speaking as a Jewish person, this is incredibly important to me.
Christians in my experience know very little about the culture that is found within the stories of the old testament.
All of our stories are deeply rooted in the time and place that they occured.
Leviticus, for example, was when the Greeks were exploring and coming into contact with us.
They had a tradition of adult men having sexual relationships with boys (ages 12 to 17) as a form of mentorship.
The Hebrew people were like “uh no? Fucking gross.” Thus it ended up in our holy texts.
Sodem and gamorah is a big one too.
The smiting that happened there wasn’t because of homosexuality, but rather the nonstop eating, drinking, and fucking to the point of ruin.
Basically everyone was so busy with pleasure that the rest of the aspects of life no longer mattered to them. this was both a spiritual disaster and a very literal one for people outside the city who depended on it for goods and services.
so the two stories that Christians hold as anti gay evidence can be summed up in two parts:
- Pedophilia is fucking evil.
- You can’t be selfish and just party all the time because then your community will fall apart.
So yeah we have never seen gay stuff as bad and neither did your homie Jesus.
also. We have words in Hebrew for several different genders and many scholars believe that King David was gay.
I’m a Christian. And I fucking LOVE hearing about the actual custom that surrounds the Old Testament of the Bible.
Fun fact: Christians AREN’T EVEN SUPPOSED TO GO BY THE OLD TESTAMENT. Jesus brought in the new Covanent. THAT is what we’re supposed to go by. Old Testament should be treated as a creation myth fables of cautionary tales of morality. That is ALL. And HEY LOOK NOTHING BAD ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY IN NEW TESTAMENT. But omg knowing the Old Testament was against pedophillia so much is amazing.
Thank you so much for including the culture behind this bit though I appreciate it to no end.
this is probably my favourite comic of all time jsyk
can someone explain this to me?
Sure thing! For convenience I’ll refer to the guy with his arms in his pockets as SG (shorter guy) and the one on the computer as TG (taller guy).
In the first panel, SG sees TG playing on the computer and is disappointed. SG puts a lot of value in the idea of “making things,” specifically “art,” and thinks TG is just wasting their time
So he asks them if they wouldn’t rather be “making something” instead of just playing games and listening to music, implying that TG isn’t doing anything worthwhile or creative with their time
But TG replies that “interpreting is generative,” meaning that even if they spend their time just doing fun stuff, the mere act of enjoying something is creating an experience and an interpretation. Talking about something, dancing to music or sharing a piece of art with your friends IS “making something,” and each of those can be worthwhile and artistic.
SG leaves, complaining he “can’t be an auteur of [interpretation].” Auteur is a movie term that refers to a filmmaker with artistic control and vision enough to be considered essentially the singular creator of the resulting work of art. Turns out, SG doesn’t just want to “make things,” he wants to make things he and others see as “important.” He wants to make art not for the sake of art, but for the sake of being recognized and praised for his art.
This comic really speaks to elitism within the artistic community, the idea that art needs to meet certain standards to be considered art. SG’s viewpoint is really traditionalist, that art need to be “approved” and validated in order to be considered “really art;” while TG recognizes that art can be as little as just talking about what you love.
TLDR: Art is for everyone, not just some sort of social “artistic elite.”
ooh i love the explanation
Rebloging for that in depth and not even a little snarky explanation. 10/10
