Jesus Was Probably Gay

[celtics23]

&nofeather=True

[alp227]

1. can you please add the video description, to provide context,

so that such a title looks less incendiary. but here goes:

--According to Paul Oestreicher, an Anglican priest in the UK, Jesus was probably gay http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/apr/20/was-jesus-gay-probably

[agbdf]

2. I tend to doubt this claim

[yallerdawg]

3. Not that there's anything wrong with it!

But if I was telling the story to a "tabula rasa," a blank slate - selling Christianity - it would be easier to tell it as a gay story, with all the dudes, they're all sailors, and the only women his mother and a reformed hooker.

Doesn't this sound like an old Cheech and Chong album riff?

[panfluteman]

4. No Biblical Evidence? Of Course Not!

I thought that the weakest point of that Anglican priest's argument was that there was no solid Biblical evidence of Jesus having a heterosexual relationship with Mary Magdalene. Of course not! That evidence is quite abundant, but it is mainly in the Gnostic Gospels that were BANNED from the Bible! The New Testament scriptures were carefully selected and edited to portray only the Jesus that had the church's official seal of approval.

I think that Jesus' asexuality as it is depicted in the gospels and the New Testament is more of a reflection of the inherent bias and agenda of those early Nicene church fathers who decided which books went into the New Testament, and most importantly, which didn't. Pauline Christianity triumphed at the Council of Nicea, and Paul's own personal views were decidedly anti-sexual, as in "it is better to marry than to burn (in hell)" Marriage was seen as the last ditch option reserved only for those whose flesh was too weak to be celibate.

Jesus' siblings and extended family were marginalized and cut out of the picture, in favor of an ascetic threesome of a nuclear family in which his mother Mary was a perpetual virgin, and any siblings that Jesus had came from a previous marriage of Joseph. No wonder we're so screwed up.

Biblical scholars who are experts on the Gnostic scriptures and the Lost Gospels, like Elaine Pagels, feel that Jesus was probably married, and probably to Mary Magdalene, after the norm of nearly all Jewish Rabbis of his day. Of course Jesus has been so desexualized that it is almost impossible now to think of him in any sexual context.

[Major Nikon]

9. There's very little evidence of Jesus' heterosexuality even in the Gnostic Gospels

Even if you look at the Gospel of Philip, the evidence is scant and it's even more remote when you consider that gospel was almost certainly written 200 years or more after the death of Christ. It would be like someone writing about George Washington today without virtually any written account of his personal life. In fact even if you consider this gospel authoritative, the Gospel of Philip provides pretty good evidence that Jesus wasn't married to Mary Magdalene. The other disciples question why Jesus loved MM more than them. If Jesus had been married to MM, there would have been no need for such a question. Among biblical scholars, the idea that Jesus was married is a minority opinion. Even if Jesus was married, it wouldn't mean he's heterosexual. Jewish men of the day and especially Rabbis were expected to be married regardless of their sexual preferences.

Sexual orientation wasn't looked at back then in the same way it is today. People weren't labeled as to their sexuality in a binary fashion as they are today. Homosexuality, even among people who were married was widely accepted. There was no stigma even with pederasty which was very widespread among religious teachers and students. It's quite possible that Jesus and John the Baptist had a pederastic relationship.

[KoKo]

5. Speculation and Religion here in V&MM?

Seriously...doesn't matter to me if he was gay or not...because it was His Message that Mattered. But, don't think this post is appropriate here in this particular Forum.

DU Religion would be a better place to post for discussion if that's what you are interested in.

[William769]

6. Given the fact that the religious right is trying to put the LGBT community back to the stone age

Last edited Tue Apr 22, 2014, 10:42 PM - Edit history (1)

This is not only appropriate but necessary. Since LGBT equality has been in the National news for a couple of years now from marriage equality to all forms of discrimination. This plays right into the fight for LGBT equality and what some people will do to quash our rights in any way shape or form.

Yes it's about Religion but it's also about a Very well known person (weather people believe in him or not) about being Gay and that's the bigger picture.

By your standard we could not post about politics if it involved Religion which would be ludicrous since that's another topic of National importance in current events right now.

[KoKo]

7. Then perhaps it should be in the GLBT Forum along with Relgion?

This is the SOP for the V&MM FORUM:

Post videos, images, or any other multimedia content about politics, issues, and current events. No posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports unless there is really big news. No conspiracy theories. No whining about DU.

[William769]

8. Sorry the closet on DU was closed years ago.

LGBT is in the mainstream and we plan on staying here.

[MADem]

12. "Really Big News" -- Easter. It only hops along once a year.

There's usually 'bleed' of Christian religious issues to other forums, like GD and Video, at Easter, Xmas, and when a new Pope comes along. Also when some megachurch pastor does something naughty....you'll see Muslim 'bleed' at Eid, Ramadan, Now Ruz, e.g. and Jewish 'bleed' at Passover and Chanukah.

It's like the gungeon...when some nitwit murders a few dozen people, that topic doesn't stay in the specialty group.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Then there are those who claim he never existed at all.

[MADem]

11. I always thought he was married to that nice Mary Magdalene, the ones that the church

"rebranded" as a prostitute because they didn't want priests imitating Jesus, marrying, having children, and making off with church assets for their little ones--it was only Popes that could do that kind of thing.

I mean, really, his mom was supposed to be a nice lady and all, but do you really think she'd be all "Sure, what the hell..." at the foot of the cross while they're murdering her son, if she had to hang out commiserating with a putana? Naaah--that was her DAUGHTER IN LAW, make no mistake.

Everyone knows how Jewish lads (and lasses) are pushed to get married--it's a staple of sitcoms.

"So when are you gonna get married, already?"

Everything on tee vee has to be at least based in truth, doesn't it? Except the really weird science fiction, of course...




That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it!!!!

[markpkessinger]

13. This really isn't anything new . . .

. . . And it is certainly nothing that hasn't been kicked around in mainline seminaries for decades.

[sheldon]

14. Boom! @ 2:24

"If you don't buy into these biblical texts at all, this is of course completely meaningless."