Mary, Queer Liberator
Mary, our Mother, we your Queer children call on you.
Help us to see ourselves as wholly good
and made in God’s image and likeness.
Protect us from harm so that we may
be safe from hatred and fear, especially
for our other Queer family, regardless
of color or gender identity.
Inspire our church to see the goodness
of our lives and our love, and for our allies
to advocate along with us.
Liberate us from a world that sees us as
inherently disordered and into one where
our lives and relationships are fully
affirmed.
And above all, convert us to your Son that
we may love with a heart like His, and
work to see God’s Reign in our midst for
all God’s people
Amen.
“Mary, Queer Liberator” prayer: We your queer children call on you
PAT SAYS
The RCC and RCC fundamentalists are absolutely and totally wrong when it comes to God, Jesus, Mary, and homosexual people.
They depend upon their Bible and the literal interpretation of the Bible for their totally ludicrous, unscientific, and frankly, ignorant views.
Here are some truths:
1. The Bible is the “Word of God” but written in the words of men, many men, and we do not know the names of most of the authors.
2. In writing these “books,” these men‘s religious and social cultures, ignorances and prejudices, informed and absolutely influenced everything they wrote.
3. At that time, there was no intelligent understanding of the complex nature of human sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular.
4. All men were regarded as “straight” and having sex with any creature others than a female, was regarded as “straight” men doing sexual things with other creatures, be those creatures, dogs, hens, hedgehogs or males.
5. There was no intelligent understanding of the human brain, the complexities of the procreational process, or the complexity of human desire, human development and all the other processes that come to bear on the area of human sexual variation and diversity.
6. In writing what they wrote, they were acting out of a primitive faith and understanding of God and indeed the universe. They were like primary schoold children attempting to write a theological Ph.D.
7. But that did not mean that God did not use them. He did. But God expects us today, in the light of our greatly increased understandings, to differentiate between the theological substance of Holy Scripture and the ancient and archaic language and mindset of its understandably limited authors.
Just like if you went to a physician today, you would not expect him to base his diagnosis fully on an 18th-century medical textbook. Or if you went to a restaurant, you would not expect your meal to be cooked completely on the basis of one of Fanny Craddock’s earlier cookery books.
Taking the Bible literally on every matter is disastrous.
76 Things Banned in Leviticus (and their penalties)
1. Burning any yeast or honey in offerings to God (2:11) [Normal penalty.]
2. Failing to include salt in offerings to God (2:13) [Normal penalty.]
3. Eating fat (3:17) [That one’s “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” All fat is to be saved for offerings to God. Normal penalty.]
4. Eating blood (3:17) [Normal penalty]
5. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1) [“They will be held responsible.”]
6. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1) [Which sounds like hearsay. At any rate, “they shall be held responsible.”]
7. Touching an unclean animal (5:2) [NIV translates this as touching “the carcass” of an unclean animal. So if Rover dies, or you’re a worker in a pork plant, you’re in trouble here. Normal penalty.]
8. Carelessly making an oath (5:4) [Even if you don’t realize you have. Normal penalty.]
9. Deceiving a neighbour about something trusted to them (6:2) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
10. Finding lost property and lying about it (6:3) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
11. Bringing unauthorised fire before God (10:1) [God will smite you.]
12. Letting your hair become unkempt (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
13. Tearing your clothes (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
14. Drinking alcohol in holy places (bit of a problem for Catholics, this ‘un) (10:9) [“You will die.” May only apply to the priesthood.]
15. Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7) [“You will be unclean.]
16. Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby) (11:8) [“You will be unclean.”]
17. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12) [“You will be unclean.”]
18. Eating – or touching the carcass of – eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19) [“You will be unclean.”]
19. Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22) [“You will be unclean.”]
20. Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27) [“You will be unclean.” Also applies to touching their carcasses.]
22. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42) [“You will be unclean.”]
23. Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 33 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
24. Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 66 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
25. Having sex with your mother (18:7) [The penalty for all the sexual sins in ch. 18 is that the participants are to be “cut off” from their people. Some have additional penalties mentioned below.]
26. Having sex with your father’s wife (18:8) [In 20:11, both are to be put to death.]
27. Having sex with your sister (18:9) [In 20:17, if you marry her, both are to be “publicly removed from their people”]
28. Having sex with your granddaughter (18:10)
29. Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)
30. Having sex with your biological aunt (18:12-13) [In 20:19, he will be held responsible for the dishonor.]
31. Having sex with your uncle’s wife (18:14) [In 20:20, they are held responsible for the dishonor, “they will die childless”]
32. Having sex with your daughter-in-law (18:15) [In 20:12, both are to be put to death.]
33. Having sex with your sister-in-law (18:16) [In 20:21, if you marry her, “they will be childless.”]
34. Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (bad news for Alan Clark) (18:17) [No specific penalty given, but per 20:14 if you marry both of them, all three of you are to be “burned in fire.”]
35. Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)
36. Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19) [15:24 simply says the man will be considered unclean for 7 days. In 20:18, “Both of them are to be cut off from their people”]
37. Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20) [In 20:10, both are to be put to death.]
38. Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21) [In 20:2, the person is to be stoned to death.]
39. Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22) [In 20:13, both are to be put to death.]
40. Having sex with an animal (18:23) [In 20:15, both are to be killed.]
41. Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4)
42. Reaping to the very edges of a field (19:9) [To be left for the poor.
43. Picking up grapes that have fallen in yiur vineyard 19:10) [To be left for the poor.
44. Stealing (19:11)
45. Lying (19:11)
47. Defrauding your neighbour (19:13)
46. Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12)
48. Holding back wages overnight
49. Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14)
50. Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15)
51. Spreading slander (19:16)
52. Doing anything to endanger a neighbour’s life (19:16)
53. Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18)
54. Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19)
55. Cross-breeding animals (19:19)
56. Planting different seeds in the same field (19:19)
57. Sleeping with another man’s slave 18:20
58. Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23) [No penalty given. May only apply to fruit trees planted in Israel.]
59. Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut astrology) (19:26) [No penalty, but in 20:6 they will be “cut off from their people” by God. In 20:27, they are to be stoned to death.]
60. Trimming your beard (19:27)
61. Cutting your hair at the sides
62. Getting tatoos
63. Turning your daughter to prostitution
64. Turning to mediums or spiritualists (19:31)
65. Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32)
66. Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34)
67. Using dishonest weights and scales (19:35-36)
68. Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9) [Death, as noted.]
69. Marrying a prostitute, divorcee or widow if you are a priest (21:7,13)
70. Entering a place where there’s a dead body as a priest (21:11)
71. Slaughtering a cow/sheep and its young on the same day (22:28)
72. Working on the Sabbath (23:3)
73. Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14)
74. Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22)
75. Selling land permanently 25:33
76. Selling an Israelite as a slave.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 