God Is Gay?

Excerpt from On the Meaning of Adam Lambert

by Juneau

In choosing a title for this essay, my intention is not to offend, but to stimulate thinking. I chose this title because it evokes a number of ideas for me, such as: If Creation is the manifestation of God, and homosexuals are part of Creation, then homosexuals are a manifestation of God. And, that humans throughout history and culture have tried to define God; well then, why not this one? Or that God is unknowable, fluid, evading our efforts to define and set boundaries around – just as Gayness defies our simple dichotomies about gender.

One of the women (whom I call “C.”) posting on the wowowow site is a fundamentalist Christian who believes homosexuality is a sin. She still loves Adam, but frequently mentions that she doesn’t agree with his “life style”. Our dialog evolved into a conversation about religious belief. As a fundamentalist, C. interprets the Bible literally as the sole and true word of God. My response:

Hi C., this is such a rich and interesting discussion to have… I think our world is full of things made by humans — writing, art, music, buildings — but inspired by something we call divine. This doesn’t mean the work is therefore perfect. It is all of necessity interpreted through the human mind, with all its flaws, prejudices and cultural baggage. I am convinced that the Bible is no more privileged in this regard than any other sacred work, be it the Koran, Buddhist sutras, or the Sistine Chapel.

What is so compelling and moving to me is that despite the differences in epoch and culture, people were reaching for the same thing — an experience of the sacredness of our human lives and yearning to connect with something transcendent in the universe. If we could all recognize this, we would stop arguing about which belief system is “the Truth” — they are all striving towards the same truth. There are many roads to that truth. You found yours through Jesus. I found mine through science and Judaism. Unfortunately, we get distracted and blinded by the incidental details along the way. Homosexuality is one of these distractions, in my view.

You ask why God created a man and a woman. You may also ask why God created homosexuals. As I think E. and Glorious mentioned in previous posts, homosexuality is not a willful choice that some people make in defiance of God. They are born that way… It’s like race. There can be no justification for discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

I sometimes think race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, economic status, nationalism, and other such divisive attributes of human society are a grand test of our ability to see through the smokescreens of prejudice and tribalism and hear the Cosmic call to Love.

Juneau writes about neuroscience, physics and whatever else attracts her peripatetic attention. She is co-author with Xena of On the Meaning of Adam Lambert, and co-hostess of this Salon.