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AIBU?

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Original poster

In thinking that Jesus may possibly have been Gay?

340 replies

nativitywreck · 17/12/2011 15:20

I suggested this in another thread and the effect was like a fart at a funeral; it cleared the room!
It's not so far fetched though. He was 33 when he died, and never married. I would imagine that in the year Dot most people were married by the age of 18, so that is one confirmed bachelor.
And then there is the 'tache'n'beard, the sandals and the twelve guys he hung with..

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 17/12/2011 16:27

But when you joke about jesus being gay, what's the joke? christianity or sexuality?

I maintain that it is more offensive to people who are gay to use sexuality to take the piss than it is to christians unless those christians find the idea of jesus being gay offensive.

SirCliffRichardSucksEggsInHell · 17/12/2011 16:30

It is offensive on many levels:

For religious reasons
Because it implies that you can tell if someone is gay by what he is wearing
Because it makes presumptions about peoples sexuality

You may not have any obligation to respect a religion, but you are also showing a completely ignorant view about homosexuality and showing yourself to be rather too obsessed about peoples sexual orientation.

There is nothing to mark out gay people from straight.
No-one (living or dead) should have people discussing their sexual orientation. It's disrespectful to that person.

SirCliffRichardSucksEggsInHell · 17/12/2011 16:33

Hecate - Jesus spoke about gays, although it is often interpreted in other ways. I'll try to find the example.

There is nothing offensive about him being gay or straight. After all there have been accusations about him having a relationship with Mary Magdalene so presumptions about his sexuality are nothing new, however I do find it in bad taste to discuss someone's sexual orientation because it happened to me, with my own family and it was just the most horrible thing.

Gay or straight - does it really matter? The only people who have excluded others based on religion, sexual orientation, gender, colour and so on have been us - humankind. Jesus made no such exclusion of anyone.

Original poster
nativitywreck · 17/12/2011 16:33

Thats really weird, because in my (fairly extensive) experience of gay men, they seem to rather enjoy trying to guess if public figures are gay or not!
Not remotely obsessed SirCliffRichardSucksEggsinHell, any more than you are obsessed with Sir Cliff. (Assuming you're not..)

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 17/12/2011 16:34

is that to me, sir cliff?

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 17/12/2011 16:35

the first one. Clearly the second one was.

GoingForGoalWeight · 17/12/2011 16:35

Allah doesn't exist either

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 17/12/2011 16:37

how do you know?

SardineQueen · 17/12/2011 16:37

"Gay or straight - does it really matter?"

Yes

Because so many people hold bigoted views about homosexuality in his name.

fallon8 · 17/12/2011 16:37

he had a fling with Mary Magdalene,stronlgy denied by catholic Church.

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 17/12/2011 16:39

how do you know that, fallon? afair, there's no mention in the bible of him being intimate with her or anyone.

tinselstix · 17/12/2011 16:39

Argh, why are people so easily offended by anything to do with sexuality or religion?

There is a website somewhere asking Was Jesus Irish? After all - he liked drinking, green pastures and telling stories and he never got married. No one on those websites is screaming "Have some respect for the Irish!!! Why do you feel you have the right to take the piss out of the Irish!!"

People see the word Christian or the word gay and they immediately start getting all defensive and pouty. Chill out people.

SirCliffRichardSucksEggsInHell · 17/12/2011 16:41

"For there are eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, which were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." Matthew 19:12. It is argued that there was no word for homosexuality then and that the term eunuch was used instead, which would imply that Jesus was talking about gay men and women.

SirCliffRichardSucksEggsInHell · 17/12/2011 16:44

SQ - no, they are homophobic regardless of anything else. They use religion as an excuse as some men use it as an excuse for war. But if you look deeply into religion, esp in the NT there is no hatred, no exclusion, no violence and Jesus preaches for love and acceptance. He does however say that there are those who refuse to hear the word of God and hear only their own twisted versions of it.

Religion does not make people homophobic, they can manage quite nicely by themselves.

meala · 17/12/2011 16:45

Xmas Biscuit What an offensive post, very disrespectful to Christianity.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 17/12/2011 16:46

I can see that the comments about gay people being identifiable by clothing etc. are a bit offensive. The comment about Jesus's sexuality puzzles me though, don't see how that's offensive.

FWIW, I don't think that the idea that Jesus would not have been gay because he extended the OT prohibitions on actions to heart/mind (as toddler says), makes any sense. He didn't just say that everything the Old Testament condemns in terms of actions must now be condemned by the thought police too. If anything, it's the other way around - if your intentions are pure, it doesn't matter too much if you don't keep strictly to laws about purification, etc.

Theologically, I don't think an incarnate God would be terribly interested in sex - it's a way of getting close to someone you love, and an omniscient, omnipresent being would probably think of it as a bit boring and inadequate.

Original poster
nativitywreck · 17/12/2011 16:58

It wasn't meant to be offensive to gays, merely lighthearted and irreverent.

OP posts:
SardineQueen · 17/12/2011 17:00

So the point is that if it were shown that Jesus was gay, it would be one in the eye for the bigots.

SardineQueen · 17/12/2011 17:02

SirCliff I don't think that passage is talking about homosexuality. It doesn't make sense at all in that context.

Also eunuchs were male - also don't see how in any way it could be interpreted as talking about women.

SardineQueen · 17/12/2011 17:02

I mean I don't think eunuch was a word for gay, I think it was a word for eunuch.

SirCliffRichardSucksEggsInHell · 17/12/2011 17:09

SQ - there was no word for homosexuality back then, so there is a school of thought that the word eunuch, like many words, had several meanings and covered homosexuals as well as eunuchs as we know them today. It would also explain why Jesus then said "those who can accept it should accept it."

And it is offensive to gays. The OP states because he never married, had a beard and moustache, wore sandals and had male friends he must have therefore been gay.
What an ignorant, stupid and pointless thing to say.

I am a catholic and it makes no difference to me if Jesus were gay or straight. Fwiw, I personally believe that he forsook sexual relationships for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven - obv he would have to have married in order to have had a sexual relationship in that very strict Jewish culture and Jesus knew that marriage could not feature in his short life. He was dedicated to preaching and spreading the word.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 17/12/2011 17:09

SQ - I've heard that passage interpreted that way before, it's got quite a long history. I think myself that it's been interpreted that way because (later than the Bible but still a long time ago), popular understanding of male homosexuality was that men were somehow 'inverts' who couldn't form 'proper' sexual relationships.

Not defending the passage (obviously!) just saying that the interpretation isn't particularly unusual.

I just don't think it's theologically valid for Christ to have had any particular sexuality at all.

PeanutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire · 17/12/2011 17:10

have a Biscuit

Your OP is disrespectful to both religion and sexuality.

catsareevil · 17/12/2011 17:12

I thought that Jesus was believed to have been married,on the grounds that if he hadnt been it would have been so remarkable that you would expect it to be mentioned in the bible, and also the story in the bible of the wedding where they ran out of wine,and Jesus was approached to deal with the situation, as if it wasnt his wedding, why would he be responsible for this?

Its amazing how little of what is commonly believed about Jesus is actually in the bible.

BartletForAmerica · 17/12/2011 17:12

So much ignorance being shown here.

Most men in that culture married in their late twenties with the women marrying in their late teenage years.

There are lots of people around who have not married by 30, when Jesus started his ministry, either because they have decided to focus on their ministry or just because they can't find someone to marry. It doesn't mean they are gay!

Compared to writings of the day, the Gospel writers actually give a much higher place to women and are not "women-haters". Take the requirement for the testimony of one women not to be acceptable. It had to be at least two women. Yet it was Mary Magdalene (who the Bible does NOT say was a prostitute) who was the first person to see the risen Christ, not a man! Why would the writers include that bit if they hated women?

If Jesus was gay, it really doesn't matter for today's teaching, although I agree with toddlerama that as he kept the Law perfectly and didn't even sin in his heart that it is very unlikely and that he would not have had any inappropriate sexual thoughts about anyone! What does matter is how he conducted himself. The Bible, God's teaching, is clear that we are required to save sex for marriage to keep the marriage bed pure and that marriage is between one man and one woman. That goes for all of us, whether we consider ourselves to be gay or straight, and he kept to that.

As for "Jesus hates fags", I think that is wrong and hateful. Jesus demonstrated his love for us all by dying for us all regardless of our sin. We are told to hate the sin and love the sinner. He sought out people on the edges of society to share his good news regardless of the sin in their lives.