Boswell and his admirers may if they wish choose to celebrate the achievements of "gay people" in history, and none should refuse them that right; but if they deny the responsibility of the Church for the soul murder that it has committed upon homosexuals, individually and collectively, through aeons of intimidation and oppression, then they are acting as the accomplices of a criminal psychopath, and when the magnitude of the crime that institutional Christianity has perpetrated is revealed to the world, they -- and the Church -- will suffer unparalleled dishonor.
My later book, A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love (1998) carries forward the argument against the Boswellian revisionists. It celebrates and defends male love from the perspective of secular humanism. The central thesis: "Male love is good, the opprobrium suffered by gay men is a product of Judeo-Christian superstition."
True scholars are committed to the truth, whether or not they find it palatable. The hateful words in Holy Scripture really do mean what they say. Over the centuries, as a consequence of Abrahamic taboo, gay men really were tortured, castrated, stoned to death, hanged, burned at the stake. As the early (late 19th and early 20th century) pioneers for homosexual rights realized, our liberation is allied with knowledge, not with superstition.
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| Helpful but less than brilliant |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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This book points in the right direction by arguing that what the Bible says about homosexuality is not what a great many Christians, especially Biblical literalists, think it says. Father Helminiak examines every passage in both Hebrew and Christian testaments that many today use to condemn homosexuality. He points out that some were rules aimed at keeping the ancient Hebrew tribe pure (as in Leviticus) while others (as in the letters of the apostle Paul) have been subjected to either mistranslation or misunderstanding of the contemporary social standards. The author does not make an air-tight case, and some of his arguments are more persuasive than others. He might have done better to emphasize simply that the overwhelming message of the Christian Gospels is one of love and acceptance of all, but his careful study of chapter and verse at least points out the ambiguity of the scriptures on this subject. His strongest point is to make it clear that it is misleading to take some Biblical passages out of their immediate historical & social context and apply them to our contemporary culture. The book of Leviticus, for example, applies the same language to homosexual acts as it uses to forbid the eating of pork or shrimp. Helminiak urges a historical-critical approach to reading the Bible as the way to truly understand its meaning.
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| One of the greatest wake up calls EVER!!!! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Why isn't this book being sent to every Republican or theologian who tries to say that gays are evil and deserve death? This book made me feel so much better about my life and I am no longer on anti-depressants. DO YOU HEAR THAT FRED PHELPS?!?!?! You need this book as your personal enema. I wish I could meet the author and thank him for giving me my life back.
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| Excellent quality and service |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The book arrived in the condition promised. I was surprised and pleased by how quickly it shipped and how soon I received the item. I'm very happy with my experience!
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| Author points out that church is continually revising its position |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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... and yet today's fundamentalists, present in force on this board, attacking the book and author alike because these are incongruent with their own pulpit schooled beliefs, pretend that THEIR perspective has always been the legitimate perspective of the universal church.
Fact is, and the author points this out, gay orientation was universally accepted in the Catholic Church for ONE THOUSAND YEARS. So I ask you, were churchmen of those times any less pious than churchmen today who revile both this book and its author?
Think about it. Tribalism has never been about truth.
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