But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)
It's no wonder that the above passage is so frequently recited at weddings; Ruth's pledge to Naomi is one of the most powerful covenantal statements in the Bible. Even though I don't see any good reason to believe that there was anything sexual about Ruth and Naomi's relationship, it is nonetheless interesting to stop for a moment and ponder the fact that so many heterosexual couples are taking a promise spoken between two women and using it in a romantic (and sexual) context.
Ultimately it's only as big a deal as you choose to make of it, but I do wonder how many of those couples would have found a different biblical passage to use if that thought had ever occurred to them.
3 comments:
Hi. Great point! :) This somehow made me grin.
I think the lesbian take on this is a bit much, but I do find it interesting how it has gotten "heteroized." I guess the Bible is more a Rorschach than most would like to belive.
Nah, there is *no* such thing as gays -- repeat after me -- (tongue firmly implanted in check).
So, there is no conundrum about them or Jonathan and David.
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