Thursday 20 June 2013

Ditch the categories of gay/lesbian/straight sexual orientation

There's a provocative article (Reorienting our Sex talk) by Matthew Mason at the Trinity House site, arguing that we should ditch categories of sexual orientation, and identity, and instead use biblical language to talk about sex. Here are some choice quotes:
The Bible nowhere uses these terms [homosexaulity, heterosexuality, lesbian, and gay] for the very simple reason that the writers of the Bible had never so much as heard of homosexuality, nor had they ever encountered a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person. Not even the Church in Corinth knew of such things.
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The homosexual, along with his cousin the heterosexual, is an invention of nineteenth century European medical discourse.
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The idea that one’s sexuality permeates one’s whole person is a relatively new, culturally shaped phenomenon. It is intimately connected to the way in we which now talk about, think about, and inhabit our sexual desires. And it causes a number of problems.
Find out what those problems are here

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