Bible on homosexuality

Sirs,—As a warning against taking it too literally, may I point out that the writers of the Bible, unlike Mrs. J. Gregorius. were ignorant of the process of ovulation in woman who they regarded merely as a well-equipped incubator for the male "seed." The "abomination" they "were very emphatic" about, lay in wasting this precious fluid which was believed to have had all the attributes of the fertilised ovum.

This was the reason that the "Holiness Code" of Leviticus took such drastic measures against the male homosexual and ignored the lesbian who had no "seed to waste. Again, the translators of the Bible, knowing nothing of inversion as an inherited trait, or as a condition due to psychological or glandular causes, read all vaguely unusual sexual activity as evidence of perversion.

When St. Paul referred to "men leaving the natural use of the woman" he could not have had knowledge of the genuine invert for whom women would have been an un-surmountable aversion. As a guide to Mrs. Gregorius I would recommend reading Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition by D. S. Bailey, of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council.

Barry Neels

Member of the committee of NZ Homosexual Law Reform Society (late Wolfenden Association).