Thursday, August 13, 2020

The Theology of HETEROSEXUAL LOVE, LOVING, and MARRIAGE (Briefly: God IS LOVE (the noun), but has not capacity TO LOVE)

A)  DISCLAIMER: Genesis 1-3 is not History; but is an eternally True Story. 

B)  PREAMBLE: 

NRSV, Matthew 22:34-38: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.'" 

     There is NO MENTION, here, of God DOING ANYTHING LOVING. 

 NRSV, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life." 

     Here, God is described as BEING VERY LOVING, but in a bizarre and frankly abusive context. Does a father have the prerogative to so use/'trade' a son? (and what about Jesus' Mother?). But, of course, John  and Paul were enchanted by and purveyors of patriarchal "loving". The subsequent history of Christianity (including such phenomena as Inquisitions and Crusades) reveals the weakness/'corruption' of such purveyance. 

 C)  LOVE - THE NOUN, A THING: 

     Yes, God IS Love. 

     Similarly, when a man sincerely (or even insincerely) addresses a want to a woman, she perceives this want as Love (a 'thing') because it gives her a PURPOSE and, thus, EMPOWERS her. 

     Genesis 1:3, "And God said, 'Let there be light'". God's words (want) constitute Love, a PURPOSE that EMPOWERED "the heavens and the earth" to produce light, etc; not unlike how the chromosomes of a spermatocyte empower the ovum to become a new life. 

D)  LOVING - THE VERB: 

     NRSV, Genesis 2:18, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be along; I will make him a helper as his partner.'" 

     NRSV, Genesis 3:16, "Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." So in this Story, the woman is cast as being 'tuned' to the man - by both her role as a "helper" and her own "desire" to thoroughly love him and expedite his wants. 

E)  HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE: then, whether formal or informal, is an interaction between male LOVE (want) and female LOVING (helping). 

     Everyone woman (like a 'force of nature') plays her role naturally and flawlessly. But a man must learn to constructively want, respect and appreciate how the woman is LOVING/HELPING him. 

F) PERSONAL: If I had understood the above half a century ago, I would not have left my Original Wife. But, who knows? Any 'complaint' I have would focus on my own ignorance of the importance of what I (negatively) said/declared ("let there be...") to my Original Wife.