Homophobia and the bible
Imagine what went through the mind of 13-year-old Asher Brown before he killed himself with his stepfather’s 9 mm pistol. Imagine what he must have felt like. Day after day as unpleasant homophobic taunts like “faggot” traveled into his ear and into his soul. It suffocated him, from the inside out, until it was no longer possible for him to breathe. As his dignity diminished, slowly and painfully into thin air, his love for himself also took a negative toll.
Now let me ask, do you know what it’s like not to be able to breathe? Do you know what it’s like to put a gun to your own head? Brown knew, for a while. His carcass was found in his stepfather’s closet. There was no more life in him.
As members of this society, we must ask ourselves: what killed Asher Brown and where does it come from? We need to know this so we can stop this occurrence from ever happening again. Sure, the bullies were definitely the perpetrators of the crime but what made them target Brown. The answer: homophobia killed Brown and it comes from ancient religious texts claiming to be moral, like the Bible (but more on that later).
Homophobia is an attitude that has to do with the irrational fear of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. This epidemic has never reached American hearts like it has done recently. It used to be the silent killer. Now, not only are LGBT people not safe from prejudice infested societies but they are also not safe from themselves. Today, young kids are voluntarily taking their own lives because others couldn’t keep their homophobia private.
So, in order to extract homophobia from society one needs to extract ancient religious texts as a whole and their influences from society. Here is an example of homophobia in the King James’ version of the Bible.
“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them,” from Leviticus 20:13.
Hopefully, after that verse I have silenced the skeptics that didn’t believe me when I say homophobia comes from the Bible but just in case I didn’t, I give you Romans 1:26-27.
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
It is absolutely crystal clear where homophobia in America comes from. According to the Bible, God hates homosexuals and wants them dead. That is why we here protesters shouting “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” and “homosexuality is an abomination.” It comes straight out of the Bible, you know, the book that people claim to believe in but in the end, never gets read. Or for those who read the Bible regularly, this is the verse pastors tell you to skip or look-over.
The thing I don’t understand is why anyone would believe in a “holy” book that wants you to hate homosexual people. It would be equivalent to a holy book that would demand that you hate Blacks. Shouldn’t people know better? Personally, I wouldn’t give my allegiance to a religion if I am forced to hate an innocent minority. Again, the only way to rid society of homophobia is to abolish the forces that create it and give it eternal life which are ancient religious texts like the Bible. It is the only way LGBT people will ever get their well-deserved justice here in the states and everywhere else.
I’ll end with a quote by Christopher Hitchens, a heterosexual man who is also a devout atheist, “Well, I say that homosexuality is not just a form of sex, it’s a form of love. And it deserves our respect for that reason.”