[Granville-Hough] 19 Nov 2009 - Correcting God's Mistakes

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

There was no message for 26 Feb 2010, but this one was an extra from
the year before that I haven't resent yet.


Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:41:38 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Correcting God's Mistakes - extra

*    As one goes through life, one encounters things which are unusual 
and we wonder what our proper role is in keeping things orderly and 
systematic.  We ask the question: "Did God make a mistake," and if he 
did, "What is our role in correcting it?"
    Just to summarize, the position many of us are in, let me repeat the 
words of a Baptist minister, Rev. Douglas J. Miller, of Santa Barbara, 
CA: "As a child, my church taught me about the "curse of Eve" that 
shaped my young mind about women; the "curse of Onan" that affected my 
psycho-sexual development; the "curse of the Jews" that nourished the 
prevailing anti-Semitism; the "curse of Ham" that condemned African 
Americans to perpetual servitude; and the "curse of Sodom" that fed 
overt social disgust of homosexuals.  I later learned through wise 
teachers and scholars that Jesus and the Bible never taught such 
things.  How long will the Christian church provide aid to the "cursing" 
of people who happen to be different?"  Are these curses some of God's 
mistakes?
    I might differ slightly from Rev. Miller about a generalized 
definition of the Bible.  Jesus clearly made a distinction between his 
teachings and those of the Pharisees.  He said, Here is where we ARE for 
those who follow me, and there is where we WERE for those who follow the 
Pharisees.  When Jesus was faced with a problem with the strict laws of 
Leviticus versus humane laws of a practical people, he took the humane 
path.  What matters circumcision? What matters what we eat? What matters 
with whom we eat?  What matters with whom we rest overnight? What 
matters with whom we take or drink water?  What matters most of the 
Jewish customs based on the strict application of Leviticus?  Jesus 
freed us from all those rules with his simple summary of what God 
expected of us.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with 
all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest 
commandment.  And the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as 
yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two 
commandments."  (Mathew 22:37-40.)
    Now about God's rules for creating a new human.  We all agree that 
we are not clones, so each of us was developed, bit by bit, following a 
general model of God's image that has been successful for several 
million years.  Sometimes, God allows a mutation, and that may be passed 
on and on.  If persons with that mutation are more suited to a 
particular environment, they may become the dominant group after many 
generations.  Sometimes God allows for simple differences in physical 
and mental development.  Our problems today focus on what is fair and 
equal for all the variations that happen in the human family, 
particularly those which deal with sexual variations.
    Now just for illustrative purposes, let us consider 
left-handedness.  We understand this is from a recessive gene and about 
ten percent of all males are born that way and about three percent of 
all females.  We do not think much about it, one way or the other.  But 
for the Chinese, it was the ultimate disobedience.  No one was allowed 
to grow up left-handed.  As soon as the tendency showed up, that hand 
was tied behind the back and the child was forced to learn 
right-handedness.  So, left-handedness was a Chinese curse we did not 
have among our list of mistaken and cursed creations.
    Let us set aside the curses of the Jews and the curse of Ham.  
Though they remain powerful and virulent forces in the world today, our 
Christian churches are making headway in toleration.  Then what do we do 
about the "curse of Onan?"  It seems to me that what I sense is that 
masturbation has merged with pornography as an aberation among 
teen-agers and adults alike.  In one of my studies of early Spanish 
soldiers in California, some Indian girls observed a Spanish soldier 
having sex with a mare mule.  They reported this to the Catholic priests 
who held a trial and had the soldier shot the next morning.  These were 
those "benevolent" priests under Father Serra, I suppose correcting one 
of God's mistakes.  Then, more recently a woman doctor in the Clinton 
administration was asked how one could prevent the spread of sexually 
transmitted diseases among teen agers.  She had a simple answer: "Teach 
them how to masturbate."  Just imagine the Republican uproar which 
ensued.  She was fired within the week, or at least as soon as 
possible.  So pornography may be an emergent social disorder which 
incorporates the "curse of Onan."
    The "curse of Eve" is just the simple fact of being born female.  
How in the world does that prevent one from being a spiritual leader and 
pastor of one's church?  Or why does one have to be a single male to be 
a priest in any church?  I suppose that comes from the "curse of 
Sodom."  (For those who read the newspapers, you may have noted that a 
Somali  woman was stoned to death for adultery, with 200 witnesses, this 
week.  What happened to her male cohort? Nothing mentioned, so whatever 
it was did not qualify as newsworthy.)
    Before I talk about variations in sexuality at birth, I want to 
relate the story of a child of a devout Catholic couple with whom I was 
in school at USC from 1953 until 1955.  This child was born with both 
male and female organs, and the doctors at San Pedro had never seen such 
a case.  One did some national research and found there was one hospital 
which had handled a few cases, John Hopkins University Hospital at 
Baltimore, MD.  The hospital agreed to take the case and operate, 
removing the male organs and leaving the female.  So this couple had to 
alternate times taking the child to Baltimore from San Pedro.  When I 
saw the child about ten years later, she dressed like a girl but talked 
and acted like a boy.  I often wondered what kind of sex life she had 
which would be called normal.  If she had survived with both sets of 
sexual organs, what would have been normal?  How should we have 
corrected God's mistake?
    What has happened throughout recorded history is that there is great 
variation in sexuality, and this was recognized in a negative sense in 
Leviticus.  Some females are born with female organs but with male 
mentalities and desires.  They are called lesbians.  Some males are born 
with male organs and female mentalities and desires.  They are called 
homosexuals, gays, or queers.  Then from these extremes you get 
variations all the way through normal into aggressive maleness or 
aggressive femaleness.  We must admit somehow that all were born in the 
image of God with infinite variations, maybe even some mistakes.  Now 
the problem with Leviticus is that everyone is forced into one mold of 
marriage and children.  Would not the children of abnormal parents be 
more likely to have abnormal offspring than others?  Yes, that is what 
you learn on a farm.  If you want black kittens, you breed black cats.  
Following Leviticus aggravates the problem.  If God made a mistake, that 
action does not correct it.
    Well, what has this to do with churches and church leadership?  Do 
we go through the scale of sexual variation, male or female, and pick 
out those in the exact middle of the normal Bell curve as our leaders?  
Or do we go to one extreme or the other?  Or do we simply look for the 
persons who follows most closely  to the two commandments Jesus 
emphasized without regard to sexual orientation?  Do we follow Jesus, or 
do we revert to the ritual of the Pharisees and try to correct God's 
mistakes?

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I cannot express too well what I am trying to say, but one way to put it 
is that our mission as Christians is infinitely large and the 
denomination or church congregation we work in is a small matter 
indeed.  Dear Lord, please guide us to do what is right and just as we 
understand what is right and just.  But, Lord, if what we do offends our 
neighbor, please help us refrain from doing it.  Lord, help us remember 
Your infinite judgement and wisdom and never forget we are not your 
Prosecutor.   Granville Hough.