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The LGTBQ rights movement is at an interesting juncture. On one hand, gay marriage is legal and always will be. On the other, Christian fundamentalists are still trying to enforce their version of the Bible in increasingly stupid new ways.
On Saturday, two Portland artists invited Pride Festival-goers to smoke joints rolled in homophobic Bible verses.
The idea came from local artists Jennifer Rabin (WW's art critic) and Ross Lee, They went to two dispensaries to find the strain called God's Gift, then went around to 10 Goodwill stores in search of Bibles.
Then, they offered the Bible J's to Pride-goers.
"As soon as I said we were smoking joints rolled in the Bible, people's faces changed completely," says Rabin. "They were like, 'Oh yeah, we are doing this!'"
"I don't smoke pot, so I'd never heard of this before," says Rabin. When Lee mentioned using the Bible as a kid because he didn't have rolling papers, she immediately thought of Pride.
Rabin rolled seven joints, representing the seven days it took God to create the world. "The first six passages are all fire and brimstone. The last, for the seventh day, is about brotherly love."
Only one person declined a joint. "I think they just weren't a smoker," says Rabin. "They loved the project and hugged us and said it was amazing anyway."
Smokers got their choice of homophobic passage from a "menu" Rabin typed up (see below).
"They were like, 'I am on it. Give it to me right now,'" she says.
MENU
Leviticus 20:13
If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.
Romans 1:27
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
Leviticus 18:22
Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.
I Corinthians 6:9
Do not fool yourselves, people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves—none of these will possess God's Kingdom.
Jude 1:7
And don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment.
Romans 1:26
That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
Day/Joint No. 7: Hebrews 13:1
Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
Willamette Week