Excerpts from "What the Bible Says About Homosexuality"

Again, I got this in class. This is a good enough article as far presenting both sides of the argument. I suppose I don't have to tell all you loyal fans where I stand, but it was also interesting for me to see what the "other side" had to say. With the recent debate on homosexuality and the Bible's alleged stand against it, I thought those who wanted to know the other side of things would also like to read this. It's quite long, but if you have time and are interested in the topic, jump right in.

You can read the full text in Religious Tolerance.

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(Note: the following is heavily abridged; visit the site for more information.)

How religious conservatives and liberals interpret the Bible:
Conservative and liberal Christians interpret the Bible in very different ways. This leads to two distinct and contradictory sets of beliefs within Christianity on just about every conceivable topic. Homosexuality is no exception.

Rigidity of beliefs:
We have exchanged Emails with hundreds of visitors to this web site about the Bible and homosexuality. Most fall into one of two groups:

• Religious liberals promote homosexual ordinations, same-sex marriage, civil union ceremonies in the church, equal protection under hate-crime legislation, protection against discrimination in employment, etc. as fundamental human rights issues.

• Religious conservatives feel that the Bible teaches that homosexual behavior is always a serious sin. Allowing sexually active gays and lesbians to be ordained, or to have their committed relationships recognized by the church would involve a drastic and unacceptable lowering of church standards. The church would be condoning sin. They also oppose including sexual orientation in hate-crime and anti-discrimination legislation.

We have been unable to change the beliefs or actions of any of these hundreds of people on even one point related to homosexuality. Their views appear to be fixed. It is doubtful that much progress towards compromise on homosexual rights can be made by means of dialogue. We don't expect that the attached essays will change the beliefs of many visitors to this web site. However, the essays may help people understand opinions that are not their own.

• Religious liberals have often interpreted other passages as condemning men who sexually abuse boys, men who engage in homosexual ritual sex in Pagan temples, men intent on raping other men, etc. They view the Bible as being silent on sexual behavior within a consensual, monogamous committed homosexual relationship.

          For example, they might identify the sin of the men of Sodom as explained in Genesis           19 as attempting to rape strangers. Alternatively, they might quote other biblical                     passages as proof that the main sin of that city was their uncharitable behavior towards           strangers, and their uncaring conduct towards the poor, the widows, and needy.

• Religious conservatives often interpret all of the Biblical passages that touch on same-sex activity as condemning homosexuality in all its forms.

For example, they would probably identify the sin of the men of Sodom to be homosexual behavior. Homosexuality is seen as one of many manifestations of mankind's sinful nature which are a direct result of Adam and Eve's activities in the Garden of Eden. The story in Genesis is interpreted by conservative Christians as describing the fall of humanity.

Basic approach to analyzing the Bible:

The Bible refers to specific homosexual behaviors in a few passages. All references are negative.  Before considering what the Bible might say about homosexuality in today's society, one must figure out what the authors of the Bible meant when they wrote their passages about homosexuality. In order to do this, one must make a fundamental decision -- whether to:

• Accept the teachings of one's faith group. If you do so, and if you follow a conservative denomination then you will probably be taught that homosexual behavior is chosen, changeable abnormal, unnatural, and condemned by God. It is something that a person does. If you follow a liberal faith group, you may well accept homosexuality as an alternative, normal, natural unchangeable sexual orientation for a minority of humans which is accepted by God. It is something that a person is.

• Study passages from your favorite English version of the Bible, which is filtered by the theological beliefs and homophobia (if any) of the translators. If so, then you will find many passages in the Bible which condemn certain forms of homosexual behavior

• Follow the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek writings and attempt to understand precisely what the writers taught. If so, then you will find that these same passages condemn specific homosexual activities (rape, prostitution, etc.) But the Bible appears to be silent about same-sex, committed, monogamous relationships.

• There is no term that means homosexual orientation in the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts of the Bible.  The authors of the Bible did not understand sexual orientation and thus did not write about it. Biblical authors had little or no understanding of same-sex committed relationships. Rather, they assumed that everyone was heterosexual, but that some heterosexuals engaged in sex with persons of the same gender. Thus, when you see one of these words in an English translation of the Bible, it is important to dig deeper and find what the original Hebrew or Greek text really means.

Society in biblical times:
In Biblical times, same-gender sexual interactions could take many forms. Some were:

• Kings of conquered tribes were sometimes anally raped by the invading army as the ultimate symbol of defeat and humiliation. Such rape was also a way of humiliating visitors and strangers. These were acts of power and domination and had nothing in common with consensual sex by gays and lesbians.

• In biblical times, sex was regarded as an activity engaged in by a dominant person and a submissive person. For a man to play the role of a submissive partner would be a reversal of roles, and unacceptable.

• It was common within the Roman Empire for male adults to keep boy prostitutes for the purpose of sexual activity. The boys were often slaves. In modern times, this is considered extreme child abuse, a criminal offense.

• It is reasonable to assume that many loving gay and lesbian relationships existed in Biblical times. Rabbi Gershon Caudill wrote: "Like all indigenous peoples, the Jews were not overly concerned about male homosexuality, where two men lived together in a monogamous, sexual relationship. As a rule, it did not get any notice....The Talmud does not record a single instance of a person being brought before the Sanhedrin on the charge of homosexual activity."

People's beliefs regarding the Bible:

• Generally speaking, Fundamentalists and other Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible, as originally written, is inerrant (infallible; free of errors) and that God prevented the authors from making even a single mistake.  Every verse is useful in their understanding of God's intentions.  One should initially attempt to interpret each passage according to its literal meaning.  Many modern translations are reliable, particularly the New International Version (NIV) and King James Version (KJV).

• More liberal Christians tend to look upon the Bible as containing many translation errors, whose verses were not inspired by God, but were influenced by ancient pre-scientific culture. Passages often relate to customs of a long-past era that are unethical when compared to today's secular and religious systems of morality. Examples are verses which accept and regulate slavery, require widows to marry their brother-in-law, requiring victims of rape to marry their rapist, or condone child disciplinary practices.  Passages which might be interpreted as condemning homosexuality might also be not applicable today.

Each Bible translation reflects the world view, beliefs and mind sets of its translators. Many, if not most, versions of the Bible are funded by religious organizations and employ translators who all follow a specific theological belief system. Their personal biases distort their work. There is an additional complexity facing translators: today's society is very different from that of Biblical times. It is sometimes difficult to find a current English word that closely matches a Hebrew or Greek term.

A brief description of passages from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
Allegedly anti-gay "clobber" passages in the Bible

Genesis 1: Be fruitful and multiply....

Genesis 1:27 & 28: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, ..." King James Version.

• A common religiously conservative interpretation: Moses recorded God as saying that he created Adam and Eve in his own image as "male and female." Having created them capable of procreation, God blessed them and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. There is obviously a limit to the number of children that Eve could give birth to. One might safely assume that God's instruction to Adam and Eve were also binding to their children, grandchildren, even down to the present generation. Thus, God intended each human to pair up with a member of the opposite sex, and to procreate. There is no room in God's plan for same-sex marriage.

• A common religiously liberal interpretation: The creation stories in Genesis do not describe actual events and commands; they were copied and adapted from Babylonian myths by an unknown ancient Hebrew priest. The injunction to be fruitful and multiply may have had some validity in biblical times when the ancient Hebrews were continually under attack by neighboring tribes. However, today's world is overpopulated and is placing major strains on the environment. The command can hardly apply today.  Furthermore, throughout most of its history, the Christian church has rejected this passage; it has valued celibacy as a higher calling than marriage.
  

God stated in Genesis 2:18: "It is not good for the man to be alone." For a homosexual individual, the only suitable companion is a person of the same gender. To say that gays and lesbians should not form committed relationships is to say that it is good for them to remain alone. This is a direct contradiction of God's statement; it implies that God is a liar.

Genesis 2:23-24: About marriage: "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh'...For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh."

• Conservative Christians:  God created Adam and Eve to be heterosexual, expecting them to be fertile and to populate the world with humans. During the sexual act, their bodies unite, and symbolically rejoin as "one flesh." That is God's plan: for people of opposite genders to marry, raise children and have dominion over all the earth. Homosexual behavior is apart from God's plan, an attempt to distort and pervert what God intended from the beginning. If gays and lesbians cannot change (or do not wish to change) their sexual addiction, they must remain celibate in order to fit into God's planned intent for humanity.

• Liberal Christians: The first creation story in the Bible is seen in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. It describes that God's stated plan was for humanity to "Be fruitful and increase in number." (NIV, Genesis 1:28). The second creation story appears in Genesis 2:4 to 2:25. It states specifically that a man will unite with his wife. (NIV, Genesis 2:24).

One must interpret these sayings carefully. They obviously do not apply to all people. For example, if...

A significant portion of the population is sterile and thus cannot be fruitful and multiply.  If some people, for any number of reasons, remain celibate throughout life and never marry or have children.  If some women marry when they are beyond child-bearing age and are unable to conceive and give birth.  If some people carry serious genetic defects and choose to not conceive in order to avoid creating a child who would have disastrous health problems.  Gays or lesbians are, by definition, not attracted to members of the opposite gender, and thus are most unlikely to be able to form heterosexual relationships of one man, one woman.  The Genesis texts can thus refer only to a majority of individuals, not to everyone. It is a general plan for society, but not universally applicable to all.

Genesis 19: The story of Sodom and Gomorra:

This passage states that all of the people from the city of Sodom gathered around Lot's house and demanded that he send out two visiting angels so that the townspeople might "know" the angels. The word "know" probably implies that they wanted to have sex with the strangers. God later destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the behavior of the people of Sodom -- the Sodomites.

• A common conservative interpretation: Moses recorded God as destroying the city. R. Albert Mohler said: "The Genesis passage is very clear, that the sin of Sodom that brought on the destruction of the city was indeed linked to homosexuality." 1 This is a popular passage often quoted in conservative Churches because it so clearly condemns homosexual behavior.

• A common liberal interpretation: The sin of the men of Sodom was to humiliate their visitors by engaging in "an act of sexual degradation and male rape...These are acts of violence that are committed by parties seeking to show their hatred for those they are degrading. It is not an act of love or of caring" 2 The sin of Sodom was the intent to commit of mass rape. Same-sex rape is unrelated to homosexuality just as opposite-sex rape is unrelated to heterosexuality. Rape is a crime of power and control. Other biblical passages that mention Sodom clearly indicate that Sodom was punished for being unkind to its poor, widows, orphans, and strangers.

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13: The abomination

Leviticus 18:22 in the King James Version states: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Leviticus 20:13 is similar, except that it adds the death penalty as punishment.  Although the original Hebrew clearly refers to male-male sexual activity, both the Living Bible and New Living Translation refer to a prohibition of "homosexuality." This would include sex between two women -- a behavior not mentioned anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures.

• A common conservative interpretation: These verses clearly condemn sexual activity between two males. As such, they are consistent with other passages discussed in this essay. No exception is given for consensual sex between two men or for sex within a loving same-sex relationship. All are an abomination to God.

• A common liberal interpretation: The Hebrew word "to'ebah" appears in both passages and is generally translated as "abomination." Some religious liberals interpret these passages as referring only to male Jews who engaged in same-sex behavior in Pagan temples. The term would better be translated as "ritually improper" or "involving foreign religious cult practice." Elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, the same word is used to ban wearing of clothing made up from two materials (like cotton-polyester in today's world), or having a tattoo, eating shrimp, eating pork, seeding lawns with a mixture of grass types, etc. None of the passages invoking "T'ebah" are valid for non-Jews today.

Rev. Jill Nelson commented that the passage "... is grounded in the old Jewish understanding that women are less worthy than men. For a man to have sex with another man 'as with a woman' insults the other man, because women are to be treated as property." 1

Deuteronomy 23:17, etc: Sodomites and shrine prostitutes

Deuteronomy 23:17 in the King James Version states: "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." There are similar passages in 1 Kings 14:24, 15:12 & 22:46 and 2 Kings 23:7.

• A common conservative interpretation: Many Evangelicals prefer the KJV to the NIV translation of this verse. It condemns all male homosexual activity, and is thus applicable to all male gays today, whether they are engaged in casual sex or in a monogamous, consensual, committed relationship.

• A common liberal interpretation: The Hebrew word "quadesh" is translated in the King James Version here as "sodomite." Other Bible translations use the term "cult prostitute" or "shrine prostitute."   "Qadesh" literally "means 'holy one' and is here used to refer to a man who engages in ritual prostitution" in a Pagan temple. 2 Among Pagan religions in the Middle East, worship often involved ritual sex in the temple, "often with a sacred prostitute who was like a priest or priestess. This sacred sexual activity was believed to encourage the god(s) to bestow fertility on the earth and its creatures." Male shrine prostitutes would have sex with females; female prostitutes with males.

Conclusions:

• A common conservative conclusion: God's word repeatedly upholds one-man, one-women marriage as God's intent for relationships. It also repeatedly condemns same-sex behavior between men and perhaps between women.

• A common liberal conclusion: Genesis does mention the pairing off of one man and one woman into a marriage-like relationship. But this is only one of many possible marital or family relationships. There are a total of eight types mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. Genesis 19 definitely condemns rape. But this is unrelated to consensual same-sex sexual behavior. The phrases in Leviticus only apply to Jews engaging in same-sex activity in Pagan temples. The references to sodomites in Deuteronomy etc. is a clear error in translation. Again it refers to ritual sex in Pagan temples.

There is nothing in the Hebrew Scriptures that condemns same-sex committed relationships or same-sex marriage.

With the almost complete absence of dialogue between religious conservatives and others on these topics, the massive gulf over homosexuality and the Bible -- and about the morality of same-sex sexual behavior -- will probably not be resolved in the foreseeable future.