Burnishing Bigotry - 3rd edition

As far as the rest of your list goes, most of the verses you mention have already been
dealt with and explained many times in this thread, and yet in the interest of consistency, I will
reexamine them again in the responses that follow …
Daniel #172: The first verse you mention is Romans 1:20-28, a ―Clobber Passage‖
extremely popular among conservative Christians who claim biblical support for their personal
prejudice against gays. I have already illuminated the true significance of this seemingly wicked
passage many times before in this thread, and yet I am going to explain it to you now – again …
So please, listen this time, OK?
Firstly, when we have the patience to read the entire first chapter of Romans, we can
easily see that the last half doesn‘t ―fit‖ with the first, and that it also happens to contradict the
tone of the rest of the letter as well. Yes, it is true that Paul was a writer often more inconsistent
than integral, and yet even so it remains quite remarkable to see him switching so rapidly from
speaking of God‘s loving ―righteousness‖ in verses 16-17 to God‘s abject ―wrath‖ in verse 18.
Secondly, another oddity we see in this passage of Romans is the high concentration of the
third-person – an intensity that is found nowhere else in the entire epistle. Indeed, in these few
verses alone, the third-person pronoun (the Greek autos – Strong‘s #846; translated as ―they‖, ―their‖ or
―them‖) is used fourteen times, the third-person reflexive (―themselves‖) is used once, and the thirdperson
verb-plural is used repeatedly. Indeed, any sincere seeker of Truth simply must wonder just
who it is Paul is talking about here – just who is this “they” he keeps mentioning?
Thirdly & finally, it is critical to realize that the answer to these conundrums
becomes clear when we remember to whom Paul was writing and why – that in all likelihood he
was paraphrasing in Romans 1:18-32; that he was in all probability reciting some of the
commonly heard anti-Gentile slander frequently uttered by the Hellenistic Jews of his day, and
that he was doing so to set up his primary objective; an objective he clearly identified when he
dramatically switched to the second-person in the early verses of the very next chapter -- and
argued directly against that same bigoted vitriol. Let‘s listen – first, to the relevant verses from
the passage in Romans 1 cited by you:
―For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural
intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women,
were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in
their own persons the due penalty for their error‖ – and then, to the far more important passage that
immediately follows:
―THEREFORE you have no excuse, whoever you are [or ―Oh man‖; the Greek words eime o
anthropos – see Strong‘s #1510, #5599 & #444; a direct vocative reference to those advocating the harsh spew from
Romans 1], when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself … You
say, ‗We know that God‘s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.‘ And yet do
you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself,
you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and
patience? Do you not realize that God‘s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard
and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God‘s righteous
judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one‘s deeds: to those who by patiently
doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are
self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be
anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and
peace for everyone who does good … For God shows no partiality.‖ ~ Romans 2:1-11
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