After Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace came out of the closet two weeks ago as a proud homophobe, telling an interviewer that he believes gay people, including gay servicemembers, are “immoral,” the general was the target of a barrage of criticism from the left — as well as from one lone voice on the right.
— Joe Murray
Joe Murray is a former staff writer for the American Family Association, an anti-gay organization with a multimillion-dollar budget based in Mississippi. In Murray’s response to Pace, he wrote:
This is not a political situation, but instead it is a situation where a high ranking official made comments that judged individuals, not ideas. Pace singled out gay soldiers during a time of war and told these men and women that they were immoral. His comments, as a military official, were over the line and not defensible.
This caught the attention of our friend Pam Spaulding, editor of Pam’s House Blend, who contacted Murray and asked to interview him. Murray agreed. The result is a very interesting read that gives hope to cynics like myself, who believe religious rightwingers are so invested in their fantastical beliefs that they can never be reclaimed.
Here is an excerpt, but you really should read the entire interview:
PAM SPAULDING: As a Christian (and a conservative), describe your own evolution in thinking about homosexuality, the LGBT community, and how it has informed your politics and beliefs.
JOE R. MURRAY: [The] issue of gay rights has been weighing heavy on my mind for quite some time. The gay issue is a human issue, and thus I strongly believe that it must be approached with concern and compassion. Furthermore, the individuals engaging in the debate must recognized that behind the theories there are real life human beings that are made in the image of the Creator…
After adopting the AFA party line for some time, something in the back of my head kept tearing away at my conscience. How could AFA, an earthly organization, declare the divine intention of the God and condemn the souls of homosexuals? How was it that men could make the declaration of who was getting into Heaven and who was getting the one-way ticket to Hades?
I thought who are these people to say who is getting into Heaven and who is not?
…Then there was the fact that the gay issue had become over simplified-a sure sign that some facts were missing. Where was the Biblical authority for the condemnation that all homosexuals were to [burn] in the fires of Hell? In order to answer that question, I decided to take an in depth study of the Bible to determine if what these conservative theologians were preaching was sound.
As I studied the Bible, I found that the word “sodomite” that was used in Corinthians and Romans referred not to all homosexuals, but largely to the promiscuous behavior of the Roman/Greek bathhouses and the use of boy prostitutes.
Take for instance, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, a verse commonly referred to support the argument that all forms of homosexuality are immoral. As I understand it, the Greek word translated as “boy prostitutes” may refer to catamites, i.e. the boys or young men kept for purposes of prostitution and the term translated for “sodomites” refers to all homosexual males who engaged in such practices with such boys. In other words, the condemnation of homosexuality in that passage, thus, refers only to homosexual males who engage the services of boy prostitutes-it is a very narrow definition.
To argue that this verse condemns all homosexuality ignores the true meaning of the words used. Rather than embrace the true meaning of the words and explore the possibility that some homosexual conduct may be permissible, such as that between two consenting adults, fundamentalists have opted to hijack this verse and fill in the gaps with the wisdom of the world. In other words, the definition was not as broad as many fundamentalists would argue, thus it left a huge opening as to whether gays in a committed relationship would be damned to hell.
How could preachers preach such vehement messages towards gays when it was clear that the Bible was unclear at best, and silent at worse, on the issue? Why recklessly condemn a group of individuals? Why fixate on them when your congregation is knee deep in divorce (Jesus had some pretty clear words on that issue)? And as for gluttony, how could preachers lecture gays on restraint when churches host pot luck dinner after pot luck dinner and not be deemed hypocritical?
It was this hypocrisy that caused me to open my eyes. Those on the Christian right, for whatever reasons, have become fixated on homosexuality. They are obsessed by it and perverse form of vengeance appears to be fueling their inquisition. I may be wrong, but I think actions are speaking much louder than words here.
The whole gay issue is no longer about the quest for the Truth; it is about fear and loathing. It is about shame and sorrow. It is anything but Christian.
There is hope.
