In Reply to: Sexual ambiquity & Christian dogma posted by PB on March 19, 2007 at 14:12:44:
This is a fairly strong indictment of right-wing Christians. I'm not sure I agree that the radical Christian right is "the most dangerous mass movement in American history." Nevertheless, I do agree with the writer's analysis of the threat that GLBT people pose to ideologues who hold a particular world view attributed to Christianity. What the author is calling "cult of masculinity," I would be inclined to call "patriarchy."
The discussion of binary opposites as a solution to the anxiety provoked by ambiguity is also right on, imo. Once again, I'd be more inclined to talk about Plato's dualism as a root source of binary thinking in Christianity. There's also been some interesting work done by a guy named RT Francoeur on "two world views,"-- which is the dualistic, absolutist (dogmatic) world view versus the syncretic, process-oriented world view. Francoeur outlines how these opposing world views relate to contemporary Christian moral thinking about human sexuality.
I went looking for a link that briefly outlines Francoeur's discussion of the two world views and how this plays out in controversy among Christian moral theologians about such things as homosexuality, abortion, the changing role of men and women, changing structure of the family, etc., and surprise, surprise, I came across this very interesting link to a page on TF's website. I can't figure out who the author is, but s/he cites Francoeur.
http://www.thefamily.org/dossier/books/book5/main.htm
Good topic, PB. Discussion could go in several different directions. If you're interested in the Francoeur stuff, it's in a text/article called "Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Human Sexuality." I couldn't find a quick and easy synopsis of Francoeur's model the web, but I know there's one out there because I used it to develop lecture materials for a class I taught on adolescent sexuality.