Goodbye historical context, hello ignorance and lies

by Matt | September 27th, 2008 |

Famed singer and conservative talking head Pat Boone has written a curious commentary at the rabidly anti-gay “news” website WND.com. In the “exclusive commentary,” entitled, “Are you ready for a gay America?”, Boone laments the loss of what he sees as his traditional America and the forthcoming “breakdown of society,” “last period of history,” “a decaying, irreligious world” and “social anarchy.”

Boone, hardly a theologian (as evidenced by his lack of knowledge on the subject I will delve into here), gives us an other-worldly view on the first portions of Paul’s New Testament letter to the Romans:

The prophecy is so detailed and specific that it reads like tomorrow’s newspaper – which it actually is. It’s the first chapter of the book of Romans, and it’s actually written in the past tense, as if God has seen the future and through the writer is describing it as if it has already happened.

Boone then quotes Romans Chapter 1, verses 22-32. What Boone has never been taught, or cared to learn, is that the letter to the Romans is not “prophecy,” but rather, a first-person, historic account of the life Roman Christians faced in the first century and under the reign of Emperor Nero.

Just so it is clear, I’ll repeat it again: Romans is an historic account, not a prophecy.

In Paul’s letter to Roman Christians (both Gentile and Jew), Paul intends, according to the ever so helpful notations in my New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV), to “proclaim to the Christians of Rome the gospel, ‘the power of God for salvation’ (1.15-16; 15.18-19), and thus to strengthen and encourage them.”

The letter, taken it its historical context, is also a great history lesson on the turbulent times in which Roman Christians found themselves during the reign of Emperor Nero.

Calling Paul’s letter to the Romans a prophecy is like calling a letter I write to my mother today about my trials finding gas yesterday a “prophecy” about some unforeseen fuel shortage 2,000 years from now. It just isn’t so, and it makes absolutely no sense.

Boone’s selected text, Romans 1.22-32, actually addresses (I’m sure, much to his dismay), the decay of first century Rome, as seen through the eyes of the Apostle Paul.

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Here now begins your history and Bible lesson:

Verses 22-23: Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
What’s happening: The pagans claimed they were smart. They claimed they knew better than the immortal God and in so doing, they became foolish. They replaced worship of the immortal God with idolatry, bowing down before false gods made in the images of mortal humans (worship of the emperor) or other animals (pagan idolatry).

Verses 24-27: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
What’s happening: Because they turned away from true worship, God honored their free will. The people worshiped their false gods and degraded themselves by participating in pagan fertility and sexual rituals. Men and women of all sexual orientations gave into have sex with male and female pagan temple prostitutes. In their idolatry, they worshiped and served created beings rather than the One who is origin of all creation.

Verses 28-32: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
What’s happening: Because there was no sense of morality, the people became evil. There society was full of “envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness.” The people became “gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”

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You might say that 21st century America sounds a lot like first century Rome. I might be inclined to agree, but I don’t blame it on gay people. Rome fell because of their idolatry, laziness and the inability of its weak leaders to rule such a large and expansive empire. Unsustainable lavishness and hedonism had a hand in it, too.

America isn’t going to fail because gay people have equality. Quite to the contrary, equality for LGBT people will strengthen America. What will make our country fail, and our leaders would be wise to learn from Rome, is our lack of leadership and vision and inability to “rule such a large and expansive empire.” And, yes, “unsustainable lavishness and hedonism” will have a hand in our demise, too (reference “gas shortage” and “financial crisis” for more information).

I’ll never understand the reasons why those in the radical right always scapegoat the gays. For them, it is easy to forget what the Bible really says. For them, it is easy to throw historic context and accuracy out the window — so long as the gays continue to bear the brunt of the blame for what they see as the “decay” of their world.

“Honesty, truth and accuracy be damned,” they say. “Blame the gays; they’re at fault. Anyone but us!”

P.S. – Boone writes, “Kevin Jennings, leader of a teachers’ faction called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) said recently: “We have to quit being afraid of the religious right … [expletive] ‘em, which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! Drop dead!“” Not only is his little “…” leading to a misleading quote, he tells a blatant lie when he writes “said recently.” The quote is from almost a decade ago, in a speech on March 20, 2000.

Here’s the quote:

Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we’ll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle] … over to our side. That’s really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit — … I’m trying to find a way to say this. I’m trying not to say, ‘[F—] ‘em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead

Posted in Anti-LGBT, Boy Scouts, Civil Rights, LGBT, Marriage Equality, Politics, Religion, Sexuality |