Homosexuality
What does the Bible Say?
Each and Every Verse the Text and the
Context
The Culture and the History of the
Time
(There are only six by the
way)
Let's start with the big one:
Leviticus 18:22 Do not lie with men as you would with
women.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood be upon
them
In order to understand these verses, one must
understand the culture of the time. In reading the entire chapters, we are
told three different times that they were being forbidden to live as the
Egyptians and the Canaanites. Biblical historians will tell you that the
Cannanite religion during this time also included sexual rites. These were
done to ask for the blessings of their god. These sexual rites included
whole families; Husbands, wives, cousins, mothers, daughters, nieces and
nephews. Also included in the rites were temple prostitutes. Every
kind of sexual practice was going on when worshiping these gods during this
time including homosexual sex. They felt that having physical contact with
the priests of the gods and goddesses would bring them blessings. Sexual
intercourse was felt to gain great favor of the goddess because the male was
offering his semen, thought to be the essence of life, to the goddess through
the priest. Depositing semen in the body of the priest was believed to be
the way to eternal life. Similar practices went on during this time in
history through out the religion in worship of pagan deities.This is what was going on in Canaan and Egypt at the time the
Levitical rules were announced --homosexual temple
prostitution. And as already noted, Leviticus 18 and 20 specifically say that
they were written to address pagan religious practices.
Leviticus 18 begins (18:3) You shall not
do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as
they do in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you...
Leviticus 20 is even more specific even naming
the pagan god Molech.
So these verses which are quoted so often in
condemnation of homosexuality, are actually in condemnation of idol, false god
pagan practices.
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Sodom and Gomorah in Genesis 19
For years, this has been used by people to
condemn homosexuality. Let's look at the story a little more
closely. The Bible says that all the men of the city every single one of
them both young and old came to Lot's house. This is very telling.
The most "gay" city in the United States is arguably San Fransisco. Yet,
in this very "gay" city, less than half of the men are gay. It stands to
reason that if the Bible was talking about homosexuals, perhaps it would have
been worded that "certain men of the city" or even "many men of Sodom". It
is not. It says that every single one of the men and boys .... all of them
to the very last man came to Lot's house. To suggest that every single man
in Sodom and Gomorrah was a homosexual is simply not credible. From where
did the children come if this was so. I believe that something other than
homosexual desire was going on here. This is further proved accurate by
Lot himself. He offers his daughters, his virgin daughters to the men of
Sodom and Gomorrah. If these men were truly homosexual, what was Lot
trying to accomplish here. Lot knew the men at his door and knew them to
be predominately heterosexual (his actions are reprehensible) which is why he
offered his daughters.
From ancient records, we know that at the time,
the practice of the people of Sodom and of all the people of the area was to use
rape of men by men to humiliate them. "When victorious soldiers wanted to
break the spirit of their defeated enemies, they would 'treat them like
women'". This is a story of mob violence, not of homosexual desire.
So if homosexuality was not the sin of Sodom and
Gomorrah, what was it that caused God to rain fire and brimstone. Well,
once again, the Bible has the answers to this. The Bible itself tells us
that it was not homosexuality that caused God to destroy these two cities.
The Bible mentions Sodom and Gomorrah twenty times in later scriptures and NONE
of them states that their sin was homosexuality. In the book of
Ezekiel we find probably the most extensive references to Sodom and
Gomorrah. Ezekiel 16:49 & 50 This was the guilt of your sister
Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but
did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things
before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.
According to the Old Testament prophets, the
sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the fact that they behaved with "callous
indifference" to those in need-- the widows, orphans, poor and the strangers in
their midst. In truth, this story is at best a condemnation of homosexual
rape; and as other Scriptures affirm, it is more generally a condemnation of the
mistreatment of those who are most vulnerable .... It is ironic that the
story of Sodom is now used by Christians to justify judgement toward
another vulnerable group -- homosexuals. [excerpt from The
Children are Free by Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler
Connoley]
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Romans 1:21-28
(King James Version)
21Because that, when they
knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools,
23And changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
24Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their
own bodies between themselves:
25Who changed the truth of
God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature:
27And likewise also the men,
leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another;
men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompense of their error which was meet.
28And even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind,
to do those things which are not convenient;
The apostle Paul is addressing the Roman
people. All accounts of this passage that I have studied (and there were a
lot) agree on one thing. Paul is talking to these people about idol
worship. God gives them over to their idol worship and the practice of
homosexual relations in said pagan rituals. That each of them agree
upon.
1:24-25 The expression God gave them (parevdwken aujtouV" oJ qeov", paredoken autous ho theos) over means that
the process envisioned in 1:18-32 is not simply the natural course of
events but an ongoing history directed by a sovereign God who makes
decisions which affect people, societies, and cultures. The thought is
truly a frightful one. It is reminiscent of Pharaoh turning his back on
God and in turn having his heart judicially hardened by YHWH (Exod 9:16;
cf. Rom
9:17).
Though there is no mention of fire and brimstone
at this point in Romans, there is a process underway that is not
altogether distinct from hell. If people really want their sinful
lifestyles, then the awesome reality is God will give them over to it.
As C. S. Lewis as aptly remarked, “There are only two kinds of people in
the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God
says, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in hell chose it.” The point is,
that although Paul is not talking about hell here, and indeed there is
still hope for these people, there is nonetheless a continuum between
their present existence and their future plight. If a person really
wants God out of their thoughts, as these people most definitely do,
Love has decided to provide a place in the end where they can choose to
go and never have to think about him again.
There comes a time in the divine mind when people,
who revel in the sinful desires of their hearts, are to be handed over
to their desire for impurity, in particular, to the dishonoring (tou` ajtimavzesqai) of their bodies with one another.
One should not miss the ideological connection here between the
Gentiles’ idolatry and sexual sin—a connection which was commonly made
in the Judaism of Paul’s day.
Wisdom of Solomon 14:12-14 reads: 12For
the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the
invention of them was the corruption of life; 13 for they did
not exist from the beginning, nor will they last forever. 14
For through human vanity they entered the world, and therefore
their speedy end has been planned (NRSV).
Though there is no explicit grammatical tie with
verse 24, verse 25 makes it clear that sexual perversion is closely
linked with idolatry. People have exchanged (methvllaxan, metellaxan) the
truth about God’s existence and glory for the lie that he neither exists
nor merits worship. Indeed, the irony of the whole thing is that they
give religious worship and service to this lie (tw/`
yeuvdei, to pseudei) when they give themselves to idolatry—the
worship of the creation rather than the Creator. For idolatry is not
just the worship of useless idols, it is the express proclamation that
the biblical God does not exist. Such a thought is so abhorrent to Paul
that he finds it necessary to invoke a blessing on God: “God is forever
blessed!”
Study By: Greg Herrick from
Bible.org
The Apostle Paul was a very educated
man. He addressed the facts of the time in a very logical and throughal
progression.
1. In verse 21 he
addresses People who refuse to acknowledge and glorify God
2. In verse 23, they were
worshipping idols
3 They were interested in
earthly things rather than the things of the Creator (verse
25)
4. Gave up natural passion
for the opposite sex in an "unbounded search for pleasure"
5. Lived lives full of
covetousness, malice, envy, strife, slander, disrespect for parents,
pride and hatred for God
The model of homosexual behavior
that Paul is addressing here is explicitly associated with idol worship
(probably temple prostitution), and with people who, in unbridled search for
pleasure (or because of religious rituals associated with their idolatry),
broke away from their natural sexual orientation, participating in promiscuous
sex with anyone available. Paul simply does not address the issue
of a stable, loving homosexual relationship among people of
faith.
[exerpt from The Children
are Free by Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley]
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1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and I Timothy 1:10 (King James Version)
9Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind,
10Nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:10 (King James Version)
10For whoremongers, for
them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for
perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound
doctrine;
In the Greek
effeminate is malakoi - according to several Greek translations this
means soft. Upon further study I discovered that it refers to being
"soft like a woman." When used in the context of morality, the following
meanings could be put upon the word: "Lazy, coward or lack of courage,
over indulgence..."
From this
perspective, Paul was condeming men who were vain fearful and self
indulgent. In another perspective, malakoi could possibly be
speaking of a male prostitute who would have served as the receptive partner in
sexual intercourse.
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Why Then Do So
Many People Misinturpret The Bible's Meanings
For
These Verses and Homosexuality
Well,
quite frankly people don't have a vested interest in proving what centuries of
people have said to be true...to prove them wrong. It wasn't until gay
and lesbian theologians and their friends were able to step out of the closet
and practice as open and affirming people, that these passages were looked
into more deeply and with much greater interest. Thanks to efforts
of these people we have a better understanding of the precise meaning of these
passages. The good news of the Bible is still for all because none of
these passages condemn a loving same sex
relationship.
