Fifth Post: Forming an argument based on CHRISTIANITY, SOCIAL TOLERANCE, AND HOMOSEXUALITY--- By John Boswell.

In this book, Boswell constructs an argument from an academic/historical perspective. Thus, it is far easier to follow his logic than it was to follow Zymaris'. Nonetheless, there are arguments that both texts have in common. However, it is important to remember that his writing comes from a non-Orthodox, non-homosexual perspective. This can be both good and bad as he can be considered to be looking straight at the facts, without bias. On the other hand, he leaves some to be desired in both fields as his Orthodox jargon is at times misplaced while homosexual sides of arguments are at times lacking. Nonetheless, Boswell supplies the reader with a lot of basic information that can be utilized effectively to construct arguments for homosexuality in Orthodoxy. For example, the issue of translation. The fact of the matter is that translation is often times at best a broken field. One receives this notion from work in even modern languages (i.e. German to English and vice versa) but these problems are only multiplied when it comes to translating old Hebrew or Greek texts. Boswells other argument, that social intolerance were not led by the Church, but rather by personal prejudice, is a very important aspect of the argument. Boswell's examples of Saints who have some homosexual connotations is another argument altogether. If we can canonize people with homosexual leanings, why then can we not accept them? Relationships such as those between David and Johnathan, Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, and Saint Paulinus and Ausonius are very hard to argue against. Before closing, Boswell makes a couple other very good points that are integral to the pro-homosexuality in Orthodoxy argument: first, that there are other activities that were spurned; namely shaving, regular bathing, and other things. Today, those who do not undergo these actions are frequently criticized. Thus, the biases of an influential few permeated into the collective thought of the Church. Boswell makes a clear, well-thought, argument that is hard to fight against. Thus, Boswell gives his own responses to the questions of this study project: that the Orthodox Church's "view" towards homosexuals may seem anti-homosexual, but that is only due to the permeation of personal biases into the Faith. Boswell doesn't talk about homosexuals practicing Orthodoxy, but rather their acceptance so the second question is not applicable. Boswell 's examples of homosexual relationships within the Faith and even among the Holy Figures and Saints serves to answer that homosexuals are both part of the clergy and the laity. And finally, the Orthodox Faith itself, from my interpretation of Boswell's argument, would not seem to automatically ostracize these groups. In fact, it seems he is of the mind that homosexuals would be accepted: "that Christian... attitudes would be focused on the quality of the love, not the gender of the parties involved or the biological function of their affection."