Ancient Homosexuality

What happened through the ages?

I mean if you think about it, homosexuality or bisexuality was greatly accepted early on in history....ancient Greece, and Rome for example....

So what changed that?
Wouldn't it be safe to assume that in that time and age, even one of the apostles could have been gay stemming from the lack of females around them and such?
Why do you think now something is so taboo, when once it was so widely accepted?

*In no way am I being sacreligious here or whatever, I was just using that as an example.

I don't think that just because the bible says that they were around eachother all the time meant they were only around guys.

true, Rome was filled with it.

Originally posted by ElectricBugaloo
I don't think that just because the bible says that they were around eachother all the time meant they were only around guys.

Not the point 🙄

Not to mention, they slept, bathed, etc etc together, and I'm not saying they were or weren't, the question is more important.

they did just about everything.

Originally posted by cking
true, Rome was filled with it.

Aside from forming the original Man-Boy Love Associations (or was that Greece?) Rome was filled with ALL sorts of vices that eventually led to their downfall. The greatest democratic senatorial government brought down by wine,women, and brothels, as well as a family that was inbred one Y chromosome away from total insanity...but that was the GOOD part 😛

Despite being a common practice in Rome, and even more so Greece, many ancient sources indicate that even then it was not officially sanctioned or endorsed, just that every one did it. During various periods of Roman history there were times when it was a crime and so forth. In a way throughout history there was a fair amount of double think on the subject. It might be socially acceptable, maybe even expected, while at the same time it might be frowned upon at a state level (and don't even ask about Sparta)

Originally posted by Imperial_Samura
Despite being a common practice in Rome, and even more so Greece, many ancient sources indicate that even then it was not officially sanctioned or endorsed, just that every one did it. During various periods of Roman history there were times when it was a crime and so forth. In a way throughout history there was a fair amount of double think on the subject. It might be socially acceptable, maybe even expected, while at the same time it might be frowned upon at a state level (and don't even ask about Sparta)

I knew there were a few times I had to turn my head while watching the unrated version of Caligula...and I think that the double think is normal..while it's accepted, it's not supported. And that's cool because I think we can all accept the way things are while not supporting it if we personally don't agree with it. It dosen't mean you're attacking that pserson, just saying "you do this, I'll do that." It's cool.

The Romans made up their own laws, they never followed the Jewish law. they were liberals when it came to sexuality.

So why did that change?

Originally posted by cking
The Romans made up their own laws, they never followed the Jewish law. they were liberals when it came to sexuality.

Damn. Wake up, go to work, come home and feast on wine and grapes, go to the bath house, see a few guys kill each other in the ring, and then go to the brothel for some hot action. Some laws....🙂

Hmmm. A popular theory is that major moral change came after the Christian Church became the state religion of Rome. This was a wise political move, as it effectively granted control of the growing Christian flock to the Roman administration. And since Christianity, by way of it's ties to Mosaic Law affected every aspect of life, it further empowered the Christian Church, by allowing the powers of the time unprecedented ability to say how a person should live... and doing away with things that they couldn't control, after all, the whole sex out of wedlock being bad became more dominant, as did sexual practices that weren't aimed towards reproduction...

Slavery was also widely accepted back in the day. Society changes, ya know?

Wouldn't it be safe to assume that the church may have been just as gay as the populace?

It was probably there, I mean, the Catholic church scandals getting notarity NOW would lend itself to having been a problem through the years.

Originally posted by silver_tears
Wouldn't it be safe to assume that the church may have been just as gay as the populace?

There is a long history in the Church of "Do as I say, not as I do." After all, corruption in the Church is nothing new, but it was about controlling the populous, keeping them dependant and scared, controlling their lives. After all, this is one of the reasons supposedly why the law of celibacy came into effect, due to the power women had over "religious" men by way of sex. There is even the possibility that certain Popes were manipulated by their Mistresses, mothers and so forth.

some catholic church split up because a priest was gay.

Yes, we can't forget the schisms of old that might have involved little things like that.

Everybody knows, as Cine said, about the scandals in churches involving priests throughout the years.

It's become more of a shock to find a priest or group of clergymen who haven't dabbled in these scandalous indulgences.

-AC

Dark Ages have anything to do with it? Yes. Over that time the church gained more power in peoples lives in a 'religious' sort of way and implemented the anti-homo ways (Even though the church seemed to ignore scriptures on not judging people of the world).
It was easy for the church to do this because of the crappy lives most people lived. The masses would flock to any sort of comfort.