Get All Worked Up About Hate
by J.T. Benjamin

Why do the Holy Terrors hate gays so much?

Political junkie that I am, I've been following the U.S. Presidential race with a keen interest. To hear the Republican candidates talk, homosexuality is a greater risk to American society than the faltering economy, the home mortgage crisis, Iraq, Iran, corruption scandals, natural disasters, the world-wide terrorism threat, and, oh yeah, that Bin Laden fellow, combined. Restoring habeas corpus and the torture scandals don't generate nearly as much discussion during debates as does whether homosexuals should be prevented from marrying, working, or even breathing.

Why?

In case you didn't know, or knew but had simply forgotten, there is a contingent of Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christian zealots who wield enormous power with the far-right wing of the Republican Party and in American society as a whole. I've dubbed this group the "Holy Terrors."

Rather than use their enormous influence in promoting peace, love and charity, the Holy Terrors are bent on eradicating virtually everything which even remotely suggests that homosexuals are anything other than degenerate sub-humans. For every state that passes laws granting homosexuals equal rights to marry and adopt and transfer property, two states yank the carpet right out from under them. When Reverend Ted Haggerd and Senator Larry Craig were recently "outed" for homosexual behavior, you'd think they'd been busted sending fan mail and U.S. airline flight plans to Osama Bin Laden himself. The fact that both Haggerd and Craig made their reputations by bashing gays at every opportunity didn't save them from the Holy Terrors' holy wrath. No points for hypocrisy, fellows. You're gay, you're nothing.

Mary Cheney, daughter of the Vice-President, is a gay woman who just had a baby. In a truly ironic twist, Ms. Cheney and her life-partner, Heather Poe, live in Virginia, one of the most homophobic states in the union. Ms. Poe has no rights whatsoever with regard to her son, Samuel. She can't pick him up from school, she can't make medical decisions for him, she can't have visitation with him if she and Mary Cheney break up.

Frankly, I could spend every column every month documenting the atrocities. This month, I'm not so much interested in the "What" as I am in the "why."

Why do the Holy Terrors hate gays so much?

The easy answer is that since we're dealing with religious zealots, the foundation for their hatred must be in the Bible.

It's true that the Bible calls homosexuality an "abomination," but the Bible also condemns sleeping with a woman on her period, wearing clothes of two different fabrics, women dressing as men, and the eating of pork. For that matter, the Bible endorses selling one's children into slavery, the expulsion of the sick, the stoning of a daughter who refuses to marry, and that every fiftieth year, all debts should be wiped clean. Do the Holy Terrors endorse those practices? (I'd be especially surprised about that last one).

My point is that simply relying on the statement, "Because the Bible tells me so" doesn't sufficiently explain why the Holy Terrors hate homosexuals so much, especially when they apparently don't have the same hatred for bacon and women in pants. It seems that the Bible is simply being used as a crutch for the justification of that hatred. To me, that's a cop-out.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that the Holy Terrors' hatred of gays is part of a larger, broader hatred. Homosexuals engage in a "deviant' form of sex, one that doesn't fit within the "norm" of what sex ought to be, at least in their eyes. But it's not the only deviancy which has incurred their wrath.

The Holy Terrors have condemned not only homosexuality, but heterosexual oral sex, anal sex, masturbation, the use of sex toys, erotica, pornography, women's choice, birth control, and any other "deviant" sexual behaviors and practices in which consenting adults might engage.

In short, the Holy Terrors stand in opposition against any sexual practice or behavior which isn't between a heterosexual husband and heterosexual wife, and which isn't for the sole purpose of bearing children.

Which begs the question: Why do the Holy Terrors hate whoopee so much?

Again, the pat answer is, "We hate whoopee because the Bible hates whoopee." Well, maybe. Sure, it condemns adultery and all that stuff. Lot's daughters got him drunk and seduced him so they could bear children. David's son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar and was then murdered by his half-brother Absalom. God struck Onan down because he masturbated rather than impregnate his widowed sister-in-law, Tamar (different Tamar). Then there's that whole "Eve-and-the-snake" brouhaha.

I'll admit, the Bible says those things, but I've read other things in the Bible, too. I've read about how the widow Tamar (her again) seduced her father-in-law disguised as a prostitute, so she could give birth to Zarah and Pharez, who was an ancestor of King David and, eventually, of Jesus Christ. I've read about how Rahab, a bona-fide harlot, sheltered Joshua's spies during the battle of Jericho. I've read about how Bathsheba seduced King David with a nude dance on her rooftop and how most of the patriarchs had multiple wives. I've also read the Song of Songs, which, according to one interpretation, is a metaphoric ode to the love God has for His Church. According to another interpretation, it's an erotic ode of two young lovers extolling the virtues of oral sex.

"The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins." (Song of Songs, 7:1-4). That's not a metaphor for a devoted Church, that's a vivid description of a hot, sensual, horny young woman.

So, again, simply falling back on The Bible as a justification for hating homosexuals and/or sex for the fun of it just doesn't wash.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have sex to make babies. (I've got four rugrats of my own, and they're lots of fun to have around. Most of the time. But I digress). It's just that since my Lovely Wife and I decided that we'd done enough to propagate the species after our fourth child, we didn't see any reason to stop having sex altogether. I mean, another big reason to have sex is that it's FUN. What's wrong with that?

For that matter, now that I think about it, the "Sex is only for bearing children" argument really puts pressure on only half the human race; that is, the women who end up bearing these children. Advocating that women's sole purpose on this earth is to be baby-making machines really puts them in a bind. What if they don't want to have a baby? What if bearing a child is a high-risk activity for a woman? What if having a child would place incredible economic, personal and/or physical risks upon a woman? Wouldn't it be cruel to advocate a position that places women in such a position of risk?

Why do the Holy Terrors hate women so much?

Looking in the Bible, it doesn't treat women favorably in many places. Eve started that whole trouble with the snake and the Garden of Eden and women should be subservient to men as punishment. In the Old Testament, especially, women were treated as property as a direct result of Eve's transgression. It was a greater sin according to the Tenth Commandment to covet another man's house than to covet his wife. A man caught with another man's wife could be compelled to pay the wronged man a fee, effectively turning the cuckold into a pimp, but the wife could be stoned to death. A man whose wife couldn't bear children could divorce her without a second thought, ostracizing her from the community.

In more modern times, as we've seen, the Conservative movement in America has a history of opposing any advancement of women's rights, including the right to vote, the right to equal pay, and the right to actually enjoy sex. 17th and 18th century criminal trial records from New England indicate that if a woman had an orgasm during sex, it was a sure sign she was a witch.

The truly ironic thing behind all the Holy Terrors' issues about gays, sex, women, and practically everything else offered by a free society is that, as I said before, the Holy Terrors claim to be devout Christians; followers of Jesus Christ. You know him. The guy who said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, judge not lest ye be judged, do unto others as you would have done unto you, love your neighbor as yourself," and all that stuff.

Which begs the most important question of all …

If they claim to be followers of Jesus Christ … why do the Holy Terrors hate so much?

J.T. Benjamin
jtbenjamin.blogspot
November 2007

Get All Worked Up with J.T. Benjamin in ERWA 2007 Archive.

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"All Worked Up" © 2007 J.T. Benjamin. All rights reserved.

About the Author:  J.T.Benjamin says, "I'm a generalist. I write about what interests me, which is just about everything." His resume reflects the diversity of his interests. He's been a disk jockey, insurance salesman, private investigator, journalist, college professor, child advocate, political activist, truckdriver, thief,...doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief. He's currently trying to start a hippie commune in the Denver/Boulder area.
Email:  J.T. Benjamin

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