The Love of David and Jonathan

This post was edited 6/17/07. I would like to thank Merrill "Sam" Keiser, Jr. for pointing out an oversight that I had made in my original draft of this article. I had said, "Secondly, there is no such passage anywhere in the Bible. Schori is willing to stoop to tell an outright lie to support her position." This was in reference to the statement, “David loved Jonathan with a love that exceeded the love of a woman.” Sam pointed out to me that there is such a passage in II Samuel 1:26. Concerning my statement below about "cultural context", he said this:

Dislike of homosexuality is cultural; you could have been more severe on her. This implies that God is a local god and not the God of the universe. His law is not confined by culture but transcends all people. She is in denial of this.

Continuing with the original article...

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the head of the Episcopal Church defended her liberal positions in an interview on Bill Moyers’ Journal.

Agape love does not mean the same thing as eros love. The scripture says three times (I Samuel 18:1, 3, 20:17) that “…he [Jonathan] loved him [David] as his own soul.” There is no mention of a sexual relationship. When Jonathan “stripped himself of the robe that was upon him,” (I Samuel 18:4) it reasonable to say that this was a gesture acknowledging that David was to be the successor to throne of Israel even though Jonathan was the one who was the son of the king. They kissed each other (I Samuel 20:41), but there are many other such instances of males kissing each other in emotional moments in which no one would think that it was an erotic type of kiss (e.g. Genesis 45:15).

When questioned about passages in the Bible which condemn homosexuality, Schori remarked that one needs to “consider the cultural context” of these passages. With that kind of reasoning, you can justify anything and might as well throw your Bible in the trash. She talked with much hopefulness about working to heal the rift between her churches and the more conservative branches of the Anglican Church which condemn homosexuality, particularly those in Africa. She said that she has made the decision to not allow anymore homosexuals into the priesthood at this time, but only in the interest of keeping her church unified. She says that the homosexuals in her church who want to be priests must “bear this cross” for the time being.

Schori also said that Mary Magdalene was not considered a prostitute until later “traditions” of the church which sought to downplay her role (and that of women in general) in forming the church. She used to be a marine biologist and is fully indoctrinated into the teaching of evolution. Is the Bible God’s Word or isn’t it, Mrs. Schori?