To the editor:

In Levi Niemela’s letter (MG, June 28) he was ranting on about the “sin” of homosexuality.

Consider the tune “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from the musical South Pacific. Here are some of the lyrics:

“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear/ You’ve got to be taught

from year to year/ … You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late/

To hate all the people your relatives hate/ … You’ve got to be carefully taught!”

Too many followers of Jesus have been taught to hate and fear people of a

different ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation. But was Jesus himself

possibly gay? Jesus never married, had no close girl friend but many female

followers, and also a curious “beloved disciple.” For example:

John 13:23: “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.”

John 19:26: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple whom Jesus loved, he said to his mother …”

John 20:2: “Then she ran, and came to Simon Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, …”

John 21:7: “Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, …”

John 21:20: “Then Peter, turning about, noticed the disciple whom Jesus loved following …”

Why was the name of this mysterious disciple whom Jesus loved omitted? Why is he singled out in this strange way? Also, if homosexuality is such a “sin,” as present day fundamentalists believe, why is it that Jesus never commented on it?

Did Jesus actually exist?

There’s no archaeological evidence for his life, he wrote nothing himself, and there’s little written about him outside the religious writings in the Bible. Jesus may have been illiterate and perhaps that is why he didn’t write about his wishes for humanity; if he was God manifest in the flesh, he certainly would have had the ability to do so. Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism in AD 93, mentions Jesus, but this is considered an interpolation by scholars because it appears inserted and out of context. Tacitus, 20 years after Josephus, mentions the execution of Jesus, but this may be just hearsay. Pliny mentions that Christians worshiped “Christ” as God, but is this “Christ” the same as Jesus? Hearsay again. Many religious crusaders existed in the Holy Land, including Apollonius of Tyana, a philosopher/wonderworker and contemporary of Jesus, who may have been the inspiration for the Jesus stories.