A reader writes:<\/p>\n
I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and again, on FB and blogs that \u201cSure, the Bible condemned homosexuality, but it also condemned the eating of shellfish. If you think homosexuality is wrong, then you are a hypocrite if you eat shrimp.\u201d I think an entire episode of The\u00a0West Wing<\/em> was centered around this argument.\u00a0(I have seen similar arguments about certain fabrics being used together.)\u00a0Did I dream this, or is there a difference between moral and practical imperatives in the OT? Could you bring clarification to this discussion? When people wield this brilliant argument, what should our response be? Thanks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Happy to help.\u00a0 This much-beloved chestnut overlooks the fact that the Christian tradition distinguishes between the moral laws of the Old Testament and the\u00a0ceremonial and ritual law.\u00a0 The former obtain (though sometime perfected by the Christian tradition) while the latter do not.\u00a0 So, for instance, the\u00a0moral law also forbids murder and adultery and other things contrary to the good of the human\u00a0person.\u00a0 The fact that the\u00a0new covenant does not require us to be circumcized or keep kosher does not mean we are free to murder and steal too.<\/p>\n
The Old\u00a0Testament doesn\u2019t make hard and fast distinctions between what is morally defiling and what it ritually defiling.\u00a0 The latter is an image of the former, as Jesus makes clear first in his teaching on unclean food and finally in Acts 15, when he reveals\u00a0that it is the reality of moral defilement, not the image of ritual defilement, that matters.\u00a0 For a detailed discussion of that, go here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Homosex is not understood by Jesus or the apostles as ritually defiling, but as morally defiling, since it is contrary to the sexual nature of the human person.\u00a0 For Jesus, sex is for marriage, period.\u00a0 And marriage is for one man and one women in lifelong union.\u00a0 All other forms of sexual expression\u2013including homosexual expression and the ever-popular sin of heterosexual fornication\u2013are right out.\u00a0 It\u2019s not complicated.\u00a0 It\u2019s just extremely difficult for fallen human beings.\u00a0 One of the favorite strategies we have is that old chestnut from The West Wing<\/em>, which already had whiskers on it when Aaron Sorkin stole it from the interwebz.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and again, on FB and blogs that \u201cSure, the Bible condemned homosexuality, but it also condemned the eating of shellfish. If you think homosexuality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-50101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag"],"yoast_head":"\n
Homosex and Shrimp<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homosex and Shrimp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-22T07:03:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-30T00:56:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html\",\"name\":\"Homosex and Shrimp\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-22T07:03:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-30T00:56:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Homosex and Shrimp\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homosex and Shrimp","description":"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homosex and Shrimp","og_description":"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2014-01-22T07:03:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-30T00:56:48+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html","name":"Homosex and Shrimp","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-22T07:03:32+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-30T00:56:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"A reader writes: I know you are a very busy person, but if you could humor me by helping me out with this, I would appreciate it. I keep reading over and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/01\/homosex-and-shrimp.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Homosex and Shrimp"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}