EVER since President Barack Obama declared his personal evolution on same-sex marriage, almost every man, woman, false preacher, puppeteer, pauper and priest in Jamaica have gone ballistic and are behaving as if the entire world is about to end in a one mighty “gaymaggedon”.

But contrary to what some would have us believe, there is nothing new about the complexity of human sexuality or thinking.

Still, people take it upon themselves to be quoting scriptures, defining “normal man” and misusing the already overused “abomination” clause to defend their position and the speciousness of their arguments. All this, while others are busy declaring Jamaica to be such a Christian country that it cannot conceivably condone “certain things”. Sadly, and implicit in some of the reactions is a call for a sort of “gayocide” because “wi haffi run weh dem bwoy deh”.

Funnily enough, although Christians account for the majority of Jamaica’s religious population, we murder almost three people a day. Our supposedly strong Christian mores, and vaunted piety do not preclude us from raping little children; stealing, fleecing flocks while lifting frocks, maiming old women, fornicating, performing bestiality; practising witchcraft or perpetuating other atrocities against our fellow citizens.

Yet, we prefer to heap fire on consensual sex, however private, rather than abominate and prosecute marauding gunmen and paedophiles. Predictably too, the debate has triggered humongous tidal waves of unreasonableness that could spawn violence toward individuals perceived as queer.

Unfortunately, the debate has sucked so much rationality from especially men of the cloth, that they now appear curmudgeonly eccentric, as they become drum majors for heaping fire on some of God’s children and deliberate creation. This is a rather crude abandonment of the teachings of the Bible which says, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

The debate has also confirmed our weird cultural affinity to buy out other people’s business. And once we take up a case and decide to “run wid it”, there is no power on earth, or in heaven, that can dislodge our steadfastness; however misplaced.

Interestingly, our view of Obama as a stud no longer holds, because according to us, only a gay man would hold his worldview on same-sex marriage. Poor Obama, he may have to do a Clintonesque version of “Lewinsky” just to reclaim his heterosexual bona fides.

But let’s play devil’s advocate. If I believe in charity, does it make me charitable? Would a mother, who pays a defence attorney to fight a murder charge against her son, automatically qualify as a murderer? Is it fair to deny Mary Jane the opportunity to consummate her same-sex relationship, if she feels genuine love or the desire to marry her female partner? Should society deny them that opportunity, but allow them to continue in “concubinage”?

Be that as it may, my position on same-sex marriage is immutable; it is diametrically opposite to Mr Obama’s stated position. However, it is not for me to dictate what consenting adults do intimately in their bedroom. Our aversion to anything suspectingly homosexual is so misplaced that two single guys cannot rent an apartment together in Jamaica just to save money, without people talking all sorts of nonsense about their “funny” arrangement, because “nuh woman nuh live wid dem; suh dem a ‘b…. man”.

But, what explains this obsessive fascination with homosexuality? And, given our abhorrence of male homosexuals, how do we then justify our bizarre tolerance for lesbians? Our passion, unfathomable interest and enduring curiosity could be better served fixing myriad other societal decadence and anti-social behaviours that take place in every nook and cranny of Jamaica.

Then, there are Christian fundamentalists who, as a way of propagating their religious views, cannot help telling convenient lies on the Bible, and by extension on God, by claiming things the Bible or God says when there is no evidence of such statements.

I recall hearing a Pentecostal preacher telling her congregants, “The Bible says a crowing hen and a whistling woman is an abomination unto God…” When I asked her to show me that edict in the Bible, she suddenly got the Holy spirit and started to speak in “tongues”.

Then, there is this big ado over marriage that I can never comprehend. Simply put, “Marriage is a social union or legal contract between two people that create kinship”. Consequently, people marry for all sorts of reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, economic, immigration, and spiritual. Yet we seem more concerned about whom people marry but less about their reasons for marriage.

And so, it is not strange to hear people encourage unhappy and troubled married couples, most of whom are in dangerously abusive, unsustainable and ruinous marriages, to stay the course because, “The Bible says, for richer or poorer, and for better or for worse…” What arrant nonsense! The Bible says no such thing. The Apostle Paul’s letters merely referenced the importance of “submitting to one another”, nothing more.

Nevertheless, wedding vows began in the 16th century in England, after King Henry VIII approved them. Interestingly, he had six marriages. It is criminally ironic that he had six marriages and his annulment of the first was such an abomination — not to God — that it caused England to break with the Roman Catholic Church.

This brings me to the misuse of the word “abomination” by some believers, just to give the word greater significance than necessary. Abomination, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, refers to “things or practices abhorrent to God” — including consumption of certain food. Check out the Ten Commandments for an interesting litany of Thou shalt “nots”.

Abomination also refers to intense dislike, abhorrence or detestation, which may or may not be sinful. For instance, some women abominate jokes that make fun of their flat buttocks. Men, on the other hand, abominate jokes about their cunnilingus sexual habits, none of which is sinful, so let’s be reasonable in all things.

Burnscg@aol.com