In the book Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, the main character Zoe Baxter discovers that she is a lesbian after falling in love with her best friend, Vanessa. Before finding love with Vanessa, Zoe was married to a man named Max Baxter. After Max and Zoe split, Max becomes an alcoholic and gets into a terrible car accident. Yet after the accident, he finds religion and gets "saved" by Jesus Christ and Pastor Clive Davis. While he is in the church, he learns that homosexuality is a sin, and if a man lies with another man he will condemned to the fiery pits of hell. When Max discovers Zoe is a lesbian, he becomes terribly distraught and forces himself to believe that Zoe is just going through a phase, even though he full well knows that she is not. And when Zoe and Vanessa go very deeply into their marriage, they realize that they want to have a child. Zoe is infertile and had two miscarriages and one stillbirth, but Vanessa can still bear children. Zoe wants to use the embryos from her in vitro fertilization that she underwent with Max, but as a homosexual couple, they have to get consent from the other biological parent, Max, to use the embryo. This obviously causes feelings of tension and a trial is formed with Max wanting to give the embryos to his brother and his brother's wife, yet Zoe and Vanessa wanting to keep the embryo so Vanessa and Zoe can care for the child. This made me think about homosexuality and religion. Zoe, Vanessa, and their lawyer constantly refer to the Bible banning and allowing crazy, terrible things (like homosexuality) that is completely outdated now. It also made me think about it is not one's fault to be homophobic. It is incorporated into almost all religions that being gay or lesbian is a sin, and since the majority of the world believes in some sort of higher power, many people are against gays and lesbians. The book Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult really made me think about the issues of homosexuality and religion tied in together.
The first thing in Sing You Home that made me think about homosexuality and religion was how the Bible bans and allows crazy things. For example, the Bible allows people to stone a girl to death if she is not a virgin and unwed, yet forbids people to eat shellfish. The Bible was also written 3,000 years ago, and this made me think about how blinding religion is. Sadly, in some religions I feel as if people follow some rules of their religion but not all. Especially with the religion of Christianity. In that specific religion, it sometimes feels as though someone read over the entire Bible and made a list of what the Bible says not to do and to do, but made their own version, leaving some of those things out and some in. Christians obviously will not stone a woman if she is not married and has had sex, but they will go ballistic if someone is homosexual. I believe that the Bible is extremely outdated and should not be used as a code to look up to because times have obviously changed in the past 3,000 years. And in the actual Bible, the sin of being a homosexual wasn't this huge overacrching theme. It was mentioned only a couple of times, yet people follow it so devoutly that I find it mind-blowing and very upsetting also. Zoe and Vanessa should have to jump through "1,168 legal hoops" to get married and have a kid of their own. Religion is something deeply rooted into American society, yet it allows terrible things and bans the tiniest things. I believe being a gay or lesbian is a tiny thing.
Another thing that Sing You Home made me think about in terms of homosexuality and religion is that most of the time, homophobia is not someone's fault. Many religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hindu just to name a few, consider homosexuality a sin. Many many people all over the world practice these religions, which explains the extreme pushes against gay marriage and against gay and lesbians in general worldwide. No one is born homophobic. The people who are are taught something, whether it's in religion or not, and it's not how to be tolerant and accepting like people should be, it's how to hate. Many religious people dismiss being homosexual as something someone should choose to be, yet it is not. People can choose to be homophobic, but they can't choose being homosexual. I'm straight but I am accepting of gay and lesbian people. I hate how everyone seems to hate the gays all because of an age-old custom that happened 3,000 years ago. I know that it is most definitely nobody's fault, but it bothers me. In Sing Me Home, it upsets me how Vanessa and Zoe have to go though an entire trial just to have a baby. Same-sex couples take that for granted.
In conclusion, the book Sing Me Home by Jodi Picoult made me think about many issues in the world, but it made me think about religion and homosexuality specifically. One thing it made me think about was how outdated the Bible was and how people pick and choose things they follow in their religion. Unfortunately, one of those things was homosexuality, and it prevents Zoe and Vanessa, who are completely in love with each other, from getting married. Another thing the book made me think about was how homophobia is not someone's fault because they are taught it in many religions all around the world. The movement against gay and lesbian people is so huge, but all because of religion. In a perfect world, Zoe and Vanessa could get married and no one would question it and no one would oppress them for it.
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