Friday, April 25, 2008

An unfortunate manner of expression...

When David Met Goliath
About to get those rocks off?
(Image from Wikipedia)

One of my students is writing an essay advocating that homosexuals be treated with respect, which of course is correct. They should be.

This student, however, apparently feels the need to draw attention to some respectable homosexuals, so she grabs her Bible for a handy reference:
Among human societies, there have been many homosexuals. According to the Bible, Jonathan fell in love with David, who beat off Goliath.
I've got to hand it to my student -- she doesn't mince words.

Still, I don't recall 1 Samuel 17:54 describing David's encounter with Goliath in quite the way depicted here . . . though there was that business in 1 Samuel 18:27 concerning the foreskins of the Philistines, and 2 Samuel 1:25 does speak of Jonathan and David sharing a love surpassing the love of women -- but an act between David and Goliath as described by my student would likely be forbidden by Genesis 38:9-10!

Such an idiosyncratic use of scripture to erect a private hermeneutic, I maintain, would be hard to sustain...

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12 Comments:

At 5:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would think,

nevermind.

JK

 
At 5:32 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Better left unsaid...

Jeffery Hodges

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At 7:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That student might look at Romans 1:18-43, which describes the descent of the human race from a knowledge of God to idolatry to immoral conduct, finally to homosexuality. This seems to be the course even here in the USA. Once the trend starts, there seems no stopping point until finally the end of that nation is judgment.
Cran

 
At 8:31 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Well, my student is in 'judgement' for a possibly plagiarized essay. I think that the student is merely translating sentence by sentence from a Korean source.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 7:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"We all have fathers, don't we?"

JFK dismissing the anti-Catholic bigotry of MLK's father.

S.

 
At 8:14 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Sonagi, I suppose that we do all have fathers . . . some more so than others.

I'll try to remember that line for some occasion or other.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 11:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The quote is a response to a message on this thread, not the OP.

S.

 
At 11:27 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Okay. I was actually puzzling over its meaning in this context, but I guess that I get it.

By the way, what does "OP" stand for? Original Post? I'm guessing.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 1:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, OP is an acronym of "original post."

The JFK/MLK quote is directed at your oblique response to your Uncle Cran's feelings about the evolution of gay rights in the US.

"Evolution" and "gay" in the same sentence! *gasp!*

No offense intended, Cran. I'm just pointing out value differences in a light-hearted way.

S.

 
At 3:55 PM, Blogger John B said...

I'll never be able to hear that biblical story again without laughing.

I mean, Goliath was so big, and David so small . . . . So then where did the sling come in?

 
At 11:35 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Ah, that's what that was about. I wasn's sure, given the 'father' reference.

Thanks on OP.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 11:36 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

John B., I won't touch that one with a ten-foot pole.

Jeffery Hodges

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