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The Gnostic LGBTQ+
My lesbian friend told me that on Saturday there was to be a Gay pride parade on King Street between Foggy Pine bookstore and the Jones house. Reading about it in the local news feed, I didn’t agree with the narratives proclaimed on the Jones house steps, but I don’t begrudge them for staging the event. All people of religious convictions should take their best shot at winning their fellow traveler.
To sink one’s heart in the LGBTQ+ way of thinking you have to embrace Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a departure from Christianity that captured the cultural imagination at the end of the Apostolic age. John, the last of the Apostles, warned against this coming trend when he spoke about not denying that Christ “as coming in the flesh” (2 John 1:7) and arguing in his epistle that doing righteous deeds in the body does indeed matter (1 John 3:7).
Gnosticism, on the other hand, thought the body as irrelevant and bad. The God of the Old Testament was stupid at best and evil at worst creating a yuck-filled body with its guts and blood and vile liquids and excrement. Jesus transcended the body as a spiritual being to allow us to break past the limitations of matter and push into a mysteriously discerned knowledge or “gnosis”.
Through the years, as the Gay narriative ebbed and flowed from the pre-AIDS 1970s of militant “you can’t tell us what to do with our body, you sexual Fascists” to the post-AIDS “we were born this way” to the new-millinaial “love-wins fluidity” there is always the same common thread: I have my physical biology over there that may be wired up to a certain gender but my sexual orientation, my true overriding gender, is over here mysteriously discerned through my own private gnosis. Like the Gnostics, the transcending spiritual knowledge of sexual identity transcends the lesser body/matter gender of biology.
Historical Christians, at least those who trace back to the faith once delivered to the Saints and preserved through the ages, never bought into Gnosticism from the beginning. They never traded in the late coming gospels of Mary or Thomas. Against pagan cultures and newly emerging heresies, Christians tended to see humans as a harmonious being. The body and the spirit work together in union, not against itself. The disharmony we find within ourselves is not because we were built with contrary, conflicting parts but because our fallen nature and sin disfigure the image of God wired in us. Redemption seeks to restore this image making us whole and unified rather than pitting our higher spiritual self against our lower physical body.
But in our little town, the Gay Pride band plays on. Gay and Lesbian friends should march to the tune of their beliefs, rehashed and resurrected Gnosticism and all. They have a right to express their religious view. And so do we.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Great post. I had never viewed sexuality in this light.
A crisp and thoughtful rendering of the gnostic heresy which plagues the contemporary world.
I wish it was true. All I see in these gay “pride” parades is an effort to stick our noses in it, a public “nyah nyah” to normalcy . . .
This view of the Old Testament as not being spiritual comes from who, the Gnostics? The old prophets were spirit-filled and the fall is in the first book – Genesis. Unfortunately, the serpent in the garden is still telling the same lie – ye shall be like God if…… I agree with you that the gay community and anyone else should have their parades and march to whatever drum they wish, but the issue I have is the distortion that is being pushed about what the Bible actually teaches. Many people of all persuasions want a modern faith, a modern Jesus, one where they can pick these parts of the faith where it is personally beneficial and delete the parts that supposedly are old fashioned and have no relevance to today. It is part of the big lie, going back to the same old tricks. Only today it goes much farther than in past eras. An anti-creation is being offered and accepted while the real creation is being distorted – again the old tricks, and they are working well.
The problem is that they don’t seem to believe that we have a right to even hold our religious view, let alone express it.
This is why I don’t think that we can call them “friends.” They are anti-American and totalitarian.
Obviously, I do not refer to all individual homosexuals, but rather to the general tenor of the debate coming from the other side, and my impression of their consensus view.
LGBTQ+ ideology is a subset of leftism, like feminism, and BLM, and Anti-fa (which is really fa) — it doesn’t play well with reality and constructs intricate lies for individuals to tell themselves and to either convince others — or coerce them. That’s where it gets ugly.
Nice post.
The Manicheans. Probably at least some strains of Gnosticism, though I’m not an expert.
The denial of the OT as Christian Scripture is itself the definition of a heresy named Marcionism, if memory serves.
They do say that Rev. Andy Stanley has been dabbling in it lately.
Ophite Gnosticism, yes. Others, not necessarily, but not all Gnostic cults were related to Judaism and early Christianity.
Morning St. Aug,
Where could I learn about what is going on with Andy? I am a fan of his pop.
Part of it. The rest is that while Jesus was the savior, he was not sent from the god of the Hebrew bible (Marcion rejected both).
Part of which is that we must give them approbation.
Re # 1
Great post also because, on some level, we view sexuality in this light without knowing it. (I think that’s the reason some people were surprised by how much they were moved by the Kenny Rogers song, “Don’t Take Your Love to Town”, and the power of its last line: “For God’s sake, turn around.”) We know sexuality can’t be seen without this light. But we’ve forgotten why we once knew this, and can too easily avoid listening to anything that would remind us through the din and clatter of the world.
https://outreachmagazine.com/resources/books/christian-living-books/42047-irresistible-dialogue-andy-stanley-and-j-d-greear-part-1.html
Promiscuous heterosexuality is promoted most places most of the time so it doesn’t seem outlandish that gays want to do a little of the same. Christians considered both sinful, children and animals come next. We’ve seen enough to know that there is no end down that road. It doesn’t lift mankind, quite the contrary.
Re: # 14
And sooner than it doesn’t lift mankind, it doesn’t lift communities. Quite the contrary.
I would imagine that to a gay or a lesbian, it feels like their *body* is telling them to be attracted to people of the same sex, in the way that a heterosexual feels that his/her body is telling them to be attracted to people of the opposite sex. So the gnosticism argument would be unlikely to resonate with them when seen in this light.
I would think the gnostic argument would resonate with them because Gnosticism, if I’m understanding all of this correctly, teaches that what the body is and does has little or no effect on the person’s spirit.
In my experience, at least, that’s exactly what it is. It’s not even “being attracted to” as some people can be attracted to a paper bag with a smile drawn on it. It’s more powerful than that. It’s whom you fall head over heels in love with. One major reason I think it was a mistake to tack “T” onto LGB: it’s not the same thing. One is an illness, the other is a variation or, if you prefer, an eccentricity.
A mentally-ill loved one and I have had reason to discuss the difference between an eccentricity and an illness. She comes from a somewhat eccentric family (that is, my own).
We opted for a practical definition: an illness is painful and prevents a person from living a full, human, reasonably happy life. An eccentricity does not.
Yes, the line between the two can be blurry. A certain elderly relative’s habit of acquiring exotic birds (at one point she was up to 200 of them) was not an illness; she enjoyed her birds, she had the money and capacity to care for them, and she wasn’t asking anyone else to modify their lives or even their attitudes so as to accommodate her passion.
Of course, she could’ve come down with histoplasmosis. There were stuffy moralists in the family (okay, me) who sniffed that she could’ve spent the birdseed-and-veterinarian money on suffering, impoverished people.
Still, no one thought she was sick, or evil. She was just…you know, eccentric.
My loved one’s mental illness, on the other hand, hurts, and keeps her from doing things—even eccentric things, like hoarding birds —that might otherwise bring her joy. Medical intervention is required to heal her, or at least to ameliorate her symptoms.
Gay and lesbian people, all else being equal, aren’t in pain nor do they really demand much from the rest of us other than to be left alone, and to have the law recognize their sexual-pair-bond-based kinship as it does that of heterosexuals. There’s an argument to be made on both sides of that one, and Lord Knows we’ve made it, but it’s not the same as “you must agree to call me They.”
Since everyone agrees that transgendered persons experience pain and require medical intervention, it seems clear enough that they have an illness rather than an eccentricity or, if you prefer, a “natural variation.”
The only argument, really, is about what form the medical intervention should take.
Which of these is evidence of the fallen nature of mankind: a.) bipolar disorder b.) a desire to own 200 exotic birds? c.) homosexuality d.) all of the above.
People are complicated. The body-mind relationship (apparently seamless in a parrot) is vexed for us. We aren’t animals (alas?).
This must be why gnosticism is attractive and, in its variants, keeps arising: being human means having an easily-disordered mind that can and often does separate itself from the body and because the results can be spectacular as well as appalling (the writing of great literature, say) it can’t be wholly renounced. It has to be somehow managed. Naturally, as a Christian, I prefer humility, repentance, discernment, self-discipline, forgiveness and God’s grace as remedies, but I can see why the other is attractive. It explains/excuses so much.
I’ve mentioned before that my darling daughter was an investigator of child pornography? Don’t worry, I won’t talk about the details, I’ll just say that investigating online child porn required ploughing through a whole lot of other porn which, while not illegal, nevertheless provided eye-popping evidence of just how….uhh…..eccentric heterosexual persons can be when responding to what one might think (okay, what I think) should be a pretty straightforward biological imperative.
I mean, really! Circus porn? Dairy Products?
My lesbian neighbors require no more of me than my heterosexual neighbors do. The transgendered, gender fluid, genderqueer, blah blah neighbor, on the other hand, demands that I know the details of their particular brand of body-mind conflict and alter my language and thinking accordingly.
I have to approve of the clown shoes and the cottage cheese, even pay for them with my taxes and by the way, I must, perforce, agree that their particular attempt to reconcile body and mind make as much sense as, y’know, forming a family, looking after the kids and getting on with life.
Random thoughts.
Marcion went so far as to craft his own version of scripture, which included the letters of Paul and an edited Gospel of Luke. All else was omitted. LGBTQ+ Christians and their supporters haven’t gone that route, although there is a large dollop of scriptural reinterpretation which they employ to reach their desired conclusion.
Early Gnosticism tended in one of two directions: extreme asceticism (our corrupt bodily impulses must be purged) or hedonism (our bodies are corrupt, so what does it matter what we do?). What I don’t see in the present climate is a sense that the body is “irrelevant and bad.” Rather, I see a unwholesome glorification of the body.
The fourth paragraph in the post seems to be the key part of the argument and is probably an accurate description of how this plays out in the minds of those who are advocates of the LGBTQ+ agenda. I’m having difficulty meshing this paragraph with the rest of the post regarding gnosticism.
David, what am I missing or misunderstanding?
I’ve also been puzzled as to why Transgender is part of this equation. As you mention, it just doesn’t seem a natural fit with the others, particularly since there is no specific type of sexual activity associated with being transgendered.
Thank you for not elaborating…
You don’t know the half of it. We’re talking Alice in Wonderland. (That’s an actual fetish, not an attempt at a literary metaphor).
Hi @dhmorgan!
You do not misunderstand and your post is well taken. At the risk of overgenerization, my emphasis is on the gnostic general assumption: “body bad, spirit good”. Body bad can go the way of everything about the body is evil and must be transcended. But in my piece I also took it to mean that the body is simply not useful or authoritative in telling me who I really am in the area of sexuality – I need to go to my private gnosis for that. And you are true in that the violence to Scripture takes on a different form in gnostic vs. LGBTQ+.
Thanks! Very insightful feedback.
-Dave
This is probably good for another post (go for it if so inspired!) the already conflict between the L and the T. Lesbianism can be a function of radical feminism that believes the only one who can understand a woman is a woman. The T says that as a man, I can be a woman if I say so. Big ideological conflict – especially in the woman’s sports arena.
To them all: go do what you do, but don’t expect me to approve, or care, or even pay attention. I’ve got other things to think about.
Afternoon GrannyDude and David,
In “The Closing of the American Mind” Bloom quotes Tocqueville that, “ in democratic societies, each citizen is habitually busy with the contemplation of a very petty object, which is himself.” Bloom notes that liberal thought drifts toward a lust for “indiscriminate freedom”. Our general difficulties with the decline of our culture can be seen in the path that our society has taken to accommodate variations in sexual expression. Our society has pushed liberty to the point of self destruction, not only will we not tolerate someone telling us how to live our lives, we will not acknowledge that there are any rules or natures which limit our choices. Our modern definition of citizenship demands that our privileges exist without responsibilities, both civic and personal, and we will not allow anything like “morals” to threaten our independence, and we claim that what we choose is “our truth”, and it is supreme. Looking at homosexuality, we see that within human populations though history, there have always been humans who were homosexual, we could easily conclude that as part of the population of humans there will always be a certain percentage of homosexuals. One could make a similar observation about left-handedness, which as a trait has always apppeared even though it through most of history, it has been a handicap which has literal hazards to life expectancy and has been thought of as sinister. It is also understandable that in smaller groups, like tribes, sexuality which does not produce children is a luxury that can not be sustained, and as such, is held in disdain. In the sense that homosexuals think that they can rebel against norms and champion self, I think they are no different than society at large.
The gay narrative, in my life, at 71, begins with hiv, the gay movement finds political muscle in guilt, sympathy, and fear and like any political group, like unions, carves out a space which exempts them from public responsibilities and demands special public favor. The public is told that any hesitancy to react to hiv as the top national emergency is a result of homophobia, and that those who suggests that gay humans must shoulder a large share of responsibility are just being hateful. Gays assert that although those hetros with syphilis must tell public health whom their most recent sexual partners are, they are exempt. To me this is like any political group using any tool to achieve special privileges. Concerning the trans community’s relationship with gays. I think the trans community is just another tool the gay leaders are using to carve out more unchallenged space. Like GrannyDude, I view the folks whose desperate unhappiness finds a focus on the false belief that they are in the wrong body, as a tragic ideation. They unfortunately are the most recent tool used by those who wish to push this ideology of radical liberty, where we define what is true and what false. The gnostic claims that the material world is nothing compared to the spiritual world, are claiming that they understand the true nature of man and that God, as the creator of all, must have made a mistake and that they would have been better at being god than God. We,in worshipping ourselves, (we often are our favorite god) are doing the same thing, we say to ourselves, “if God only had my more complete understanding of sexuality, the world would be a better place.”
I agree.
We’ve never, that I can recall, been at a point where so many alternative lifestyles are being pushed, to where its changing language, social behavior, and development of the human being – I’m talking about kids, teens and young adults. They are still maturing and pair the intense indoctrination along with the availability of porn and and many perversions, we are seeing the distortion of young minds, being numbed to garbage, and filling them with confusion. The fluidity to change one’s preferences at whim or have many preferences is separating the mind from the body – the person becomes an object. This is not natural.
Really? I think the distinction between illness and eccentricity is in the eye of the beholder. Making a point that one group is mentally ill but another group is nice and normal looks like gratuitous nastiness, especially when it has no relevance to the topic at hand.
#LoveLoses
The premise of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s was the ability to have consensual sex with whoever one wants in whatever way one wants without fear of judgment or consequence. To some, it was a rousing success. To others, it was the making of disaster.
It’s as if Pride month didn’t just happen. The gay lobby has changed the definition of “marriage”, of “husband,” of “wife,” and has negated the importance of motherhood and fatherhood (either one will do). But, other than that…
Sorry, I get a little testy when my 13-year-old’s lesbian chemo doc starts blabbering about her “wife” and their plans to adopt a baby right before a treatment. I’m trying hard to locate my sympathy organ in these perverse times, but I’m afraid it’s been overused and has atrophied.
Homosexuals are definitely making demands on us even if you haven’t personally experienced it. I have no intention of giving in to the normalization of the abnormal and I resent when it’s forced on my kids. Bigly. Same sex “marriage” is a lie. I won’t be forced to tell it.