Posted on 02/11/2004 11:08:25 AM PST by Pyro7480
(Reprinted with permission from NEW OXFORD REVIEW, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706, U.S.A.)
True to its Jewish heritage, Christianity from the beginning has treated homosexual acts as an abomination. Christianity's judgement of homosexuality has been consistent. It remains to be seen if the Episcopal Church will be able to retain its title as a Christian denomination.
But there is a non-Christian witness from the first century A.D., that of the satirist Juvenal, whose judgements of homosexuality are consistently ignored today. A pagan's denunciations would considerably strengthen the arguments of today's Christians if they could show that non-Christians could be as strongly disgusted by homosexual acts as any Christian.
The intellectual climate of the first-century A.D. Rome had much in common with the intellectual climate of Western Civilization today, and the common link is the ancient Greek philosopher of hedonism, Epicurus. Benjamin Wiker, in a cutting-edge essay on the Epicurean-Christian conflict that appeared in this journal over four years ago ("The Christian & the Epicurean," Jul-Aug. 1999), laid the foundations for the link between Darwin and Epicurus that he elaborated on in a book three years late, Moral Darwinism (InterVarsity Press, 2002). "Epicureanism is the root of Darwinism," he argued in the book, "...which entangles nearly every aspect of our contemporary culture" by excluding the evidence of divinity in the creation, and design in Nature. Darwinian materialism has been the agent of materialism in 21st-century America that ives us a "completely Godless, soulless universe," entirely in accord with the aims of Epicurusm who believed that the good life was a liberation from any belief in gods concerned with mankind, the immortal soul, and any kind of an after-life. With the triumph of secularism has come a moral revolution bringing to the fore arguments favoring abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality.
Aware that popularization of Epicurus in the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius in first-century A.D. Rome had been highly influential, Wiker credits a traditional Roman Stoicism and a nascent Christianity as the intellectual forces that eventually discredited Epicureanism until its revival centuries later in Renaissance Europe. But there was a pagan man of letters of uncommon eloquence in first-century Rome, Juvenal, whose writings were widely read by early Christians and non-Christians alike. He was keenly aware of a disastrous moral decline that he documented with an abundance of detail. His chronicle is unique in its sweep and exposure of a decadence he clearly saw as not merely scandalous, but as the onset of a moral anarchy that could lead to the downfall of civilized society. Comparing the Rome of his day with the ancient, primitive (pre-Lucretian) Republican Rome, he denounces attitudes and practices that are seen as evidence of a new moral sensitivity unique to today's secular America. Though he has as much to say about political, social, and moral corruption in general, we shall limit our observation in this essay to homosexuality and same-sex "marriage."
Juvenal's second satire, ommitted from school texts of Juvenal and translated with omission even in the Loeb edition of Juvenal, begins as a discourse on the homosexuality of those who seem to be masculine heterosexuals. (Warning: Graphic language ahead)
Appearances are deceptive:
Every back street swarms with solemn-faced humbuggers.
You there - have you the nerve to thunder at vice, who are
The most notorious dyke among all our Socratic fairies?
Your shaggy limbs and the bristling hair on your forearms
Suggest a fierce male virtue; but the surgeon called in
To lance your swollen piles dissolves in laughter
At the sight of the well-smoothed passage.
We will not find in the popular press what we find in Juvenal. He alone presents us with a graphic, incriminating anal imagery to expose the practicing homosexual. Juvenal refers to morbus (disease), and observes symptoms of anemia among the homosexuals, as in the harlot denouncing the "detestable peversions" of men who are "giving tongue to each other's parts.... Your lawyer-philosopher obliges young men both ways, his versatile efforts/Turning him doubly anemic."
Same-sex "marriage" is seen as the ultimate, even blasphemous, perversion
And what about
That noble sprig who went through a "marriage" with some common
Horn-player or trumpeter - and brought him a cool half million
As a bridal dowry? The contract was signed, the blessing
Pronounced, and the blushing bride hung round "her" husband's neck
At a lavish wedding breakfast. Shades of our ancestors!
Is it a moral reformer we need, or an augur
Of evil omens?
That a former priest of Mars now "decks himself out in bridal frills, assumes/The train and veil!" deeply repulses the satirist, who in turn, can only wonder "whence came/This prurient itch upon them? A wealthy, well-born/Man is betrothed in marriage to another man/And you [O Father of our City] do nothing." Clearly the speaker is "homophobic" if by that we mean condemnatory of anal intercourse. The more he knows, the more he condemns it.
Juvenal envisions same-sex "marriages" becoming commonplace, as a friend confides:
"I must go down-town tomorrow
First thing: a special engagement." "What's happening?" "Need you ask?"
I'm going to a wedding. Old So-and-so's got his boyfriend
To the altar at last...."
He foresees the time when male brides "will yearn for a mention/In the daily gazette," just like the major U.S. dailies are now formally announcing same-sex engagements and "marriages."
Same-sex "marriages" then as now had the problem of sterile intercourse, which our scientists are trying to remedy. That "gay unions" are sterile is seen by Juvenal as Nature's wisdom, though male brides "sample foreign nostrums/Guaranteed to induce conception" or else try magical fertility rites. Long before the invention of the microscope and precise knowledge of feminine ovaries, it is possible that male brides in Juvenal's time could have believed that the colon used as a vagina might have feminine properties.
The second satire concludes by asking the reader to imagine the next-life underworld (banished by Epicurus and Lucretius) actually exists. The reception of modern homosexuals by virtuous Romans of old would require purification rites for the new arrivals "even among the dead/Rome stands dishonored." Primitive tribes in northern Europe conquered and captured by the Roman legions find abhorrent the sexual vices practiced in Rome, proof that homosexuality florishes only in morally anarchic luxury. Foreigners who stay long enough in Rome will eventually "catch her deadly sickness," which Peter Green, our translator, makes explicit from the earlier morbus, which is obviously a venereal disease.
As Juvenal recognized in the secularized, godless Rome of his day, same-sex "marriage" is not merely a crime against Nature and a corruption of marriage and family, not merely a symptom of moral decline, but a function of a morally sick society that includes a disease primarily transmitted by anal intercourse. At the center of the second satire, he writes that
Infection spread this plague
And will spread it further still, just as a single
Scabby sheep in the field brings death to the whole flock
Or the touch of one blighted grape will blight the bunch.
A learned commentary on these lines by Susanna Braund in her Cambridge University Press edition (1996) of Juvenal tells us that "the centre of the poem presents an image of disease and rot spreading uncontrollably from the centre outwards in images drawn from farming... and viticulture. The 'disease' here mentioned is homosexuality, not hypocrisy; contagio recalls morbum, from a context describing overt homosexuals." Nowhere does Braund identify the disease as HIV and AIDS, but I do, though I admit the evidence is not scientific and can likely never be proved at this late date.
Since 1981 we have recognized AIDS as a lethal epidemic now annually claiming the lives of some 16,000 young men in their prime years in the U.S. alone, and millions throughout the world. Never in all of the arguments currently offered as an affirmation of equal rights for homosexuals do we find a linkage with a lethal venereal disease transmitted primarily through anal intercourse. That the spread of AIDS was rapid and lethal throughout the Roman Empire we may assume from its prevalence in the undeveloped nations of our day. Were Gibbon to chronicle the decline and fall of the Roman Empire today, he could not deny the possiblity of a rapid and near fatal population decline caused by venereal disease.
The context for sexual corruption in our time, and Juvenal's Rome, is godless Epicurean hedonism. Like causes will have like effects. The further study of Juvenal's satires with an eye to Western civilization in our time will bring to light many more interesting correspondences. I have not even touched upon adultery, muggings, or female wrestlers and gladiators. When will a contemporary Juvenal arise to present us with the graphic and incontrovertible evidence of social, moral, and political decline
The translation I have used is not always literal, but always bold, idiomatic, and lively: Peter Green, Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires, Penguin Books, 1967. A more literal but also bowdlerized translation is the Loeb Classical Library edition by G.G. Ramsay, Juvenal and Persius, Harvard University Press, rev. ed. 1969. The scholarly edition with the Latin text and commentary is by Susanna M. Braund, Juvenal Satires, Book I, Cambridge University Press, 1996. My source for sex in ancient Rome is Craig A William's Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 199, whose factual evidence I do not dispute, but whose interpretation of those facts is frequently at variance with mine because he has a very trendy view of homosexuality.
Leland Peterson is Emeritus Professor of English and Latin at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His scholarly articles have appeared in such periodicals as Modern Philology, PMLA, and Harvard Library Bulletin.
Pre-Purim Spoof:
A Passionate Plea to the Citizens and Legislators of the Great State of MassachusettsForwarded to the world by Steven Plaut
The great state of Massachusetts has decided to approve the official acknowledgement of gay marriage, and henceforth there will be no difference in the state between marriage of two members of the same gender and two members of opposite genders. Having taken this first step in the direction of enlightenment and toleration, we think the Massachusetts Legislature did not go far enough. There are other oppressed minorities in America in need of recognition and sympathy, including other groups stigmatized by bigots as practicing abnormal sexual habits.
The time has come for the people and leaders of Massacusetts to recognize these other non-traditional families and relationships. It would be sending the right signal to Vermont, Hawaii and other progressive states and groups of people.
We represent the members of the last sexually-repressed sexual minority in America, the necrophiliacs. We are mad and we are tired of being victimized and discriminated against. Necrophilia activist groups have been spouting up all over, and signal the emergence of the last great oppressed sexual minority from the closet. And the time has come for the marriage reform movement to welcome us into your hearts and scout troops.
"Why should not we be free to marry whom we choose?" asks our spokesperson Roger Mortis, who heads a necrophilia encounter group in Tombstone, Arizona. "Remember there was a sorry time in America when cross-racial marriage was illegal? After all, who are we hurting? And besides, who says people have to live in old-fashioned Ozzie and Harriet traditional family structures, with their rigid role models? Who says a person's lover must be ALIVE?"
We necrophiliacs are demanding that our freedom to choose our ownpartners be recognized in law. In particular, we object to that part of the marriage vow that states, Until death do us part. What kind of bigotry is THAT?
Our leading militant activist group, PROP UP, has been lobbying for necrophiliac marriage to be recognized in all states. In particular, we necrophiliacs demand to have our rights recognized in all that is involved in pensions, insurance, and employee benefits. "How come Social Security only grants benefits to insure SURVIVORS?
What kind of arbitrary discrimination is that?", asks Mortis. "And you should have seen the problems I had when I tried to take my partner with me on a plane to Club Med. I was told I had to leave behind my girlfriend Christine - I actually call her Corpus Christie - and so I told the snooty ticket agent, 'Over My Dead Body.'"
We necrophiliacs claim we are victims of long-time prejudice and misinformation. We are often called nasty names and regarded as mentally unstable. But who is to say what is normal? The fight against necrophobia has been adopted by all politically correct movements and progressive individuals.
Since necrophilia activism has emerged on the American scene, many of us are coming out of the closet, or - as we prefer - out of the morgue.
Including some Hollywood celebrities. Meanwhile, necrophilia activists have been approaching various religious communities with the request that their rights be recognized. Already radical Unitarians agree to officiate at necrophiliac marriage ceremonies. The Episcopalians will debate later this month whether necrophiliacs, or those romantically involved with the Life-Challenged - as many prefer to beknown, can serve as Church ministers. We also expect the PC branch of the Reform Synagogue movement to join in and to officiate at marriageceremonies for the unliving, as well as some more radical Jewish groups.
When asked how such a position could be advocated in light of traditional Jewish opposition to such abominations, Rabbi Michael Moonbeam, author of the scholarly Tikkun Guide to Great LSD Trips in the Bible (it explains the REAL meaning of that Biblical story about how Moses DROPPED two tablets), has observed, "Since when does being a good Rabbi have anything to do with Judaism?"
Meanwhile, assorted services and institutions are cropping up to serve this long-neglected community. Some lawyers are now offering a package deal in which they do probate for clients and get a marriage license at the sametime. Assorted Las Vegas chapels have cropped up to perform necrophiliacweddings. At one we visited, background muzak for the guests played theold Beach Boys hit, the Monster Mash "It was the mash, it was the monster mash, it was the mash, it was a graveyard smash." Another chapel specialized in conducting the ceremony in a hearse, with theme song taken from the old Mister Ed show: "A hearse is a hearse, of corpse of corpse, and you can get hitched in a hearse, of corpse."
Other cultural impacts of necrophiliacs are being felt, along with a revival of 1960's rock and roll music, specially adopted for those with romantic ties to the Non-Living. "Each night I ask the stars up above, why must I be a cadaver in love," or "Yummy yummy yummy I'm in love with a mummy," and an entirely new meaning for the song "Roll over Beethoven and give Tchaikovsky the news."
Necrophiliacs have become welcome guests on all the popular TV chatshows. We have also taken on the medical and psychological communities."Who are they to prejudge us?" says Mortis indignantly. Necrophiliacactivists have adopted a different use of the term "straight" and use it to describe those who have relations with the living. So for a necrophiliac,a regular homosexual is called "straight gay" and a heterosexual is"straight straight." We have also been lobbying the medical researchcommunity to change its priorities. "After all," says Mortis, "they are spending hundreds of billions on finding a cure for AIDS, but hardly a dime for finding a cure for rigor mortis." The most outrageousinsult to our pride was from Hillary Clinton and the reps at the International Women's Conference in Beijing a few years back, where they proclaimed the official existence of five genders. Necrophiliacs claim they are the sixth gender and they are tired of being overlooked.
For now, insists Mortis, I will just live a quiet life with my partner, and in order to keep a bit of her presence with me wherever I go, I intend to keep a stiff upper lip.
We therefore demand that the State of Masschusetts end its intolerable bias and bigotry and recognize necro-marriages at ONCE.
Thank you.
Posted on behalf of the Organization G.H.O.U.L.S., = Generosity and Heartfelt Openmindedness for Un-Living Sex
Come Faeries, Come Buggers,; come Eunuchs exotic,
Come running, come running, you anal erotic.
With soft little hands, with flexible bums,
Come O' castrate unnatural ones.
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