On religion

As I said in the intro to this blog, I am a rationalist who believes that the Enlightenment was one of the more noble human endeavors. So, I don't really have much patience for religion. I am, in fact, quite at peace with my rejection of that enterprise.

I can, however, understand how some people, including gay people, need to associate themselves with some sort of "higher power" (for want of a better term). While I do not share their need, I don't question their sanity.

I do, however, question the sanity of those of us gay men who insist upon identifying themselves with any one of the several monotheistic religions that have ruthlessly persecuted homosexuals for eons. Some conventionally religious gay men desperately search religious scripture or church history for some sort of legal or historical loophole that allows homosexuality; others try to ignore the religion's condemnation of homosexuality and seperate it out from the rest of religious doctrine. Frankly, these efforts strike me as rather useless and even counterproductive and their practitioners seem to be engaged in a rather bizarre and ultimately unrewarding form of masochism.

The problem is that transcendental theistic religions such as Christianity and Islam can't logically ever accept homosexuality, since they deny all persuits of purely physical pleasure or earthly attachments such as romantic love unrelated to procreation. They have a big problem with sex in general, let alone homosexual sex. Judaism, while less transcendental, simply can't get around the biblical injunction, although the rabbis are sometimes pretty good at explaining away inconvenient biblical passages. And, of course, we do have the example of David and Jonathan. But still, I really don't hold out much hope for Judaism either (since the rabbis haven't done much to explain away the biblical injunction against homosexuality, but continue to explain David and Jonathan as a "chaste friendship.")

So, guys, in terms of the major Western religions, it really isn't going to happen. They have persecuted us to the point of frequently denying our humanity not because they want to be mean, but rather because homosexual sex and love undermine the keystones of their dogma.

Although certain factions of individual churches may offer us a certain amount of tolerance and even accept gay clergy, these are essentially political concessions that deny or ignore the religion's own internal logic. Ultimately, asking them for substantial and lasting acceptance is like asking water to flow uphill.

So, guys, give it up, or as many of you have suggested, have faith in yourselves or, if you must, look into a non theistic or polytheistic religion.

As for those guys who insist upon staying with traditional western religions simply because they were born and educated in them, all I can do is ask them to remember that an unexamined life is not really much of a life at all.