Thank a Homosexual for Your Bible

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Thank a Homosexual for Your Bible (Actually more likely bisexual which is common in men and women.

kingjames.gif (24640 bytes) Any serious biography of King James I of England will talk about his homosexuality. He was completely open about it. Sources include the reports of foreign ambassadors, such as the Spanish ambassador writing home to say "the king goes to Newcastle today, much as another monarch went to Capri." Of course, you have to know about Tiberias at Capri to understand
that.

The printing of the King James Bible was sponsored by King James I of England. Until the printing of this version the scriptures were ". . . practically unknown either to clergy or to people." (1) In 1522 William Tindale, an Oxford scholar, considered translating the Bible into English. He met resistance and was exiled to Germany.

In 1525 the New Testament, partially translated by Tindale, was printed in Cologne. During the same year 6,000 copies of the Testament were smuggled into England. By the authority of the church they were publicly burned. The Bible was the first book ever to be banned in England. (2) Driven from town to town William Tindale was eventually strangled in 1536 and his body burned.

Mary Queen of Scotts, the mother of James I and a devout Catholic, had commanded "that no manners of persons presume to bring into this real any messages., books, paper, etc. in the name of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Miles Coverdale, Erasmus, Tyndale etc. or any like books containing false doctrines against the Catholic faith".

The Puritans complained to King James that the Bible available to them, the Douay version, was corrupt and begged for a new translation. King James complied and in 1611 the first printing was completed.

King James I, at the age of 8, was able to translate aloud chapters of the Bible from Latin to French and then to English. James believed strongly that the Bible should be available to ordinary people, not just the clergy.

At the age of thirteen James fell madly in love with his cousin Esmé Stuart whom he made Duke of Lennox. James deferred to Esmé to the consternation of his ministers. In 1582 James was kidnapped and forced to issue a proclamation against his lover and send him back to France.

Despite his homosexual activities James later fell in love with and married Anne of Denmark with whom he had seven children.
NOTES:
1. William Tindale's Impact on the Translation of the King James Bible, by Pathricia Samuels.
2. The Bible Banned, THE FILE ROOM, Muntadas and Randolph Street Gallery.
3. King James I of Scotland and England, by Brian Barrow.
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King James was affectionately called "Queen James" by his friends. Being gay himself, he would know if the Hebrew and Greek condemned homosexuality.

If indeed homosexuality was to be condemned Thomas Moore used the word "invert" in 1533. "Invert" was one of the words used to denote homosexuality.

So by the time of the writing of the King James version there were several words in use which would have condemned homosexuality. They WERE NOT used! Ask yourself: If there were plain and simple words to mean homosexuality why weren't they used? Simply because homosexuality was not the issue in these passages that the religious right use. Almost every biblical scholar today will agree on that point.

It wasn't until 1946 with the coming out of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) did we find the word homosexual in an English translation.

If Plato, Erasmus, Michaelangelo, James I of England and others were gay throughout history, surely people knew about homosexuality long before the religious right decided that it was a sin.

It is appalling to me that so many people follow fads and false teachers without even looking into the background of the things they are willing to condemn.

When Mel White, who was a ghost writer for Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson and others, told them he is gay, and he tried for 25 years to "overcome" his homosexuality, you would think that they would be willing to listen to an "expert". But no, they act like they don't know him.

Source: http://www.daily.iastate.edu/volumes/Fall95/Sept-26-95/in_my_view.html
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Queen James and His Courtiers
A very long discussion of his homosexual lovers is at Queer History and Literature http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/jamesi.htm
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Also in research of Francis Bacon from South Bank University London (http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/francisbacon1561.html) These comments are made:

In 1573 Francis Bacon and his elder brother Anthony (1558-1601), who was also gay, entered Trinity College, Cambridge. They then went to Gray's Inn, London, in 1576. In 1582 Francis was called to the bar and began a very successful law practice. He became a Member of Parliament in 1584, and he was appointed Queen Elizabeth I's Counsellor in 1591. James I (1566-1625) acceded to the throne in 1603 and in the same year Francis Bacon was knighted. He became Solicitor General in 1607, Attorney General in 1613, and Lord High Chancellor in 1618. He was conferred the title of Baron Verulam in 1618, and of Viscount St. Albans in 1621.

Bacon's personal friendship with King James I may have been a factor in his swift rise to power. James's homosexual loves are well-established, and he was known as "Queen James". However, Bacon had to be more discreet. His brother-in-law, Mervyn Touchet, was executed in 1631 for his homosexuality, as were two of Touchet's servants.
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Some Christians however attack these facts and suggest that since King James was such a good Christian, he could not possibly be a homosexual. There are strong passions on both sides of the question regarding the sexual orientation of King James. For an outspoken view that he was not homosexual see:
King James The VI of Scotland & The I of England Unjustly Accused? BY: STEPHEN A. COSTON, SR.

But in my reading his arguments he is mostly tearing apart arguments he claims are used to say that King James was homosexual, which I've never seen used, and mostly ignores the points made in research I've found which indicates he was homosexual.

He uses the same false approach, it seems to be, regarding Hebrew and Greek words using later middle age understandings of words, not what the words actually meant in biblical times.
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Other interesting research I mostly agree with

1. The Hebrew Old Testament clearly indicates that King David had a sexual relationship with Jonathan, the son of King Saul.

2. The Hebrew Old Testament clearly documents a sexual relationship between the prophet Daniel and a man named Ashpenaz, and indicates that God put Daniel into that relationship.

3. Much to the embarrassment of the Vatican, the Catholic Boswell has uncovered proof that, up until the fourteenth century, the church was routinely performing wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

4. The social tides in Europe began to turn against homosexuality around the thirteenth century. Up until that time, there was no organized opposition to homosexuality, either from society or from the church.

5. The religious tide did not turn against homosexuals until after the social tides. The change in society's attitude toward homosexuals was the only reason the church stopped marrying them and began to persecute them.

6. Boswell found that same-sex marriage continued in certain parts of eastern Europe until the nineteenth century, and that in a few villages, they still continue.

7. King James, who ordered the English translation of the Bible which bears his name, was a homosexual, a fact of which the translators were well aware. This fact displeased them, but since he was the king, they could not express their displeasure openly. Although on the surface, they were careful to be certain that their translation flattered and pleased the king, they also used it to attack him in a way he could not fight.

8. There is absolutely no condemnation of homosexuality in the Hebrew Old Testament.

10. There is absolutely no condemnation of homosexuality in the Greek New Testament.

11. All English translations (one of the earliest being 1611 AD, more than 200 years after the social tide turned against homosexuals, and more than 100 years after the church stopped performing most homosexual weddings) have been deliberately mistranslated to make it appear that God condemned homosexuality.

12. The Hebrew and Greek scriptures never connected Soddom and Gomorrah with homosexuality. The idea that those cities were destroyed for homosexuality is a man-made notion and is unsupported by scriptures.

13. The Greek New Testament, while not condemning homosexuality, does forbid people to attempt to alter their sexual orientation.

14. Both the Greek and Roman Empires considered exclusive heterosexuality and exclusive homosexuality to be abnormal. They believed that all people should be bisexual.

Source: National Gay Pentecostal Alliance Lighthouse Apostolic Church P.O. Box 1391 Schenectady, NY 12301-1391

I don't fully understand the logic of the last point that all people should be bisexual. But the other points I strongly agree with based on my biblical research as do many other theologians, many of whom are heterosexual.