Estiar
@Estiar@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Anon does some genealogy 2 weeks ago:
I have an academic article for you! DOI 10.1177/0142064X05057772
In 2005, J David Hester challenge the more than 1500-year-old assumption that eunuchs did not actually mean eunichs, and instead simply meant celibate priests. In fact, eunuchs were not celibate at all. To make a long article short, ancient gender systems were different than our modern understanding of gender. However, the church revised even their understanding of gender to erase the classical understanding of a eunuch. In the ancient world, the inability to procreate was the idea of the inability to have sex. Therefore, eunuchs could not have sex, and if one became a eunuch, they rejected sex. Of course, people in the ancient world were not quite thrilled to see people have pleasure and not have sex. It undermined social order of the time where men dominated all of discourse. They were reviled for their rejection of marriage and sex. They were able to tie the institutions of public male life and private female life together and were quite powerful. It’s quite queer, and Jesus would have known the implications of urging people to be eunuchs. In fact, people would have taunted him and his unmarried disciples and called him a eunuch. This led to an order of Christian eunuchs who did live like these other eunuchs. It was a few centuries later at the council of nicaea where it was actually decided to renegotiate what the word “eunuchs” meant in Matthew 19. They drew upon stoic philosophy and changed it into a male-dominated celibate priesthood. After all, eunuchs were a threat to the male-dominated world and men could claim that title of the most devoted. They were attacked by figures like St. Augustine who said that their nature was contrary to nature.
Regarding homosexuality itself, though, we’ve renegotiated how sex and gender work throughout the ages. According to Dan McClellan’s book The Bible Says So, the term that we commonly see as homosexual in the the new testament, malakoi does not refer to a homosexual, but only refers to those who are the “bottom” in sex. A man could even be ‘gay’ if he took the bottom role in sex with his own wife. To put it in modern terms, femboys will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. With regards to the Hebrew Bible, (or the Old testament,) it’s largely the same dynamic. Within the book Leviticus, they believe that it is an abomination before God and therefore their holy people should not engage in such acts else they will be literally vomited out of the land. It was still worse to be a bottom, but for the land to not reject the people, they wanted to put both parties to death. The punishment is more severe here than rape or incest.
So the thing about lgbtq people in the Bible is that we’re trying to apply ancient social constructs to our own social constructs that we have 2,000 years later. They certainly aren’t one-to-one. I don’t believe that the Bible is always true, especially since it contradicts itself quite a lot. I believe it is primarily a book written by mankind and therefore reflects those same errors and biases. Likewise, the church perpetuates those same biases and even inserts more biases.
- Comment on Anon does some genealogy 2 weeks ago:
Here’s the issue about that though. The Bible doesn’t have a single syllable condemning slavery. It just wasn’t part of the social structure of the millennia to do so. Instead, there are rules and laws governing slavery and how to do slavery better
- Comment on Anon does some genealogy 2 weeks ago:
Or chattel slavery in Leviticus 25:44-46
Leviticus 25:44-46 NRSVUE [44] As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. [45] You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property. [46] You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
- Comment on Anon does some genealogy 2 weeks ago:
All of these claims could be true, but even so, it does not mean that the Bible rejects slavery or that the church has rejected slavery historically. Many of the churches in the American south explicitly endorse slavery before the civil war. Not only due to biblical scripture but in order to preserve their hierarchical society.
There are a number of lgbtq affirming churches today in America. Some are splitting up over this issue. I can point to verses in the Bible such as when Jesus tells people to become eunuchs or when Paul says “there is is neither Jew nor gentile nor male nor female” and say that the Bible allows lgbtq people to live normally. But if in 50 years, lgbtq people are accepted by the church, and I said that it was always that way, that would be intellectually dishonest. The tradition of eunuchs that people would point out in history was condemned by the council of Nicaea around 500 AD and marginalization would continue and has continued today. I’d be intellectually dishonest if I said that the church had always respected lgbtq people.
Likewise, it’s the same with slavery. It wasn’t condemned and it was supported by scriptures and the people who practice Christianity. Christian countries would conquer land and take slaves. It’s intellectually dishonest to say that the church has always condemned slavery or that it was the majority position until recently.
- Comment on Anon is a youtuber 2 months ago:
Gay: Anon wishes he could appeal to men like Sakaya
Fake: His video doesn’t exist
- Comment on Anon disrespects their elders 3 months ago:
Anon is an egg
- Comment on I get my inspiration from nature 4 months ago:
I love natural things like the B-2
- Comment on Anon finds a plot hole 8 months ago:
And it would be especially hard to feed those things. Can you imagine how much a magical creature eats? They use a lot of energy. Much more than a horse would normally
- Comment on Anon doesn't believe 9 months ago:
You think that it’s a foreign influence operation or just the same dude?
- Comment on /lgbt/ discusses the shooting 9 months ago:
And even so the number of people who detransition due to social pressure is the majority of those who do de transition and some will retransition later
- Comment on [deleted] 11 months ago:
I’m crying right now. I want to help someone like that one day. I want things to be easier for the people who come after me
- Comment on Anon hates reddit 11 months ago:
Oops. I meant the former, eunuchs from birth
- Comment on Anon hates reddit 11 months ago:
I don’t think that’s the case
Matthew 19:12 NRSV [12] For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
Jesus mentions two types of eunuchs here. Those who are made, and those who are born as eunuchs. The latter, those who are born as eunuchs are what we today call intersex people.
Intersex people have ambiguous sex characteristics and are born that way. Intersex people make up around 1.7% of the population, around the same amount as people who have red hair. They are pretty distinct. Sometimes they can have male genitalia and female sex hormones, while still others can have ambiguous genitalia. Others still have male chromosomes when being phenotypically female.
Not every one of these was included in the term Eunuch, as they aren’t always visible traits. But many of these traits were visible so they were seen as distinct from men. Oftentimes they’re born that way.
(An aside while it’s on my mind, Jesus tells us that marriage is overrated in this passage. I think we neglect our single church members a lot, seeing as there doesn’t seem to be much space for them outside of the context of marriage. And this passage says that marriage isn’t for everyone)
- Comment on Anon hates reddit 11 months ago:
Acts 8:27-28 NRSV [27] So [Phillip] got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship [28] and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Here’s a story about a eunuch returning home from Jerusalem. Eunuchs back then were seen as ‘between’ male and female. They were able to go between the men’s Chambers in the women’s Chambers freely, and so they were very useful in courts. Not all Eunuchs were in the courts though.
According to church tradition this very Eunuch founded the Ethiopian Church. And so it is very possible for non-binary people to be followers of Christ.
Of course we can’t fall into the pitfall of applying modern sexuality and gender theory on ancient cultures, as they have a very different set of social institutions.
Some theologians of years past have suggested that the passage which is alluded to in Genesis might have a different meaning.
Genesis 2:23 NRSV [23] Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
This taken in conjunction with the passage that you quoted, can be interpreted very differently. Woman was taken out of man, meaning that Man was once both male and female at the same time, and yet perfect as all of God’s creation was.
Jesus never explicitly condemns Eunuchs or other groups of gender non-conforming people. I would not take this passage to exclude everything else from the life giving blood shed for us on the cross
- Comment on Anon hates reddit 11 months ago:
I’m a Christian! Did you know that the church in Ethiopia was started by a non-binary person? Gender and sexuality used to be very different social constructs in biblical times and modern views on gender and sexuality didn’t come around in full force until around 300 years ago.
It’s a real shame that the church in general tends to reject the LGBT community. Science has shown over and over again that sexual identity and gender identity are inherent parts of people, and it makes no sense to me how God can hate something that he designed.
- Comment on boymoder with bisexual cis gf 1 year ago:
Once eggs hatch they become chicks
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
That’s adorable! Even if she didn’t intend for it, she’s a mother now. I don’t know if she’s quite realized it yet.
- Comment on Anon's little cousin plays with MLP toys 1 year ago:
There’s actually a /MLP/ board on 4chan. There aren’t a lot of fandoms that have their own separate board, but they made that one because people were pony-posting all over the other message boards.
- Comment on MAGA Republican Logic 1 year ago:
The child would go to the NICU and be fine
If the child doesn’t have a rare issue
You changed your position. That’s okay!
Still, there are times when abortions make more sense from a health perspective. There are also times when induced birth makes more sense. Why ban a life saving procedure? No mother wants to have an abortion at that stage, so they would go with that latter option every time that they could.
But sometimes that’s too risky for the health of the mother. So instead of a dead baby, you have a dead baby and dead mother. If it’s banned, pregnancy becomes more dangerous for any mother
- Comment on MAGA Republican Logic 1 year ago:
Children can’t grow a brain stem that isn’t there. Or make a malformed heart work There are complications that cannot be treated
- Comment on Anon has a realization 1 year ago:
Nobody would be a fan of my little pony in 1998, and I don’t know who could grow a beard at 16, but it certainly wasn’t anyone I knew
- Comment on Anon finds a flashdrive 1 year ago:
Fourth days later, Anon finds that his entire computer file system has been replaced with pics of Morgan Freeman
- Comment on Anon asks a simple question 1 year ago:
Yeah. Cam girls are people too. Sometimes it’s hard to remember
- Comment on Anon takes the long way home 1 year ago:
Oh no! Then you might become a cute werewolf! OwO
- Comment on Anon offers a harsh truth 1 year ago:
Anon needs to join a rail club or work for a rail museum. They’re always looking for new people and they have big trains.
- Comment on Anon's good memory from the 2010s 1 year ago:
That’s the image I got. I don’t know if Lemmy lets me post the whole image. I don’t know if it’s the original either, but I used this as a desktop background for years. I ditched it on the upgrade to 4k. Size is 1.2 MB
- Comment on Anon's good memory from the 2010s 1 year ago:
Holy cow. I have that image
- Comment on Anon builds a fire pit 1 year ago:
You have the deepest conversations around a fire. Everything from philosophy to art to politics, this is how man bonds with his brethren.
- Comment on Anon shares a high school memory 2 years ago:
If you want to have a romantic relationship with someone, you probably want to know if they cheated on somebody before you go for it. Otherwise you’ll probably get burned just like they burned others. Maybe Anon wants a loyal girlfriend
- Comment on Anon is well adjusted 2 years ago:
I thought it was Roblox
