Re: a few comments on homosexuality
Marc Sacco (e9002693@antares.linf.unb.br)
Sat, Mar 11 1995 15:45:37 GMT
Ryan wrote:
> to hear someone say that being gay is 'satanic' is disgusting
I very much enjoyed the humility of your original post, Ryan.
However, IMHO you've over-reacted based on an Old World Order
interpretation of the word 'satanic'. 'Abdu'l-Baha explains, and,
sorry, I don't remember the source, that "Satan" is the "insistent
self", in other words, ego that is not disciplined. This has nothing to
do with definitions of someone in the clergy somewhere saying that "we
must condemn" and "burn" gays, because, for starters, baha'is have NO
clergy. We must respect all as our rights-equals, and leave the "Houses
of Justice" to determine our justice-relationships with baha'is and
others.
This "insistency" criteria also clarifies what I consider to be
the central issue of the baha'i point of view: moderation. What I mean
is that gays are not intrinsically "sick", but their conception of
"pleasure" becomes so by insisting on giving full rein to their ego that
wants to act upon their (at that phase of their life's) biochemical
tendencies, ignoring their spiritual potential of raising a self-made
family with the opposite sex or of serving humanity with other, less
animal-self-interested pursuits. After all, this animal "shell" we call
a body will certainly be left behind one day, and in the after-life only
those acts of disinterested virtue will be worthy of the name of Baha.
To illustrate the fact that this principle applies to everyone, gay or
straight, that insists on only his own desires, I would like to cite an
example that I consider much more disgusting that a contrite servant of
Baha with tests, but courage to not let them dominate him, in the arena
of same-gender sexuality: "Two people that have heterosexual sex with
each other, conceive a child which grows up thinking that life is unjust
and all humans are egotistical because his parents cared more for the
pleasure of his conceiving, but HIS raising... UGH!". Of course, this
example is not generalizable to, say, a "married" gay couple who adopt
children, but if we trust Baha'u'llah as the mouthpiece of our Creator,
and he knows our spiritual potentials, then seeing the beauty of one or
both "former-practicing-gay" heterosexual couples raising their own kids
with absolute contentment proves that "God writes straight, even in
[apparently] crooked lines", or else serving their fellows-of-gender, or
with their fellows- of gender, with no ulterior motive, helps appease my
mind in relation to this issue.
Most sincerely and humbly,
Marc