what's another foot?!And only with this in mind can I even broach the topic of this post which happens to be all about S-E-X. I hope I don't get myself into a Lot of trouble.
Americans, and by this I mean, United States citizens, while considered quite a progressive lot when it comes to most things, tend to be down right Puritanical, even today, when it comes to sex. I mean, we even have issues about mothers nursing their babies in public; compare and contrast that to Europeans or South Americans displaying the same wares when merely going out for Sun worship! (As an aside, Americans are also not very accepting of anything that is considered 'different' either; this aversion to variance is more pronounced in the middle states than along the coasts.) And we mind each others' business way too much.
51 Zariyat (Those (Winds) That Scatter, Distribute, Disperse)
وَمِن كُلِّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَا زَوْجَيْنِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ 51:49
51:49 And in everything We created pairs (complements/duals) so that you may reflect (keep it in mind, consider, think)
92 Al-Lail (The Night)
92:3 وَمَا خَلَقَ الذَّكَرَ وَالْأُنثَى
92:3 Consider Who created The Male and The Female
36 Ya-Siin ( يس )
36:36 سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَزْوَاجَ كُلَّهَا مِمَّا تُنبِتُ الْأَرْضُ وَمِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَمِمَّا لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
36:36 Glorify Him that Created pairs (mates/duality/opposites) in everything the Earth produces and from yourselves and from 'that which they know not (have no knowledge of (as yet))'
The reminder that everything is created in pairs or has a duality or a mate is not to say that there is only two genders, but rather to bring home the point that while everything you find on Earth has an opposite or a pair or a mate, God, by contrast, is unique in that God is a Singular, Sole Entity (without a match or comparison).
Heterosexuality is widely accepted as a 'norm' but what would you consider to be its complement or opposite?
Homosexuality is one possible answer if you simply consider the Latin prefixes hetero- and homo- as daulities/opposites/pairs; so it would not be so exciting to find that homosexuality is just as likely an outcome for something that the Earth produces as heterosexuality, and the wider swing to the hetero- position is due to the fact that all production would come to a complete stop on Earth if the balance swung the other way. We would, in other words, reach 'the end of the line' or 'cut off the road', to turn a phrase.
Much of the antagonistic non-acceptance of this fact about homosexuality is due in part to historical Biblical reference to Lot's community.
The story goes that Lot's people were destroyed because of their sexual proclivity; but it is jumping to conclusions to think that the abhorent behaviour that wiped them off the map was homosexuality per se. Lot's community was punished for excesses way beyond anything any other community on Earth at that time had participated in (there is a reference that no other community had 'beat them to it' whatever it is they were doing) and it would be wrong to think other communities did not have homosexuals; because as stated earlier, homosexuality is not expected to be punishable in and of itself since it had already been planned for and created as a duality to heterosexuality.
7 Al A'raf (A'raf, Aaraaf, The Heights)
7:80 وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنَ الْعَالَمِينَ
7:80 And Lot said to his People (Community), "You covet (to do) such abominations no other (community) in the Worlds preceded you in doing (ever)"
So, right here, we know that Lot's people did not corner the market in homosexuality because there were other communities in existence and homosexuality does arise naturally on Earth. Lot's people apparently were foremost in a host of other things he considered truly abominable.
Before digging my grave any deeper, it has been determined that gender identity is a function of: biology, environment, and assimilation. To keep it simple, in just discussing the male and the female there are apparent differences in their brains:
The verbal, sorting, detail-oriented side of the brain is the left, and the spatial intuitive nonverbal side is the right. She speaks on average twice as many words as he does and this is even the case before they reach age two. Boys and men tend to be more nonverbal than their sexual analogs (ie. girls and women), preferring physical spatial activities even when first starting to explore their world. So the evidence is clear that women use their left brains more, and men tend to use their right brains more (just like the opposites they are designed to be). Hence, Lot's question to his people:
11 Hud (The Prophet Hud)
11:78 وَجَاءهُ قَوْمُهُ يُهْرَعُونَ إِلَيْهِ وَمِن قَبْلُ كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ
السَّيِّئَاتِ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ هَـؤُلاء بَنَاتِي هُنَّ أَطْهَرُ لَكُمْ فَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ
وَلاَ تُخْزُونِ فِي ضَيْفِي أَلَيْسَ مِنكُمْ رَجُلٌ رَّشِيدٌ
11:78 And his people (Lot's community) came rushing toward him (running to him) and before they worked their evil (the evil they were going to do), he (Lot) said, 'O, my people! My daughters are purer for you should you (choose) to obey God, and do not humiliate me to my guests (Angelic Messengers). Is there not one man among you that is right minded (rational)?
Clearly, Lot's problem with his community is not that they had homosexuals among them, but rather that they were choosing to interpret their lusts in an 'unclean' manner by indoctrinating boys and men into their lustful pursuits whether they were homosexual or not. This is very clear in that Lot questions 'how can there not be even one right brained male' among them, because Lot understood this to fly in the face of what is a natural outcome of hetero- vs. homo- sexual orientation. In other words, Lot is asking, 'How is it possible that you can all be gay?' His problem was not with the homosexual condition, but with the sexual perversions of all of the men in the community.
27 Naml (The Naml/Ants)
أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ النِّسَاء بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ 27:55
27:55 (Lot says) Must you covet males in lieu of (preference to) females? Truly you are ignorant people (a childish community; he may be alluding to something developmental here تَجْهَلُونَ = becoming childish/retarded)
إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ النِّسَاء بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِفُونَ 7:81
7:81 (Lot says) You covet the males in preference to the females (this indicates that they are making a conscious choice). Truly, you are (a) wasted/wasteful community (lost people/given to excess).
26 Ash-Shu'ara (The Poets)
26:166 وَتَذَرُونَ مَا خَلَقَ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ مِنْ أَزْوَاجِكُم بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ عَادُونَ
26:166 (Lot says) And you avoid what your God created for you as mates (spouses; what is of interest is not using the term 'wives')? Truly, you are hostile people (a rejected community)!
Furthermore, his castigation about cleanliness is not even so much against sodomy as it is against that the fact that they were rushing him in order to 'rape' his guests. The circumstanses must have been dire enough for Lot to offer up his own daughters to keep his people from getting their hands on his guests. Lot's community's response to his plea drives it home that this, in fact, is what was going on:
11 Hud (The Prophet Hud)
11:79 قَالُواْ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا لَنَا فِي بَنَاتِكَ مِنْ حَقٍّ وَإِنَّكَ لَتَعْلَمُ مَا نُرِيدُ
11:79 They said, "You've always known we have no interest in your daughters (not only Lot's biological daughters but women in general), and truly you know what we want ('you've learned what we want,' ie., you know exactly what we want to do with your guests)!"
The community's response is not only menacing, but redolent of their arrogance. If one were to see what these types of Messengers look like that were sent to warn Lot of his community's imminent demise, and just how absolutely perfected their beauty is, you would appreciate that Lot's people wanting them is akin to a dung beetle larva coveting the worlds' top fashion model (and even then it doesn't give the full length of the spectrum as to how overreaching they were in their arrogance).
And in addition to Lot's community's arrogance, abysmal sense of hospitality, and total lack of care for the wayfarer, they fell short of the mark in many other ways; so, it would seem homosexuality within their community was really the least of their worries.
29 Ankabut (Spider)
29:29 أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ وَتَقْطَعُونَ السَّبِيلَ وَتَأْتُونَ فِي نَادِيكُمُ الْمُنكَرَ
فَمَا كَانَ جَوَابَ قَوْمِهِ إِلَّا أَن قَالُوا ائْتِنَا بِعَذَابِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ
29:29 (Lot said), "(Must you) Interpret your lusts toward males and cut off the road (way/highway/path) and commit the outlandish (bizzarre, corrupt, weird, etc.) in your assemblies?" And his community's answer was nothing except that they said, "Show (Give) us God's account (what God has promised) if you are of the Truthful!"
1'
That the community had fallen to excessive homoerotic pedophelia and raping travellers transiting their township in Bacchanalian-style gatherings is alluded to when they show up at Lot's door to molest his guests:
27 Naml (The Naml/Ants)
27:54 وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ
27:54 And Lot said to his people, "You want to do outrageous (this abomination) with your eyes open (while you are even sober)?"
The reason Lot was considered a good man, worthy of saving, turns out to be the fact that Lot offered a safe haven for wayfarers amidsts all of this degeneracy. His community had actually prohibitted him from offering up such safety to travellers (again, a secondary reference to cutting off the road or highway):
15 Al-Hijr (The Rocky Tract)
15:70 قَالُوا أَوَلَمْ نَنْهَكَ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ
15:70 They (Lot's community) said, "Haven’t we forbidden you from (taking in/hosting) people (cut you off from the worlds/visitors)!"
I know this is not the version you hear in Sunday school, but is there any flaw to the logic in this telling? Would you expect God to be reasonable or unreasonable? Do you still believe God makes mistakes--or is it people's limited knowledge and self-interest that leads you to believe that somehow their shortcomings are God's own?
Homosexuality as it turns out has a function and a reason to exist. It is, in a manner of speaking, 'the end of the line' or the last biological generation of that entity. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing, just some other thing in a set of possible outcomes.
On a social level, homosexuality does have a place in society.
58 Mujjadilah (Pleading, Disputing, Strife)
58:11 يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمْ تَفَسَّحُوا فِي الْمَجَالِسِ فَافْسَحُوا
يَفْسَحِ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَإِذَا قِيلَ انشُزُوا فَانشُزُوا يَرْفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ
وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ
58:11 O, you who have attained to faith, if you are asked "Make room for each other in your councils (assemblies, collective)!", do make room (for each other); God will make room for you (provide you allowance, can be taken to mean an added measure of consideration, room to make an error), and when you are asked to "Rise Up (to do good)," then do rise up (to it); God will raise those who attain to good (faith) and those who have been entrusted with Knowledge by degrees, for God Knows (is Fully Aware) of All that you do.
People tend to want to nurture and be cared for, so it is a natural extension that homosexuals also have something to bring to the table when they want to nurture. They are the natural solution to the care and keeping of the world's 'unwanted' children, they function to adopt them. Homosexuality is not synonymous with pedophelia and there are examples in society today where a 'third sex' is engendered for the express purpose of caring for orphaned children.
Heterosexuals are more likely to have children since they often have that option and will usually only adopt as a last resort; but gay people also feel the need to nurture as well and if they want children, adoption is usually their first if not only option, and that is why they are here.
93 Ad-Duha (The Forenoon - After Sunrise)
أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَى 93:6
93:6 Did He not find you orphaned, and give you shelter?
فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقْهَرْ 93:9
93:9 In turn, the orphan you shall never wrong…
And if they can't or prefer not to take care of a child, they will take care of your pet, or style your wardrobe, or decorate your home to show you they care about some things that you might not feel the need to care for, including being here to take care of each other. How it all turned into our government dictating who you bed down with at night is beyond me (as long as they are of legal age (ie., old enough to enter into a contract (yes, having sex is like making a contract)--and even then contract language can get tricky) and consenting (force is not an option, neither is coercion), who are we to dictate Love ? (Just no abominations, please!)
Notes: Other topics related to the story of Lot: childcare and welfare; responsibilities and hospitality to the wayfarers/travellers (aliens); assuring rights-of-passage; right-brain/left-brain differentiation (rational vs. intuitive); humility and arrogance; child brain development; can one thing have more than one pair or opposite?; and anything else you can bring to the table.
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