Education

 Brief look at the Bible and Homosexuality Copyright 1995 by Rev. Michael E. England

Many people have been taught that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Metropolitan Community Churches, and many other religious leaders and organizations, are convinced that this is not true. We know that Lesbians and Gay men receive complete love and acceptance from God.

How can there be such differences between parts of the Christian Church over this issue? We believe that Christians who present anti-homosexual biblical arguments base them largely on unexamined traditional interpretations which have been asserted for centuries about some passages. In recent times, scholars have finally studied these passages in depth. Many archaeological discoveries about biblical times have also provided fresh insights.

There is no credible evidence for an anti-homosexual interpretation of Scripture. The facts about the few passages at issue are briefly summarized in this brochure. Such brief statements only begin to do justice to sound interpretation of Scripture. That must be a continuing, searching endeavor. This summary is a starting place. It is an assurance that Biblical truth is not on the side of tradition in this matter.

Christians in Metropolitan Community Churches believe in the authority of Scripture. We know that there are some ideas which people claim are biblical which, in fact are not. We are far more concerned, however, with those things which the Bible does teach us about God and ourselves. We are free to be ourselves. God will guide us in that freedom. We are committed as Christians to lives which follow the principles and teachings found in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 (Related-- I Kings 14:22-24, 15:22, 22:46; II Kings 23:7)

These verses have been applied to homosexuality because of a mistranslation of two Hebrew words. The Authorized ("King James") Version translates them "whore" and "sodomite. " They are actually the masculine and feminine forms of the same noun. The word is literally translated "male (or female) holy one" and is understood as "temple (or cult) prostitute." This person was a kind of priestess or priest in fertility cult worship. In these cults, sexual activity in the temple was believed to lead the deity to bestow fertility. The verses have nothing to do with homosexuality, as we understand it today.

Genesis 19:4-11 (Related -- Judges 19:22)

Ezekiel 16:49-50 states clearly that Sodom was destroyed for a general, deep sinfulness. Neither homosexuality nor any specific sexual sin is cited. Even if the men of the city meant to rape God's messengers, which is in dispute, the issue is not that such an assault would have been homosexual but that it would have been an abuse of guests, a profound crime in the ancient world. This account is only one example of the ungodly behavior toward others which actually brought Sodom's condemnation.

Leviticus 18:22; 20:13-14

These verses are found in the section of Leviticus known as the "Holiness Code" of law. Observance of these laws reminded the Hebrew people that they were set apart to God. (Remember that the New Testament teaches that Christians are no longer subject to this former law.) The verses involve the belief that anal intercourse (the only practice mentioned here) was humiliating and subjugating. It was used for that purpose by some cultures against conquered enemies. In such cases the view was that captive men were being "used" like women, who were chattel property in those societies. The Hebrew people believed that to do this to a male was to violate the dignity of the male sex. Their sexist culture believed that each male was the image of God. To "lie with a man as with a woman" was, in their eyes, to violate his dignity. This was considered "abomination," the translation of a Hebrew word which meant specifically that a practice was idolatrous. The universal issue here is not homosexuality but the use of other human beings as objects, thus violating their humanness and the image of God in which they are created.

I Corinthians 6:9; I Timothy 1:10

At issue are two Greek words: malakee (some scholars transliterate the word malakoi), which occurs only in the list in I Corinthians, and arsenokeeteh (some scholars transliterate the word arsenokoitai), which occurs in both lists. The meanings of the words have been assumed traditionally to refer to homosexual people. Their exact translations, like those of some surrounding words, are not known precisely. Recent scholarship has shed some light on them which shows that they certainly do not refer to homosexual people or behavior in general. Indeed, there was no word which referred to homosexual people or homosexuality in general, though there were Greek words for particular homosexual behaviors.

Scholarship indicates that the words may refer to participants in a Greek form of pederasty which was widely condemned for its manipulative and abusive character. Another theory is that they refer to particular participants in fertility cult worship, and are about temple or cult prostitutes similar to those being condemned in Deuteronomy 23. While these words may perhaps refer to specific homosexual activities, they certainly cannot be construed as references to homosexual orientation or homosexual people in general.

Romans 1:26-27

This is the only passage in Scripture which, apparently, refers to homosexual behavior among women, as well as among men. The unjustified, traditional interpretation that this passage condemns homosexuality in general arises in part from failure to relate the passage to the whole chapter. Paul is writing about idolatrous people who put things or concerns ahead of their devotion to God. As an example here, he cites a specific group of people, probably in a Roman fertility cult, who are engaging in homosexual activity. These particular people are so consumed with a self-centered, destructive craving for sex that they ignore God and the image of God in the other person. Paul writes that God, having given them free will, allows them to plunge to self-destruction. He warns of the danger of behavior and attitudes which turn from caring for God and for others. This certainly is a dangerous path for both Lesbian/Gay and non-Gay people. Traditionalists infer that Paul means that homosexual behavior can never be loving. In reality, the Christian Lesbian or Gay man is freed by and subject to the same law of love which Christ commanded for all of us. Behaving lovingly toward one another and acknowledging God's image in the other is basic to all of Christian life, including sexuality, whether the Christian is Lesbian/Gay or non-Gay.

"Against Nature" (Contra Naturam)

Traditional theology has argued that God created male and female genders, as recorded in Genesis, only as a means of procreation. Homosexuality is condemned with the assertion that it is not procreative. The argument is that, since a gender difference exists, heterosexuality is the only way in which God meant sexuality to be expressed. In the Genesis accounts, however, procreation was only one of God's purposes. The other, equally important, was human companionship -- relationship. God did not wish us to be alone.

It is also dangerous to argue merely from biology when discussing God's intents and ourselves as the "image of God." Jesus told us that "God is Spirit." We are created in this image of God as spiritual beings. Human beings are distinguished from other animals by that spiritual nature, partly by our capacity for relationship which is the context of human sexuality. Our "natural" capacity for sexual expression, heterosexual or homosexual, is given its deepest meaning by our capacity for loving relationship.

In the whole of Scripture it is the grace of God which shines through. In a lifetime of study we learn of the God of love who creates and sustains and builds us. We learn of our freedom to choose relationship with God and, by doing so, to choose wholeness and health.

To whatever degree God's gift of sexuality may involve homosexual or heterosexual orientation, it is a gift which, like all of God's gifts, is meant to be dedicated to God and submitted to God's guidance. This is part of the Good News of Christ which we in MCC believe comes through Scripture from our Creator. Buy the Book