> Well!
> Where do I start? I appreciate the desire of Tim and others not to
> clutter up the list with messages to Mr.Pope, but I refuse to hold my
> tongue when confronted by such ignorance and bigotry.
> Who is this Mr.Pope that he should legislate the morality of the
> list? Does he not realise that to the sane-minded of us out here, his
> irrational prudery, prurience and prejudice are as offensive as
> homosexuality seems to be to him?
> I do not think there is any room on this list for someone who so self-
> righteously proclaims a good number of this list's members to be "plainly
> wrong". While we are all entitled to form our own opinions, any more such
> expressions of Mr.Pope's should not, I very strongly feel, have any place
> on the Medieval-Religion list. Should his views be countenanced by
> publication in this forum, then I should have to reconsider remaining a
> member.
> Rebecca A.Stephens
> University of Birmingham.
This is one of the great problems that confronts a list that is not
moderated, and seeks to allow freedom of expression. I don't really
know what the answer is. Clearly, I agree with Rebecca's reasoning
above. However, there is always the danger of a politically correct
thought police dictating what can and cannot be posted to the list.
Just because an idea is unpopular does not mean it should be
censored. I was one of the infamous posters in the "great limerick
controversy" this past autumn, but the issue there was one of the
relevance of joke posts to the list, not controversial opinions. I
respect those who disagree with me on that, and agree to disagree.
On the other hand, posts which we have reason to believe are offensive
to the majority of list subscribers present a real problem, as
Rebecca points out. My main objection to Mr. Pope's post is that it
is, I assume (and I could be wrong) based on biblical assertions
which many religious individuals have taken on without question.
Analysis of the Greek and Hebrew texts will show clearly that each
mention of homosexuality in the Bible is written for a specific
occasion within a specific cultural context, and should not be
generalized outside of that historical and chronological setting.
There is no blanket condemnation; there are Jewish concerns with
ritual purity to enter the Temple, an account of the cruelty of
Sodom, attacks on kidnapping boys and selling them into sexual
slavery ("arsenokoitai" seems to be related to this, rather than
strict homosexual practices), etc., none of which lend much strength
to the "gay is wrong because God said so" argument.
As such, his post represents at best, bad scholarship, and at worst,
an unfair view which is based on personal prejudice rather than
provable fact. Mr Pope is entitled to his opinions, but I doubt he
is going to convince anyone that doesn't already agree with his view.
As to the solution to this, I don't really know. Banning someone
from a list because you don't agree with them is getting into very
risky territory. I am very sympathetic to George, who as the
maintainer of this list has to deal with such things from time to
time. I think he has done a terrific job and deserves all of our
thanks. I hope it is a job he will continue to do for a long time. If
any one has suggestions, I'd like to hear them.
Tim Rayborn
Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Leeds
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