Well, if you've reached this much of my page, you obviously know I'm a Jewish lesbian. My friends make fun of my constantly because I'm such a minority. Some times I wonder if I'm the only Jewish lesbian out there.
Because I went to Purdue, which is in the buckle of the bible belt, I have been attacked with many verbal assaults about my sexuality and religion. What I find fascinating is that I've been attacked more for being Jewish than I have for being a lesbian.
Currently I am doing research on lesbianism and the Bible. Many homophobic people harangue quotes from the bible. However, after doing some research I've found that many of these claims are false or exaggerated. In my studies I am working on translating the Hebrew Torah (old testment) to English, to see how the translations differ. Any time a text is translated to another language from its originally language some of its meaning is lost. Hence why I am doing my own translation, and comparing my interpretations to other English translations of the Torah.
Being the busy engineer that I am, I havn't had as much time as I would like to work on it, but it is a work in progress. I have found one interesting word that is constantly being changed in the torah (old testament). Gosh, I wish at this point I could even remember the part this is in. Anyways, one word that some translate to mean homosexuality is kadish. Now you have to understand that in Hebrew the consonants or root or the word is what's important. kdsh is also the root for holy. I looked up the word in the dictionary and it means temple prostitute. Because of the words relationship to the world holy, I believe that temple prostitute isn't meant to have such a negative connotation.
One of the most common biblical quotations that homophobic christians use comes from Romans 18-32. In this section Paul flat out says homosexuality is bad. However, if you consider the context of his defamination, you'll find he really wasn't comdemning the average homosexual. During the Greek times, homosexuality was common, but not exactly the same type of homosexuality seen today. Back then homosexuality existed between someone of higher standing with someone of lower status. Usually the one of higher standing was using the one of lower standing, like acts of pedastry and male prositutes. These types of relationships were exploitatve and demeaning, these homosexual acts were not between two consenting adults. So I believe Paul was trying to end the abusive relationships that occur here, not ones of compassion and loving seen in the majority of homosexuals in the 90's.
In Roman's 1:18 the Greek word para phusin is used to condemn homosexuality. Para phusin means against nature; or people that go against cultural and religious heritage. This has nothing to do with people who love and respect God.
In the old testiment in Levititcus 18:22 and 20:13 it directly says homosexuality has punishable by death. The irony of that is that also in Levititcus cross breeding cattle or seed and eating pork also fall onto that same punishment. Now explain to me why a family can eat ham on easter, but can't let a homosexual member of their family join their dinner festivities.