WOW soo many posts.. too many to read. I'm kinda slow...
Anyway, what hit is scores detained but only 21 held. So apparently only 21 lacked friends in high places. Same story everywhere... those with power and connections do as they please.
Interesting insight -- I hadn't thought of that.
Now, if we could only expose (pun duly noted) those friends.....
OK, now you're entering MY turf. The meaning of a word is not its etymology, nor its structure in the source language. And if you took apart the word 'homophobia' that way, it would mean "fear of the same." The word 'homosexual' is itself a grotesque hybrid ("That's awful! It's half Greek and half Latin!" "Sounds good to me!").
The word 'homophobia' was coined by...was it Evelyn Hooker? [looks it up] No, it was George Weinberg. He defined it as "the dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals," then expanded on that, saying it was "a phobia about homosexuals….It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought for—home and family. It was a religious fear and it had led to great brutality as fear always does" (emphasis added).
So even at its coinage it contained an element of hatred and brutality. But there's more to it than that: words don't keep the same meaning as time goes by. A gourmet is no longer' a little groom ('gromet', influenced by 'gourmand'); a template is no longer a little temple ('templet', spelling influenced by 'plate'). The words 'awful' and 'terrible' are no longer praise for the majestic and terrifying.
And we use the word 'homophobe' to tag our enemies. Partly this is to remind us that their hatred stems from fear; partly this is to belittle them as scaredy-cats, which is important for keeping up our confidence!
LOL
That's more thorough a correction than I expected.... but my analysis is useful anyway. Thanks, though!
BTW, of COURSE the word is a mix of two languages -- it involves "fear of the same"....
Now, you say that in your experience fear of homosexuals and homosexuality comes naturally to a lot of people. What experience do you have of people who have not grown up surrounded by a vastly homophobic culture? It's very hard not to absorb it. How can you decide that something is nature when nurture pounds it into little heads like a pile of pennies being hit with a sledge hammer? I think "you've got to be carefully taught."
I'm thinking of a few years back when the issue wasn't really an issue, and the word wasn't heard. At summer camp, with guys who'd never heard of being gay or homo or "a fag" or anything, an encounter with another guy with an erection was for some a terrifying moment. Extrapolating to the rest of the world, I conclude that there are a lot of natural homophobes. I take that to somewhat explain why minor elements of some teachings are promoted to premier status and screamed at the world as though everything will end if this One Thing isn't Fixed, and Now.
It would satisfy my pleasure in the concept of equilibrium if the proportion of natural homophobes turned out to be equal to the proportion of natural homos. But we'll likely never know, because the culture as it stands does pound fear and hatred into "little heads" (pun intended?).
Am I correct in assuming that by "[Christianity's] own proper texts," you refer to the actual words of Jesus as quoted in the Gospels, and not other parts of the NT? Because it's certainly there in the words of Paul. And you'd know better than me (we're back on your turf now) but I have heard it said that while Jesus is the central and revered figure in Christianity, it was Paul (very much against Peter) who made Christianity its own separate thing, and something you didn't have to be a Jew to be part of. And as for imports from the Jewish scriptures...didn't Jesus say "I come not to overturn the Law, but to strengthen it"?
I was meaning the New as opposed to the Old.
What Jesus said is better translated as "I come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it." I'll take "overturn" as an acceptable translation for καταλῦσαι, though I tend to think of it as stronger than that; "destroy" is my first inclination in a random text. But for πληρῶσαι., "strengthen" is... very dubious at best; the verb πληροω stands firmly as "fill, fill up, fulfill"; its comrade, πληρωμα, means "fullness" or "completeness" or (reaching into more philosophical usage) "in a state of being finished, completed".
I'm not going to bet on it, but IIRC, the phrase you're quoting actually comes from a second century Gnostic work, whereas the actual words of Jesus in this case are from mid-to-late first century.
That's either ironic or fitting, since many of today's self-righteous right-wing evanginazis (my term, "evangelical" + "nazi") are in fact Gnostic of a legalistic stripe, who have fallen into the same error the one who penned your version did, namely thinking that by having the Law and following it ever so strictly, they were somehow more spiritual, closer to God, etc., than anyone else. What Jesus' words actually mean is that by His arrival, the demands of the Law were met: He both verified that it had come from God, and clarified the raw intensity of its strength (he who calls someone "Fool!" has committed murder...!), and took care of all its requirements, making it finished, complete, filled up to the brim... and thus requiring no more knuckle-rasping, forehead-bashing, intestinal-knotting attention.
Well, you have heard it said that Paul made Christianity its own separate thing, but I tell you, he strove as hard as Peter to reconcile the Jews.
(Sorry; I couldn't resist the opening.)
Paul just didn't have as much patience as Peter; he was also brasher and often bolder. Oddly for this discussion, though, Peter was the more willing to let go of the old rules of clean/unclean and all that; for all his supposed antinomianism, Paul sure spits out rules on occasion (though some of what he's accused of is likely quotes of someone else, which he then comments on) -- and for all his application of principles over simpleminded legalistic formulations, he falls back into tradition on occasion as well.
In a way you're right about me taking the words of Jesus over those of Paul: that's a rule of interpretation as old as disputes over the meaning of the written letters of Paul (disputes noted by Peter when he observes that Paul said some things "difficult to comprehend"). It's really an extension of the rabbinic principle that the greater interprets the lesser (as well as of another, that the clear interprets the unclear). Whatever Paul has to say, if there's any difficulty in making sense of it, one has to turn to the words of Jesus (historical trivia: without that principle, there are several books of the NT which would have been thrown out).
I'll assume you have in mind Paul's diatribe/essay concerning moral progression in the first chapter of his epistle to the Christians at/in Rome. He's getting philosophical there, and along the way he apparently invents a word or two, which have generally but not always been taken to refer to the whole realm of men having sex with men... concerning which meaning, I can argue (badly) either way... because there's not much to work with.
But since there's not much to work with, we fall back not just to the words of Jesus, but to Paul's own example of applying the principles of scripture to every issue, especially the principles of mercy and love and faith. So whatever Paul means, he doesn't mean to go around persecuting people for being born (so far as we know) a certain way, or manipulating government power for religious purposes (note: the 'separation of church and state' resides in embryonic form in some applicable words of Jesus), or for that matter doing anything else but greeting and welcoming all other humans (neighbors) with (self-sacrificing) love and concern.
So, working from the last of your statement forward (or backward, I suppose), I am referring to Jesus' words above all, but also to Paul's, as opposed to the Old Testament -- because it's in the Old Testament that the gay-haters find their fuel, feeding the fire in their hearts which longs for a Reign of God like that in ancient Israel, where religion rules the government... and they, of course, rule the religion.
And it's just those Old Testament verses, lifted exclusively while ignoring others, which feed the fires of judgment in the hearts of Islamic gay-haters as well... which was my point: that while Islam has been a bloody religion from the start, the gay-hating is as far as I can find imported, just as it is in Christianity.
I'll note a difference, though: Mohammed clearly says that sinners can be / should be put to death, while Jesus just says to pray for them, love them, etc.