Adam and Eve Meet Charles Darwin

What Is It About The Word “SEX” You Don’t Understand?
Sex has to be the most pleasurable act for animal species on earth, and birth to perpetuate the species has to be among the most painful. One out of 100 human babies in the world is born intersex; that is, born with both male and female equipment, sometimes with some of the parts hidden in the body. This is when sex gets to be particularly interesting. The 6-3 Supreme Court LBGTQ+ decision last week is only one part of the scientific conundrums created by pleasurable acts. So what do we do with the vagina and ovaries and penis and testicles in one baby?

In 2018 we had 3,853,472 babies born in the United States. That means about 38,000 were born intersex. Usually sex selection occurs about six weeks after conception, prompted by certain hormones and other complicated stuff. In some cases it’s possible to recognize an intersex baby at birth because all genitalia is outside the body and both sets look normal. Others might have both external sets but one set is dominant. Some might have one external set and one internal set. In this case a person may not know they are intersex until later in life. In rare cases a person can live their entire life without discovering they are intersex. Some are discovered in old age after surgeries!

The most complicated intersex cases result from various combinations of chromosomes that are different from the standard XY (male) and XX (female). Like XXY. And some intersex are born with what looks like totally male or totally female genitals, but their internal organs or hormones released during puberty don’t match. If you want to know what happens to intersex, do some research..

The Basic Question: Are Homosexuals Equal To Straights?
Homosexuals have been around since Adam and Eve cavorted in the Garden of Eden during Genesis, or when Lucy, the evolved one, fell out of a tree and was impregnated on an African plain about 360,000 years ago. The science of genetics tells us that the human race is composed of cisgenders, intersex, non-binaries, demisexuals, asexuals, transgenders, pansexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, gays, and about another 100 gender-fluid human beings. We keep hearing from evangelical Christians and conservative Roman Catholics that, with Donald Trump, God works in mysterious ways. But the fundamentalist Christian Bible-Thumper believes God approved every word in the Bible, and He has checked us out in the womb. Jeremiah 1.5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nation.”

Another oft-quoted statement is from Psalm 139:13-16: “For You formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows well. My frame was hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” My response to these statements is: “God, you sure missed a lot of stuff when checking out fetuses in the womb, particularly the hormones and genitalia.” I have been reading Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong for years, and I recommend three books: The Sins of the Scripture, Rescuing The Bible From Fundamentalism, and Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks To Believers In Exile. One sentence from one has always stood out for me: “How is it possible, we must ultimately wonder, that this book (the Bible), which is almost universally revered in Western religious circles, could also be the source of so much evil?” He has written 20 books on religion and has studied and analyzed the Bible all of his life.

The LBGTQ+ Court Decision: 172 Pages of Ignorance, Stupidity, and Drivel
It took six members of the Supreme Court 39 pages to express their majority opinion to end sex discrimination against gays in half the states. It took three dissenters 133 pages of “originalist” and “textualist” drivel to attempt to put a black cloud over their loss. If the members had used all of the information available today on the genetics of the human race, the decision should have been 9-0 and made in five words: “Gays Are Equal To Straights.” Then sign the opinion. Congress should have acted on gay sexual discrimination decades ago. We have about 30 million gays looking for equality in this country.

The three dissenters are trying to play dead Justice Antonin Scalia’s nutty idea of using the “original” language in the constitution and “textualism” in making decisions. In other words, modern gun control laws should be based on the musket instead of the AR-15, laws regarding interstate highways should be based on the oxcart, laws regarding electrical systems should be based on candles and whale oil, laws regarding space should be based on shooting stars and the Milky Way, laws on nuclear power should be based on the canvas sails of a windjammer—well, you get the picture. Justice Samuel Alito actually spent pages arguing that sex discrimination was not based on the word “sex” in the constitution! He has always distinguished himself by expressing love for corporations and hate for human workers. Justice Clarence Thomas thrives on creating a puzzling blizzard of words about racial and sexual discrimination. New Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented but tried to be on both sides—if that makes any sense.

Jesus Christ Never Mentioned Homosexuality What Happened?
Ignorance, religion, and politics happened. A short paragraph in The Sins Of The Scripture by Bishop Spong says it all: “Like all other people the writers of those sacred scriptures could escape neither their limitations in knowledge nor their place in history. Because of the advance in scientific learning, however, the attitudes, prejudices, and ignorances of the past tend to die out as new ideas challenge old practices. This very normal and constant process is much more difficult to accomplish, however, if a cultural assumption is made along the way that the words in this particular book cannot be wrong because God is their author. So the limitations and the uninformed ignorance of ancient biblical authors have been quoted to perpetuate, throughout the history of those who call these writings sacred, the prejudices of antiquity. It is an interesting but closed circle, and the pain that has arisen from these attitudes both measurable and palpable….It is evident in Western society today that the major negativity against gay, and lesbian people emanates from conservative Christian churches both Catholic and Protestant.”

An anti-gay sermon given by Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor of the Holy City Church of God In Christ of Memphis illustrates what Spong is writing about. Here are a few of his comments: “God didn’t make us for that. He made a man to be a man. If you want to know what God made you, when you go to the bathroom, just check your plumbing. What kind of plumbing are you using? Homosexuality is unnatural and unique to humans. You never see two male animals coming together. We’ve got to expose what the devil is doing.” And we have to expose this ignorant science-denying bigot for what he is. The bishop should examine the research done by the Norwegians who examined the leading species for homosexual tendencies. They gave up looking for straights after checking 1,500 species.

Do You Really Believe Leviticus And Other Biblical Injunctions Against Gays?
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana was an attractive Democratic candidate for president for only 37 years old: Rhodes Scholar, speaks eight languages, military veteran, successful business consultant, and great communicator with wisdom beyond his years. An Iowa woman was so entranced with him after a campaign appearance she immediately signed his “presidential preference card” at a caucus. But she later asked for her card back. She had learned that he was married to a man. Her response: “I don’t want anybody like that in the White House. He better read the Bible.” I wonder if the woman avoids eating bacon, ham, lard, pork, sausage, pepperoni, bear, snails (escargot), squirrel, bullhead, catfish, marlin, shark, squid, swordfish, clams, lobster, mussels, oysters, scallops, and shrimp—while wearing clothes made of only one natural material. That’s what Leviticus and the Bible commands.

Franklin Graham is another ignorant, anti-gay, genetics-denying, bigoted “Christian” who can’t find a single Bible utterance by Christ against homosexuality. He tweeted this about Mayor Pete: “Mayor Buttigieg says he is a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized. The Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman-not two men, not to women.” I loved Pete’s answer: “Don’t ask me. Ask my creator.” Remember: God examined Pete in the womb.

The Vatican Has Been In The Middle Of A Sex Pandemic For 2,000 Years
As a good Roman Catholic farm boy at Little Falls, I ate bullheads on Friday that we caught in the Platte River. I didn’t want to go to hell for eating that terrific squirrel stew we made after a hunt in the woods. Religions come up with the damndest things to keep you in line. Some want you to believe everything in the Bible, often written by old men irritated by big boils, hemorrhoids, gonads, and egos. Other churches, like the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, were created to fight the teaching of “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution. It only asks you to believe the universe was created by the Spaghetti Monster who wears a colander instead of a crown.

Despite all of the progress in gender identification and the acceptance of same-sex marriage around the world, the Vatican still pushes the idea that gays are “intrinsically disordered,” even if Pope Francis says, ”Who am I to judge?” The Catholic Church had a pope who fathered ten children, another who committed incest--while coming up with the bizarre idea of celibacy for priests.

The two most famous Catholics never married women either. They were both gay--and have contributed more than popes to the growth of the church. Michelangelo not only was a pretty good ceiling painter in the Sistine Chapel (22,000 view it every day), he left marble statues around St. Peter’s, and intensely spiritual art work scattered around Italy and the Vatican. After architects and builders had major problems finishing St. Peter’s, Pope Paul III asked Michelangelo to take over the project. He was 71 years old at the time when the average life span was 45. He finally agreed and put the construction on the right path. Leonardo DaVinci covered Italy and the Vatican buildings and grounds with his work as an artist, engineer, scientist, designer, architect, and prepared finite drawings of the human body still admired today. He has sections in libraries in the Vatican, Paris, London, Madrid, Turin, and Milan. He was also considered a philosopher of note. These two were certainly “intrinsically disordered.”