Crikey, the Exeter Express & Echo's letters page has been dull over the past few weeks. Two topics have been holding sway, both of which are hard to get excited about: building of houses on a rugby pitch and the closure of libraries. Oh, and £10 parking permits, which apparently will result in the end of Exeter.
However, a couple of chinks of light have emerged in the last couple of days. Firstly, our MP Mr Ben Bradshaw, has decided to join in civil partnership with his long-term boyfriend. Cue some letters from outraged Christians quoting passages from the bible that decree Ben should be stoned etc. Actually there has only been one so far, but I'm hoping we might get some more. The sole correspondent so far states:
HOMOSEXUALITY IS CONDEMNED
14 March 2006
As a committed Christian, I was amazed to read once again how a person in a prominent position will be getting married to a person of the same sex in what is known as a 'civil partnership'. Now it is Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw who is going to marry senior BBC producer Neal Dalgleish, Echo, March 8.
Dr Adrian Rogers quite rightly described homosexuality as "sterile, disease-ridden and God forsaken".
My own concern stems from what the Holy Bible says about homosexuality and lesbian activities.
In the epistle to the Romans, it says: "God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, in the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lusts for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion".
The Bible also says in Leviticus: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."
These are just two examples of God's condemnation of homosexuality and its consequences.
Claude Treeby
Burnthouse Lane
Exeter
I love letters from Christians who take the Bible as a literal representation of God's word, because you can only assume they agree with passages such as my favorite from Deuteronomy 25:
11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: 12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.
Which means if two blokes are having a fight and the girlfriend of the one that is losing grabs the other guy by the short and curlies, then you must chop off her hand. Amen. Actually Deutronomy has a lot to say about men's tackle - such as if you don't have any, or have general bruising, then you ain't allowed to worship t'Lord. But hey, I ain't gonna go bible bashing. Suffice to say that homophobia supported by ancient fables is still alive and well on the pages of the E&E.
1 comment:
Personally, I just think Claude Treeby is drastically overcompensating for his incredibly unmanly name. If you consider the fact he lives in Burnthouse Lane - not known as the most sensitive part of Exeter - it really does explain a lot.
Catherine
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