Was Jesus Gay?

Subject: Was Jesus Gay?

Well said Rick. 

But of course you might save your breath when talking to a really serious Believer in the infallible, Devine Word of God. 

Now, as an old Agnostic, you have my agreement on everything except the certainty of God as we seem to think we know Him. 

Of course a  Universe that just appeared out of nowhere is as hard to accept as some kindly old white haired Father waving His mighty hand.  But somehow all this vastness came to be.  We limit our ability to understand it when we decide that we have the absolute Truth.  It does make some folk feel more comfortable, believing that they and their concept of God, have all the answers.  But that doesn't get us down the road very far. 

We know so much more about our Universe and about our own bodies than we knew when Jesus walked the Earth.  Most of what we know we learned in spite of our religions, not because of them. 

 

Curious Carl

 

 

Subject: Re: [acb-chat] Was Jesus Gay?

 

From Rick,

 OK.  Here is my take on this.  First of all, a disclaimer.  I am a liberal
Christian.  Yes, we still exist.  I do not take the Bible literally, but I
take it seriously.

My answer to the question to the subject line can be summed up in two words,
insufficient information.  The Gospels were written at least forty years
after Jesus died.  I believe that many of the traditions about him were
passed on before ever being written down.  Often, they were embellished, and
the Gospels used them selectively.  We have no objective biography of Jesus.

the Fourth Gospel, attributed to John, was probably the last one written.
Many of its incidents and speeches have no equivalents in the Synoptic
Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In those Gospels, Jesus had an inner
circle, and only the Fourth Gospel mentions the Disciple whom Jesus loved,
without giving him a name.

I also think that we know little about the culture.  My understanding is
that in many non-Western cultures, men will embrace and kiss much more
frequently than in our culture.  My understanding is that the concept of
sexual orientation is relatively new in origin.

So, this is an issue without conclusive evidence and is probably of not much
importance to our understanding of Jesus.

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