To: Greg or e who wrote (516 ) 11/2/2012 3:11:07 AM From: Solon Respond to You really hate us heterosexuals, don't you, you young "happy" fellow?! But don't worry. Jesus still loves you a real lot! -g- Ho Ho Ho! The author, Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., Ph.D. is a professor of biblical and constructive theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and is a United Methodist clergyman. He is not a crank but a trained professional willing to take another look at the Jesus story before the Church became a part of the respectable Establishment of the Roman Empire . It turns out that all the above mentioned teachings of members of the Christian Right are challenged in the Gospels (and in supporting documents like the Gospel of Thomas). Jennings starts out by examining the title character's role in the Gospel of St. John [John 13, 18-21]. It turns out that there is substantial similarity between the relationship between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple and that between a lover and a beloved in a Hellenistic gymnasium; nowadays we would say they were boyfriends or lovers. Jennings reviews various attempts to identify the Beloved Disciple and goes into the stories of the nude youth fleeing at the arrest of Jesus, of Lazarus, of the youth at the tomb of Jesus, and of the usage of the words eros vs. philia vs. agape (different Koine Greek words for love) in the text. Furthermore, there is no indication Jesus and the Beloved Disciple would not have consummated the relationship. Jennings makes a case that traditional commentators prefer to ignore or sublimate. Jennings moves on to show how the story of the Centurion's lad (pais,doulos) [Matthew 8:5-13] might reasonably be interpreted as Jesus being happy to help a sick lover in a same-sex relationship and on Jesus's compassion for eunichs. The final section gathers the evidence that Jesus wanted to convert traditional family values to a situation where everyone cares about everyone else and all have a direct connection to God. My example: Jesus would be angry at the present situation where wealthy families push their children to go to the best schools and succeed-or-else while allowing poor children to go to schools with leaky roofs and no books and have no health care. Jesus supported and included women on a largely equal basis with men. Jesus wanted people to break their dependence on family and the accumulation of wealth and power and instead to treat each other well and to do good. This includes treating women as equals, being accepting of various sexual orientations, and not condemning sex itself. Traditional morality is mostly focused on preserving property rights and amassing wealth; the original position of the Jesus movement was different. Although theology and Biblical research can be a slow slog to read, Jennings writes well enough to keep up one's interest. There is a bit of repetition, but since the ideas are untraditional, they do bear repeating. While I find his arguments convincing, I suppose I am still fond of the notion that God had choices in how to incarnate the Son and that if Jesus was to experience all the temptations of Earth fairly, He would have been a Kinsey 3 (tempted equally by men and women), rather than a Kinsey 0 (the Traditional position) or a Kinsey 4-6 (gayish to gay) which may be what Jennings would suggest. When one reads of the differences between Jesus's teaching and Traditional Abrahamic social teachings, it makes me wonder if someone could calculate more accurately than I could the number of gay people (say, from the set of people reaching 12+ years of age) subjected to Abrahamic rules over the centuries. Is it possible that the aggregate damage done to gays (violence, theft) exceeds that to the Jews during the Holocaust? (The count of adversely affected women dwarf both.) Traditional Abrahamic religion has been complicit in so much and is so unrepentant. This book is an excellent start on reclaiming Christianity from Traditionalists. Jesus can be Our Personal Savior too." amazon.com
