Homosexuality and other matters of sex: from condemned to blessed

Given the continuing concern over Iran's execution of gay men, and the danger of Britain sending Mehdi Kazemi home to be hanged,  you might like this Ontario religious tolerance site which crunches - with due seriousness - through the various attitudes of world religions to aspects of sexuality, from abortion to same-sex marriage to women's ordination.  Everything is numbered 1 to 5  according to whether an act is "condemned",  "morally unacceptable in most cases"  ,  "neutral" ,  morally acceptable in most cases,  or 'blessed'.   Only the Buddhists seem to bless gay marriage.   The same useful post offers religious stances on the death penalty. 
     But on this topic,  where yesterday a reader took me to task for saying that the Iranian policy was not in any way genuinely religious - let me reiterate that view.  The Qur'an indeed supports the death penalty  but there is a strong tradition of mercy in Islam.  Those who choose to ignore this have other motives.   People who genuinely believe in  God -  "Allah the merciful, the compassionate" - are willing to leave  Him to judge such private and victimless 'sins'.   People who lack this humility are arrogant,  superstitious witch-burners, indulging their own social psychopathy.  Ask any decent Muslim.

Comments

[rich]

Your reader was right i'm afraid you are just using weasel words.

[mathew]

Well said, Libby.
It is a pity though, that the Qur'an in quite a few areas promotes violent responses or punishments that are no longer in any way appropriate in a modern, tolerant society. I wonder if Muhammad would regret that these sections haven't been culled by now, and perhaps would prefer they be put into the archives as historical sections that should not be followed today.

[Henry W]

"The Qur'an indeed supports the death penalty but there is a strong tradition of mercy in Islam."

Not strong enough to keep support for the death penalty out of the Qur'an, though, is it? Or to stop certain Muslim countries applying very harsh penalties for homosexuality.

"People who genuinely believe in God - "Allah the merciful, the compassionate" - are willing to leave Him to judge such private and victimless 'sins'. People who lack this humility are arrogant, superstitious witch-burners, indulging their own social psychopathy. Ask any decent Muslim."

There's seem to be circular logic at work there. The highly liberal Catholic-ish Libby Purves implicitly defines "decent Muslim" as a Muslim who agrees with her interpretation of Islam, then invokes the "decent Muslim" to support her interpretation of Islam. How do we know decent Muslims, a.k.a. genuine believers in Allah, agree with Libby? Well, if they didn't agree with Libby, they wouldn't be genuine believers in Allah. Q.E.D.

[DaveP]

The Koran is the literal word of Allah - it is not open to interpretation by the believer. The compassionate aspect is not in the hands of the believer but Allah.

Spinning is not the way out of the quandary we have created in our midst.