Seduced by Allegory
I just finished a semester-long class on the Song of Songs. I came into the class intrigued by and skeptical of allegorical readings of the Song. It seemed a bit irresponsible to read this ancient Hebrew text as an allegory about Christ: that’s so clearly not what the ancient author(s) had in mind.
But I’ve been seduced by this way of reading the text. The idea of God’s love as passionate and erotic is so powerful, particularly for queer people, who have been told (and believed) that God does not love them because of their sexuality. Instead, we could let ourselves use that very experience of sexuality to see how God does love us. Woah! Also, the gender-bending in ancient allegorical readings is ripe to be reclaimed by modern queer commentators (I’m thinking of Origen on the “breasts of the bridegroom” here).
So, hey, liberal Christians, Jews, and UUs: don’t discard the literal reading of the Song. It really is about human sexuality. But let’s also use it to imagine that God’s love really is as irrational, fierce, and unquenchable as the first stirrings of erotic passion.
![curtisfarr:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt at age 2 wearing traditional, American, gender-neutral clothing, shoes, and hairstyle of not-all-that-long-ago.
This post brought to you with love in response to Pastor Sean “beat the gay out of your kids, I mean, um, marriage is for a man and a woman” Harris.
[Click through the picture for a Smithsonian article on a brief history of gender identifiers in the U.S.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3ep028PAX1qfsliso1_250.jpg)
