On the love now dares say its name

On the love now dares say its name


On the love now dares say its name; Series on Homosexuality Continued


By John Taylor; 15 July, 2004



Beloved friends, I promised to continue my discussion of homosexuality
begun last fall. I primed the pump with an article a reader sent me
presenting a case against accepting gay unions. I have reviewed the
Baha'i literature to the best of my ability, which is largely confined
to two brief mentions by Baha'u'llah, some comments by the Guardian, and
several letters by the House of Justice. Going through these letters, I
would suggest reading the more recent letters of the UHJ first, since
these come at last to what I consider the nub, the spiritual
implications of sexuality. This is particularly so in their September
11, 1995 letter on homosexuality. Before I dive into that, a few more
words about the importance of this issue.

Confronting this subject effectively is increasingly necessary for every
teacher of the Faith, far beyond any inherent interest it may have for
us personally. The condemnation of homosexuality in the Kitab-i-Aqdas
has become one of the two most popular "turn-offs" for seekers hearing
about the Faith (the other being men only on the UHJ).

Whether the seeker has anything to do with homosexuality or not,
complete acceptance of homosexuality is now so politically correct in
the West that it is pretty much the distinguishing mark of an
enlightened individual. If you do not accept homosexuality unreservedly
you are nine tenths of the way to being a bigot. This is especially so
for liberals, whose other beliefs tend to be close to Baha'i belief in
many other respects. Here free thinkers and Bohemians are no longer few
and outcast, they are an orthodoxy that, in this sense, has set itself
directly against the otherwise very liberal teachings of the Faith.

It is unfortunate, then, that the all important apologetic material
defending the Baha'i position is relatively hard to attain, buried in
the House's letters, sunk in Ocean as it were. Unfortunately it is not
finding its way into introductory printed books. Nonetheless, I will
confine myself here to comments going beyond the defense the House
presents of the teachings, without trying to rehash what they say --
again, I recommend digging their letters up and reading them for
yourself.

The Columbia Dictionary on Yahoo offers two definitions of
homosexuality. The first is a feeling, an attraction to members of the
same sex. The second definition deals with the act expressing that
desire. Only the second sense of the word is subject to legal sanction.
Baha'i teachings do, however, require effort, largely on the part of the
individual who feels that desire, to snuff that out as well. Going on
for a deeper explanation of the origins of homosexuality, I noted in the
Columbia Encyclopedia, the following,


"Some researchers have contended that a disruption in the hormonal
processes of the mother while she is pregnant may be one explanation.
Simon Levay, a neurobiologist at the Salk Institute, has suggested that
homosexuality may be related to brain functioning, as part of the
hypothalamus in homosexual men is about a quarter to half the size it is
in heterosexual men. Several studies have pointed to a genetic
predisposition governed by one or more genes on the X chromosome."


Other studies have found that the probability of homosexuality increases
with the number of births a mother has had previously. My next question
was, what the heck is the hypothalamus? Hyper-jumping to the article on
that, I read that it is about the size of an almond and that along with
the thalamus it monitors the sleep wake cycle. It is,


"an important supervisory center in the brain, rich in ganglia, nerve
fibers, and synaptic connections. It is composed of several sections
called nuclei, each of which controls a specific function. The
hypothalamus regulates body temperature, blood pressure, heartbeat,
metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, and sugar levels in the blood.
Through direct attachment to the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus also
meters secretions controlling water balance and milk production in the
female. The role of the hypothalamus in awareness of pleasure and pain
has been well established in the laboratory. It is thought to be
involved in the expression of emotions, such as fear and rage, and in
sexual behaviors..."


So it would seem that to say someone is a homosexual is to say that they
were born with a partly stunted hypothalamus. This is an innate
condition in the sense that a person is born with it physically. So when
the house says that a Baha'i with homosexual tendencies should not
regard this condition as innate, they evidently mean by "innate" the
spiritual sense of the word. Homosexuality they mean is not an inherent
quality of the soul, only a physical quality like having one leg longer
than the other. To call yourself a "homosexual Baha'i" makes as much or
as little sense as saying that you are a "short" Baha'i, or a tall one.
Except that Baha'u'llah did not condemn shortness. There lies the
problem.

A recent article in Time Magazine about those unfortunates, who are born
without any distinguishable sex at all known as hermaphrodites, makes
some interesting points as well. Most important is to realize that
astonishingly little about sex is known by science. Its operations,
mechanisms, distinctions are all largely unexplored territory.
Generally, when a hermaphrodite baby is born doctors have made them
female because it is, in the words of one surgeon, "easier to dig a well
than erect a flagpole." I confirmed this with my own little experiment.
I showed the pictures of hermaphrodites in the article to five-year old
Thomas and in most cases he said that it was a girl or woman.
Unfortunately sometimes the doctors change their minds several times,
resulting in pain, suffering, and subsequent lawsuits. Such is the
importance of having a clear sexual orientation in our society that many
hermaphrodites end up seriously dysfunctional, many committing suicide.

Since almost nothing is known about sex in the human body, it hardly
seems justified to cut every person into two sexes. Even our language
does that; you are either a he or a she, there is no middle ground. I
have always felt uncomfortable with this either-or that is built into
our languages. For example, pronouns cut everybody into male or female
only, even God. If anybody is above sex it has got to be God, but even
he is a he, albeit a He. The Czech language, I am told, has a third
gender, "middlesex," which it applies to animals and others of ambiguous
sex. A baby or small child, for example, is not male or female but
middlesex. It would be interesting to check out the Czech suicide
statistics for hermaphrodites.

I think one thing in the UHJ's explanatory letters deserves more
prominence. We know, and often repeat when the subject of homosexuality
comes up, that the Baha'i position condemns the illness, not the
patient, the sin and not the sinner. We are to be tolerant and loving to
gay persons, even gay believers, unless their disobedience is flagrant,
in which case it becomes a matter for the institutions. As individuals
we love and forgive. The House at one point in their letters points to
the origin of this principle in the Writings. It is laid out in the
Lawh-i-Maqsud,


"And likewise He saith: The heaven of true understanding shineth
resplendent with the light of two luminaries: tolerance and
righteousness. O My friend! Vast oceans lie enshrined within this brief
saying. Blessed are they who appreciate its value, drink deep therefrom
and grasp its meaning, and woe betide the heedless..." (Tablets, 169-70,
mentioned in Universal House of Justice, 1989, June 21, 'Dialogue', 'A
Modest Proposal')


By pointing to two separate luminaries, righteousness and tolerance,
Baha'u'llah is eliminating any real chance for moral bigotry to thrive
in the future. There will never be the same tension in moral issues. For
one thing, there can be no more swings toward license, which is
tolerance without virtue, or in the other direction towards Puritanism,
virtue crowding out tolerance. With two independent sources of light
there will be strict self monitoring of desire combined with acceptance
of a broad diversity of tastes and personal preferences, including
sexual ones. As BahaÂ’uÂ’llah suggests, let us all drink deep from its
meaning, and grasp it well. A powerful saying, and an appropriate one to
break off on today.



John Taylor
jet@linetap.com

Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

Badi Web Site:
http://linetap.com/www/jet/index.htm

Mailing list, join or quit, or read over archive of past essays:
http://news.linetap.com/scripts/lyris.pl?site=BADI