Gay marriage

[Omegstrat6]

Just heard Sandi Toksvig's response to the Archbishop of Canterbury's refusal to recognise gay marriage and, just say, I found her plea quite reasonable. Why does this matter? As Toksvig herself points out, given the severity of so many other things going on in the world (the earthquake in Turkey/Syria, war in Ukraine et c etc) you would have thought there were more pressing matters to be dealt with. It matters because the Church of England remains the state religion and therefore purports to represent the -majority at least- of the population of this country. If so, it is seemingly out of step with that population on this (as it is on other matters).

It's interesting because it is often viewed that the basic commonality of most religions -particularly the three Abrahamic ones of Christianity, Islam and Judaism-is centred around charity and compassion yet the Abrahamic ones especially can be interpreted as being anything but when it comes to the treatment of gays, women or those of other faiths.

Where did this hatred come from? Was Lennon right when, during his "Beatles are bigger that Christ" furore, he paraphrased some of his readings on the subject by saying that the original messages had been twisted by his "thick and ordinary" disciples when writing them down much later in the Bible? The anti-gay sentiments in the Bible are often quoted as coming from Leviticus where it is seen as an "abomination for a man to lie with another man as with a woman" and lays out execution as the punishment. The Hadith demands punishment for men guilty of lewdness together. Both of these are derived from the Biblical story in Genesis of Lot. Lot had taken two men (actually angels) he had found camped in the town of Sodom and offered them hospitality. A crowd grew up around Lots house and demanded his visitors (presumably male ones) be handed over to them. Lot refused (though he did offer his daughters instead as female rape was obviously more acceptable than male rape?). Ultimately, of course, God rescues both the angels and Lot and his family and rains down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Organised religion is such a dangerous thing, particularly when it comes down to those whose faith relies so much in the strict belief of such stories. The problem is then compounded by subsequent -often conflicting-interpretations of the "original" sources to justify particular viewpoints.. It's not hard to find contradictory passages in either the New Testament of the Qur'an.

Despite all this, the main thrust of these religions is still about charity and compassion rather than hatred and maybe people should forget about the stories and-as Toksvig (or Ringo &#128512 would say-concentrate on the love.Of course, non - hetero***uality is NOT the norm (less than 3% of the population identity as such) and marriage between a man and woman IS different than that between a same *** couple but this is primarily a ***ual difference based around propagation. But surely the main theme around marriage is about love and commitment, not necessarily about creating children?

[WBA1955]

Marriage is just a contract. It's fading in the modern world by the young of today and just lingers in countries run by religious zealots who see homo***uality as an act against God.
Ignorant people who have no place in the modern age.
I do chuckle though when I think of two men on a cake and what they get up to on their wedding night.🤣🤣