From: John_Graves@cellbio.duke.edu
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Homosexuals anywhere are wrong
Date: 23 Jul 92 16:06:32 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Duke University Medical Center

In article <1992Jul22.222434.347@athena.cs.uga.edu> hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu
(Paul Hudson Jr) writes:
|>In article <3997@news.duke.edu> John_Graves@cellbio.duke.edu writes:
|>>Jesus and the beloved disciple who laid his head on Jesus' breast were
involved
|>>in at least a homoaffectional relationship. It wasn't like everyone laid
their
|>>head on Jesus' breast.  Just one.  Lovers. 
                                    ^^^^^^
|>>Face it.  

|>This reminds me of a situation that took place with 
|>regard to one of the paintings at the UGA museum.  There is a painting of
|>two young women who are sitting very close.  One is whispering in anothers
|>ear.  It was painted in the 1800's.  REM did a video "Low" that featured this
|>painting.  (I learned all of this in art class.)  In the video, one girl
|>untied the other girls blouse.  A mother of a public school student saw
|>it and called  the local schools and got them to stop field trips
|>to the museum because of the alleged lesbian theme of the painting.

|>The painting was not even a lesbian painting.  In that period of time, you
|>could sit a lot closer to someone and be more affectionate with a person
|>of the same sex without being considered homosexual.  the girls looked
|>like sisters in the painting anyway.  (There is a painting the the UGA
|>museum that is filled with homoerotic and phallic imagary.  I think she
|>just protested the wrong painting.)  

|>My point is that our idea of personal space is not a cultural universal.
|>Bedoin men greet one another very closely face to face in a way that would
|>be uncomfortable for Americans, and I do not think that it would be 
|>unreasonable to assume that another Semitic culture thousands of years 
|>ago would not be somewhat different than ours.

|>I think the KJV use of the word "breast" has more to do with invoking 
|>ideas about sexuality when reading the passage.  "Chest" would
|>not have the same connotation in the verse.  

|>From what I have read, leaning on someones breast would be a reasonable
|>way to hear a secret in the Roman type seats of the day.

|>Link Hudson.

Thanks Link for showing how one completely ignors what one doesn't want to deal
with.  

My point was that you can't explain away the love between Jesus and the Beloved
Disciple, who some think was named John, by pointing out that others do the
same thing, such as your Bedoin example.

Jesus is known, commonly apparently, as having a special relationship with only
one of the disciples.  In the Gospel of John, 21:20 (NRSV) - Peter, who 
previously has just told Jesus that he Peter loves Jesus but to which Jesus
does not say to Peter in return I love you, Peter turned and saw the disciple
whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus
at the supper...  THE disciple who Jesus loved.  HE was the one. [ Quite
possible that the beloved disciple is the  young man of Mark 14:51 wearing
nothing but the linen cloth.]  

There is only ONE disciple who was known as the disciple who Jesus loved.

There is only ONE disciple who is discribed as laying his head on Jesus breast.

They had a SPECIAL relationship, that is, unlike the relationship between Jesus
and the other disciples.  Face it.
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