From: Richard Kerr <>
Newsgroups: alt.christnet,alt.religion.christian,alt.religion.christian.baptist,aus.religion.christian,alt.religion.christian-teen
Subject: Re: God, Science, and Homosexuality
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 14:32:30 +1100

Don wrote:
> 
> Richard Kerr <> wrote:
> 
> >Spot on. Until Freud it hadn't occured to anyone that some people might
> >only be sexually attracted to the same sex.
> 
> Where on Earth did you get this idea?   It is totally unfounded and
> incorrect.

Freud coined the word. Prior to him nobody (that I know of) had ever
thought of the idea of a "sexual orientation". There were just men and
women. If a man chose to have sex with another man they wouldn't have
been labelled homosexual because it didn't occur to anyone that you
could _be_ homosexual. If it ever did happen, mostly in the ceremonies
of other religions (so I'm told, I haven't checked that out), it was
seen as an abomination.

> >The bible does not explicitly address the question of life long
> >monogomous homosexual relationships because they didn't exist at the
> >time it was written.
> >
> They didn't exist?  Quote your sources for this statement, please.

I can't prove a negative, that is I can't prove that it _didn't_ exist.
You can only prove that it _did_ exist by finding examples of it. I have
found a single exception in the ruling class of Rome, but that was seen
as so extraordinary, even in otherwise sexually obsessed Rome, that I
feel confident in saying that it was the exception to an otherwise rigid
rule. Any other counter-examples gratefully accepted.

Even though I can't prove it, I can draw a pretty strong inference. I
know of no examples of life long monogomous homosexual relationships
from either OT or NT Israel. It wouldn't have occured to anyone that
these were possible (because the idea of sexual orientation wasn't
thought of until Freud), and if anybody _did_ attempt to form a life
long homosexual relationship they would have been executed (so the Roman
counter-example, weak as it is, is even less relevant to the Jews). 

-- 
Regards,

Richard Kerr            Ph: (02) 9351 5320
SUHRF 2000 Project      Fx: (02) 9351 5323
University of Sydney