Rudeness and Religion
May. 18th, 2004 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyStumbling about the Web in search of the facts on Canaanite religion, I came across this interesting article:
Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality
Putting aside the article's numerous questionable conclusions and the usual confusion between ritual and commercial sex, even folks with only a passing knowledge of the Ancient Near East are going to start getting worried when the author tells us that Ishtar seduced Gilgamesh and that priests deflowered Mesopotamian virgins. While small errors do not invalidate an argument, I think perhaps chat-show host Mr Prager doesn't know his subject as well as he pretends to. He's not the only one, whether scholar or layperson.
I confess to being a little puzzled by this urge to denigrate the Hebrews' neighbours. While I worship Mesopotamian gods and think their society and religion have a lot to offer us today, I feel no need to hold them up as an ideal or make excuses for their flaws: it was millennia ago and many of their practices, such as slavery and imperial warfare, are repugant to us today. Is my unconcern because my own religion, Paganism, is becoming more popular and relevant, while traditional religion goes into decline? Surely not - despite the mainstreaming of Pagan beliefs in recent years, there are still only a handful of us in world terms. Surely there's more to it than an awkward literalist theodicy. Is it simply because extinct ancient peoples can't argue back? (How is it related to modern controversies around Israel?) What's up?
Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality
Putting aside the article's numerous questionable conclusions and the usual confusion between ritual and commercial sex, even folks with only a passing knowledge of the Ancient Near East are going to start getting worried when the author tells us that Ishtar seduced Gilgamesh and that priests deflowered Mesopotamian virgins. While small errors do not invalidate an argument, I think perhaps chat-show host Mr Prager doesn't know his subject as well as he pretends to. He's not the only one, whether scholar or layperson.
I confess to being a little puzzled by this urge to denigrate the Hebrews' neighbours. While I worship Mesopotamian gods and think their society and religion have a lot to offer us today, I feel no need to hold them up as an ideal or make excuses for their flaws: it was millennia ago and many of their practices, such as slavery and imperial warfare, are repugant to us today. Is my unconcern because my own religion, Paganism, is becoming more popular and relevant, while traditional religion goes into decline? Surely not - despite the mainstreaming of Pagan beliefs in recent years, there are still only a handful of us in world terms. Surely there's more to it than an awkward literalist theodicy. Is it simply because extinct ancient peoples can't argue back? (How is it related to modern controversies around Israel?) What's up?
