LET US AVOID HARM IN CHRISTIANITY!: MURDER AND ABUSE OF LGBTI PEOPLE

Both the Old and the New Testament prescribe the murder and abuse of homosexuals and the degradation of the LGBTI community.

MURDER AND ABUSE OF HOMOSEXUALS

Old Testament:

Leviticus 20:13: orders the killing of men who have sex with people of the same sex

New Testament:

Jude 1:7: the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah deserved to be killed, burned by the fire that fell from the sky, as well as eternal fire, for having sex outside marriage and engaging in homosexual acts, so that it may serve as an example to others.

Romans 1:26–27: Saint Paul states that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who have sex with people of the same gender are misguided and commit shameful acts deserving of punishment (despite being innocent people who do not harm anyone).

Punishment is harm inflicted on someone to discourage the act one seeks to prevent—in this case, a harmless act. And in Saint Paul’s time, such harm was often cruel and degrading, typically involving physical and psychological abuse that caused suffering, sometimes very great.

All of the above has caused great suffering, to this day, caused by:

1. Religious and civil authorities, such as burning at the stake, horrific torture such as the Judas Cradle or the Pear of Anguish, cutting off testicles without anesthesia, or humiliations such as making them parade naked in public after having inserted a stick into their penis. From the Enlightenment onward, punishments tended to shift to prison sentences or concentration camps (where physical and psychological abuse occurred and occurs), which in reality are kidnappings of innocent people.

2. Society, such as beatings, verbal assaults, psychological abuse, bullying, parents who throw their children out of their homes, employers who fire their employees, friends who reject them, social exclusion, making life a living hell, etc.

And therefore, homosexual people in societies with a conservative Christian majority have had to live from childhood to death in a bubble of fear and existential anguish, always afraid that someone might out them and their life would be ruined. Such poisonous doctrines have created provincial, mediocre societies in which people obsess over what goes on behind other people’s zippers, gossiping and pointing fingers.

Read ¡LET’S LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let us think for ourselves and avoid toxic indoctrination.

LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Not even the LGBTI community

Unlike most harmful verses in the Bible, which convey oppressive values shared by most religions and cultures that emerged since the Neolithic, homophobia is typical of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) in their traditionalist forms, but not of other religions and cultures.

LET US AVOID HARM IN ISLAM!: Let us reform its cruel side

HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARMING? Let us examine the harmful side of religions

For example, in Europe the Germanic peoples did kill homosexuals, but other cultures (Greek, Roman, Celtic, Slavic, Viking) were tolerant, and homosexuality—as well as the probably far more widespread bisexuality—was generally normalized. The same can be said of almost all cultures and religions in Africa, the Americas, and Asia.

Possibly, the origin of homophobia was some ruler’s interest in increasing the birth rate in order to grow the population of their ethnic group with which to subjugate or defend themselves from other peoples. In fact, this was the case with Genghis Khan, who introduced the death penalty for homosexuals to increase the Mongol population, since it was very small compared to the ethnic groups they had subjugated in his vast empire, which stretched from China to Ukraine.

FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us learn the history of homophobia in order to eradicate it

LET US AVOID HARM IN CHRISTIANITY!: Let us contextualize its harmful verses

DEGRADATION OF THE LGBTI COMMUNITY

Old Testament:

Leviticus 11:28: states that homosexual acts are abominable, seriously damaging the honour of the LGBTI community.

Leviticus 18:22: same.

Kings 14:24: same.

Kings 15:11-12: Asa did what was right in the eyes of God, like his father David, because he removed homosexuals from the land.

Kings 22:43-46: and his son Jehoshaphat also does God’s will by sweeping from the land the homosexuals who remained.

Deuteronomy 22:5: tramples on the dignity of transgender people and transvestites, saying it is abominable to wear clothes belonging to the opposite sex.

New Testament:

Timothy 1:8-10: Saint Paul unjustly deprives the dignity and reputation of homosexuals who harm no one by placing them on the same level as murderers, kidnappers, liars, and the ungodly.

Corinthians 6:9-10: Saint Paul again defames by calling them unrighteous and equates those who have homosexual relations and effeminate men with thieves and swindlers, despite the fact that they are innocent people who do no harm to anyone for having consensual sexual relations or for speaking and using effeminate gestures.

All of this has had devastating consequences for the LGTBI community in societies where the majority were or are traditionalist Christians. Some of these include physical, verbal, and psychological abuse, bullying (90% experience it), widespread social rejection, and fear (70% suffer anxiety in the USA, a figure likely much higher in countries with a fundamentalist and conservative Christian majority). Also, anguish, depression (57%, a figure surely much higher in countries with a traditional Christian majority), low self-esteem, and other mental health problems (over 80% in the USA).

It is also characterized by high percentages of people who consider suicide (45% of LGBTI people and 59% of transgender people in the USA, but these figures are considerably higher in countries with an ultra-Christian social majority) and lower percentages of those who have attempted it unsuccessfully (33%) or successfully.

A benevolent God would never want any of that. Therefore, let us eradicate it.

LET US AVOID HARM IN CHRISTIANITY!: Let us reform its abusive side

Read THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Let us talk about politics and religion

Thank you for sharing to achieve a fairer and happier world,