I hear many conservative anti-gay Christians announce,
We believe what the Bible has to say about homosexuality.No, you believe what your pastor says the Bible says about homosexuality.
With the "gay issue", many (most?) conservative anti-gay Christians walk around with blinders. They refuse to seek God on the matter. They leave it in the hands of man, and more specifically heterosexual men to interpret a few passages. Too often their leaders interpret the passages based on bias, not on a careful search for truth.
We provide ourselves with reasonable filters when looking at certain passages--
Women should be silent in church with their heads covered.We look at these passages and account for vast differences of culture and history. We can also understand how some men in power used these very passages to silence women and enslave men, women and children from Africa.
Slaves must obey masters.
Yet with the passages that seem to speak against people lesbians, gays and bisexuals, most throw away reasonable considerations and filters. I have not doubt that the people preaching against homosexuality would still have a problem even without the scriptures.
As queer people, we face the same anti-gay spirit in the world that we face in the church. In fact, just as the worldly, unenlightened, ungodly view of women and people of color entered the church and got mixed up in that old time religion, the insistence that gays are wrong and must change entered the church from the world, not from God.
Yes, Some Bible passages speak against certain sex acts that include homosexual activity, just as the Bible judges harshly and often certain heterosexual acts and practices.
Jesus, who says nothing specifically about homosexuality, condemns heterosexual sin. Does that mean all heterosexual sexual expression is wrong? Throw out the straight baby with the murky incestuous, idolatrous, polygamist bathwater?
No, even though we see many more examples of heterosexual immorality in the Bible, we know that that immorality stands in stark contrast to loving, loyal partnerships between a man and a woman. The same is true of same-sex sexual activity.
Some passages of the Bible condemn homosexual lust, rape, abuse and idolatrous activities--as it should--but does NOT condemn two women or two men loving each other, creating a home and family, and being intimate with each other in sexual and non-sexual ways.
But these words will not convince most people who claim a literal view of the Bible because fear soaks the mind and keeps them, as it kept me, from looking deeply into these matters. A spirit of fear often fills and surrounds the anti-gay folks, especially as they begin to consider these issues in a new light.
Some Christians buttress themselves against what they consider to be doctrines of demons designed to undermine one's very faith in Jesus. Think of our dear friend, Marvin, and the many ways he has sought to control what he hears out of fear that he will be "attacked by the enemy".
But for those who believe the words of the Bible, the scriptures states that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind.
Too often the church operates under the spirit of fear, hatred and oppression. But the writer of 1 Corinthians proclaims that we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
God has freely given the heterosexual church the gift of transgender lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to minister with them and to them. The church cries out for blessing and revival while turning away the very people God sends as part of that blessing and revival.
I am sure many people can counter this post with scripture and arguments and opinions. I prefer that you spend time in prayer and quiet asking God for Light and understanding, humbly coming before God knowing that you might just have it wrong, as we so often do.
Trust in God with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to God,
and God will make your paths straight.
Comments
Thanks for such a clear yet gentle post.
Now if someone should sin as a lesbian or gay (be it lying, lusting, disloyalty to a partner, etc), of course we can always seek forgiveness from the parties we have wronged including God.
This notion that people with same-sex attractions are flawed, sinful and sick is a flawed, sinful and sick notion that comes from an oppressive world, not from a loving God.
For Christians we are told to test the spirits to see if they are from God. Homophobia and the rejection of same-gender loving people is not of God, but of the world.
Like my Christian friend, Bob Painter, has shared before on this blog, many folks both, straight and gay, have to stop being conformed to the pattern of this homophobic, heterosexist world and be instead be transformed by the renewing their minds.
Then they can begin to grasp God's will for lgbt people.
Kenn in Toronto
Ok, explain how Leviticus 18:22 does not SPECIFICALLY condem same sex intercourse.
Here is the passage from the KJV.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
and from the NKJV
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination."
Keep in mind now that in these passages, God is speaking to Moses.
Just a few more from different translations
The Living Bible
"Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin."
Young's Literal Translation
"And with a male thou dost not lie as one lieth with a woman; abomination it is."
New Revised Standard Version
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."
In your post you say that the Bible does not condem 2 males or 2 females being intimate with each other in sexual ways.
How can you say that with any kind of certainty after reading Leviticus 18:22? Please explain.
If you want to know more, see the links. I do not feel the need to defend myself, but some further explanation might be helpful. I am not interested in a debate. That is not the purpose of this blog.
1. Hebrew is an ancient language with a limited vocabulary. One Hebrew word can stand for a dozen different things. Rape, Intercourse, Lovemaking are very different things and we have multiple ways of saying this in English, but not in ancient Hebrew. I do not believe that the Levitical text condemns every instance of same-sex intercourse, but speaks to specific acts and practices well-known to the culture of the time.
2. If Christians follow parts of the Levitical law, then they should follow all of them. Even if the law condemns same-sex love (which it does not), Jesus came to abolish the law. Why do many Christians eat shrimp? That too is an abomination.
3. The Living Bible is a more of a paraphrase than an actual translation.
If you want to know more about this topic, check out the links below. This blog is not a debate forum, so I will not add more to what I have said.
What the Bible Says about Homosexuality
Biblical References to Homosexuality
Wrath and the gay question: on not being afraid, and its ecclesial shape
“But the Bible says...”? A Catholic reading of Romans 1
So for example, Leviticus 18:22, is to be taken from a heterosexual viewpoint. So the question to ask about this verse is:
Why is a heterosexual man having sex with another man.
For sure, it is not for procreation or for pleasure as part of that very special relationship we all want, "marriage".
It was with a temple prostitute from another religion that surrounded Israel at the time that Leviticus was given or it was rape that was very common when one army defeated another.
I think that if you apply this same technique to the other clobber passages in the Bible, those scripture may become a blessing to the gay Christian instead of being a stumbling block for so many.
My thoughts may be radical, but I think that we are still allowing the anti-gay Christian thought processes to control the discussions. Their thought processes are incorrect because they are combining orientation with activities. I think what I have said about in the Leviticus example shows a valid thought process since it separates orientation from activities.
So, how out-of-wack am I?
Do homosexuals make up excuses to accept homosexuality? And are most homosexuals liberals? Its hard to pin point religion to this subject because everybody has a different religon using the same bible. All I can say is that I dont like being confused and I dont think God would not want me to be confused. Does that last statement make me a liberal or an conservative?
:) Love yah
So too, now, the Christian community is faced with how to deal with homosexuality. Is the faith community that claims to follow the teachings and examples of Christ loving it's gay neighbor as itself? Is the Church truely "catholic" meaning "embracing all" or is it still a straight man's club?
On my blog, I discuss the ex-gay agenda and homosexuality in general through an Orthodox Catholic view.
http://alan-mihai.blogspot.com/2007/08/9-roman-catholicism-homosexuality.html
WHy does this not target lesbianism? Did it not exist?
Or was it there no reason to ban this?
You can find more points to your 'truth' in youtube. Search Responding to Pro-gay theology(its an anti-gay view). ANd also search "Gay Bomb debate" and Romans 1 Finalized(pro-gay view). Try not being biased, gets us nowhere.
Many fellow christians that find themselves in the 'predicament' when they acknowledge their SSA question the 'absolute truth' and search if that's the unequivical truth or if theres something more that might be missing. This is what many call as 'the struggle', imo.
Thank You.
Bart D Erhman has written an excellent resource in his book, "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" The comes from a fundamentalist and Evangelical background (studied at Moody then Wheaton before going to Yale) and writes simply and clearly. Misquoting Jesus
I am a Christian and seek to maintain a close relationship with God, and I find no problems with being gay and being a Christian. Although some written and web sources have helped me better understand the scriptures and see how they were erroneously misinterpreted to uphold the prejudice and discrimination of those people who stand opposed to same-sex orientation, I have found for me that the most convincing understanding came when I sat silently in prayer and held the issue out before God. This brought me insight into how people have used the Bible to oppress and discriminate.
Here is a good example. For a couple of hundred years virtually every white Christian in the American colonies felt that it was completely sanctioned by the Bible to own human beings from African and force them into slave labor. Ministers preached this from the pulpit and had scriptures to back it up. They held a sinful and worldly view of these black people. This was not a conviction of the Holy Spirit, rather a means of gaining profit from oppressing others. Now today we think it is outrageous to think of owning slaves and we marvel that they had it so wrong back then. What has changed? The scriptures have not changed, but people grew to understand that the scriptures were used to support an evil and cruel industry.
Similarly I believe some people hold a bias against a homosexual expression of sexuality and coupling. This "conviction" does not arise from the scriptures or the Holy Spirit. Rather it runs rampant in the world among millions of people who could care less about God or holiness. They feel repulsed by gay people. This same worldly revulsion has infiltrated the Church so that Christian folks hold the same beliefs and values as the anti-gay, often hateful and fearful people in the world. The Church conveniently has scriptures that they say supports that bias (even though in the history of the Jewish faith and the Christian faith these same scriptures were interpreted differently by the early Church Fathers and the Rabbis. The Church has been influenced by the world and we are now in the process of undoing this damage.
Romans 12 talks about how we need to no longer conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then we can begin to understand God's will. The Church needs to renew its mind in regards to lesbians and gays. The Church needs to seek God about this matter and not lean on their own understanding, an understanding tainted by the world.
Over at the Beyond Ex-Gay (bXg) web site we have tons of web resources. Some of these may prove helpful for you.
I have found useful articles at the following:
Courage UK
Gay Christian Survivors
GayChristians.com
There are plenty more, but that might be a good place to start.
Thank you again! Wendy