Sunday, November 10, 2024

The Queerest Book in the Bible

She's the foreign widow of a man who died, along with all the other men his family, as an economic refugee from his own country to hers. Only her mother-in-law, also widowed, is left. Once the famine back home is over, the mother-in-law will take her chances on returning to the town of her birth, hoping not to starve in destitution.  

But there's nothing left for the two women who married the deceased sons. One of the daughters-in-law does what's most likely to assure her own survival: she returns to her own family. But the other daughter-in-law refuses to leave the side of the older woman.

"Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people," says Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi.


She braves the hostility of a country that has nothing but contempt for the place from which she comes. They arrive in Bethlehem and start scavenging for food. A wealthy landowner connected to Naomi by blood sees Ruth at the Iron Age equivalent of the food bank and turns out to be a decent mensch. Naomi and Ruth together hatch a plan that involves his seduction. (Yes, his seduction--I'm not going further into it now.) He marries Ruth, and she births a son.


Who turns out, the last verses of the book of Ruth tell us, to be the grandfather of King David. King David, the anointed of the Lord. King David, the offspring of a mixed bloodline: his great-grandmother an undesirable resident alien. King David, the ancestor of another well-known guy, who by ordinary appearances was the out-of-wedlock son of a pregnant teenager, who likewise was married by another decent mensch. 


Christian nationalists: put that on your plate and eat it. Steven Miller, to the head of the line, please.


But the story isn't just about welcoming the stranger--an impulse that was voted down by the American public this last Tuesday. It's also about the chosen bond between two women, which is stronger than any other in the story. When Ruth bears her son, the women of Bethlehem declare that "a son has been born to Naomi." Boaz is a sweet guy, but he's basically the donor dad in a queer family of choice.


Christian nationalists: put that on your plate too. Ron DeSantis, to the head of the line, please.


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