Faith & LGBTQI
Biblical Related
- The Clobber Verses: Six scriptures cited at gays, lesbians, same-sex relationships, and the LGBTQ+
“In recent decades, theologians have recognized that these six verses are difficult to interpret, and many have questioned the traditional interpretations of them, and whether they apply to same-sex relationships today. […] Disarming the clobber verses (or clobber passages) allows us to see same-sex relationships is a diaphora, so that we may learn to love one-another, even if we disagree on difficult ethical problems). Remember that salvation is by faith alone, so anyone who says that salvation is by faith plus anything (even heterosexuality) is speaking heresy.” - Why Romans (1:18-26) Doesn’t Condemn Homosexuality
“Keep in mind: anyone who is “inflamed with lust” is in sin – whether gay or straight. But Paul’s entire flow of thought begins with a discussion about those who deny God, worship created things rather than the creator, engage in ritual sexual intercourse as part of that worship, and then…BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS, God has judged them and given them over to their lusts.” - Christianity And Homosexuality Reconciled (pdf)
An overview of biblical times, culture and religious practices from which the verses were written. A good read for all believers. Dr. Joseph Adam Pearson is a college and university educator with more than forty years of classroom and administrative experience. Dr. Pearson has been the International President and Chief Executive Officer of Christ Evangelical Bible Institute (CEBI) for over twenty years. At the time of the latest publication of this book (2017), he still oversees thriving branch campuses of CEBI in India, the Philippines, and Tanzania. - Roman Sex, Sexuality, Slaves and Lex Scantinia
The world where the Apostle Paul was from and the things he preached against. Always read the Bible with an understanding of the time and culture it was written in to grasp its actual meaning. Ancient Rome: “boys born or sold into slavery, captured as spoils of war, or freeman (freed slaves) were often exploited and sexually preyed upon. It was actually considered socially acceptable to abuse young male slaves, in sordid acts of pederasty by the elite class of elder Roman men.” - A Gay Pastor Explains What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality
“Another passage often quoted against us is 1 Corinthians 6:9, wrongly translated as ‘homosexuals’. But remember that, 500 years ago, Martin Luther translated ‘arsenokoites’ as ‘child molesters’ [not ‘homosexuals’ and the first hand-written English Wycliffe Bible translated it as “synn of Sodom”]. Recall the story of Jupiter/Zeus arriving in the form of an eagle and abducting the boy Ganymede to be his cup bearer and sex slave. Keep in mind that, in ancient Rome, masters could have sex with any male or female slave they wished — this was rape.”
FAQ
Just like how a straight person doesn’t make a conscious choice to be straight, a gay person doesn’t choose to be gay. There are a number of biological, environmental, and sociological determinants as it relates to our sexual orientation (refer to Q5 below for more information on this) and it is reductionistic to think of it as simply a choice that one makes, especially since this ‘choice’ can bring with it certain societal and familial difficulties.
The only choice many LGBTQ people have made however, is to be true to themselves – to live out their lives as honest, authentic and whole human beings.
No. Nowhere in the Bible is a person condemned for their gender identity or sexual orientation. When someone says the Bible condemns “homosexuality”, they usually mean behaviour that they think God finds unacceptable. The Bible condemns lust and immorality of any sort (whether heterosexual or homosexual). But nowhere does the Bible discuss same-sex attractions or how to live as a Christian if you have such feelings. These are subjects where we must seek God’s heart through prayer and the guidance that we do have in Scripture.
There are only a handful of passages in the Bible which mention same-gender sexual interactions. While it’s true that most of these interactions are portrayed negatively, it’s also important to understand the historical contexts of these passages and the translation of the original Hebrew or Greek words. Same-sex attraction and loving, committed relationships were virtually unheard of in ancient times. Some of these passages that Christians often link to homosexuality have to do with the homosexual sex rites of ancient pagan idol worship, while the other passages don’t even have anything to do with homosexuality.
Please read on to find out more.
Yes! But why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? If we let the Bible speak for itself, we will have a more accurate answer. There are 47 references to Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible, and not one of them mentions homosexuality. The most direct reference to Sodom is in Ezekiel 16:49-50:
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.” (NIV)
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 is a story of attempted gang rape. When two angels came to warn Lot about the city’s destruction, the men of Sodom decided to put these strangers in their place by gang-raping them. This does not mean that Sodom was a “homosexual city,” of course. Gang rape was well-known in Bible times as a way to humilate and emasculate their enemies by treating them ‘like women’. The same tactic was used by wicked people in the city of Gibeah hoping to drive away a stranger. (See Judges 19.)
To read more, you can download the PDF booklet ‘A Christian Defence of Homosexuality’
There is strong evidence that these verses in Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 are referring to the practice of shrine (or cult) prostitution. Such a view has appeared as far back as the writings of Philo in AD35.
Robert Gagnon, a prominent anti-gay theologian, also considers Leviticus 18:22 an example of cult prostitution:
“I do not doubt that the circles out of which Lev 18:22 was produced had in view homosexual cult prostitution, at least partly. Homosexual cult prostitution appears to have been the primary form in which homosexual intercourse was practiced in Israel.” – Robert Gagnon, The Bible And Homosexual Practice (2001)
Leviticus 18:22 appears directly after a verse forbidding child sacrifices to the pagan god Molech. It would be strange for the passage to hop from the subject of incest to child sacrifice to homosexuality. However, given that incestuous sex was also common in such worship (particularly of Molech’s consort, the fertility goddess Asherah, as well as the Egyptian cult of Osiris), the whole section then reads as a condemnation of practices associated with ancient pagan worship: incest, child sacrifice, and homosexual sex.
These are corroborated by historical accounts of idol worship that likewise describe such acts. In the Bible itself, further strengthening this interpretation is the Hebrew word translated as ‘abomination’ (KJV) in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13: toebah, which Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines as:
“Especially used of things which are made impure and illicit by the decrees of religion; specially used of things belonging to the worship of idols; and of idols themselves.”
The ancient Jews were prohibited from the practices of other religions. The most common form of homosexuality they observed would have been one associated with pagan sex rituals, so it was only natural it would be forbidden.
To read more, you can download the PDF booklet ‘A Christian Defence of Homosexuality’
Romans 1:18-32 depicts a clear progression of events:
- People rebel against God and turn to idol worship
- “For this reason”, God gives them up into “shameful lusts” – their women exchange natural sexual intercourse for unnatural, and their men also abandon “natural relations with women” and lust after men
- God then “gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (NIV)
A few points to note here:
- This is a seriously messed up group of people
- The cause of their descent into homosexual activity is explicitly stated as their rebellion against God
- Those men had previously pursued sexual relations with women.
We might never be absolutely certain who Paul was referring to. Some commentaries believe he was referencing ritual prostitution such as that condemned in the Old Testament, describing men who in the heat of idolatrous fervour went against their nature and pursued sex that was perverse and unnatural to them. Others point out similarities to the extravagant, often cruel sexual excesses of the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero, and suggest that Paul could have been invoking them as examples of the kind of sexual behaviour he was condemning.
What we can be certain about is who Paul was not referring to: gay Christians in romantic relationships who have always remained faithful to God, and who do not usually take part in depraved sex orgies in worship of graven images.
While Paul calls those sexual acts ‘unnatural’, he was assuming – as everyone did back then – that everybody was straight and found homosexual sex to be an unnatural thing done only in the throes of depraved and frenzied lust. He would not have been able to conceive otherwise.
To read more, you can download the PDF booklet ‘A Christian Defence of Homosexuality’
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (malakoi), nor homosexuals (arsenokoitai), nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” – Corinthians 6:9-10 (NASB; parentheses mine)
Traditional interpretations claim that the terms malakoi and arsenokoitai refer to the “passive and active participants in homosexual acts” (NIV footnotes). But here’s what we know about the word arsenokoitai (plural of arsenokoites):
- Its exact definition is uncertain due to its extreme rarity. Historians and linguists believe it is likely a form of exploitative sex, mostly but not exclusively of a homosexual nature.
- It has appeared in heterosexual contexts. Around 575 AD, Patriarch John the Faster used it in reference to an act which some men did to their wives. About 200 years before that, the Sibylline Oracles included the sentence: “The arsenokoitai from abduct our children” – children, not boys or men.
- It is a feminine word in Greek, hence the ‘ai’ ending vs. the masculine ‘oi’, suggesting it either originated as reference to or was commonly associated with women, not men.
- It frequently appears in themed lists of vices alongside or amidst economic sins (often between economic and sexual sins, as in 1 Cor 6:9-10, suggesting elements of both).
- The word is not originally Greek, but composed from two Latin root words. This is strange, because Paul was writing in and fluent in Greek, which had many words for various kinds of homosexuality. The most common was paideraste – used not only to refer to pederasty, but also more generally to homosexual sex and romance. Paul would likely have known these words and many others. Yet he chose not to use them, meaning that words which blatantly described men having sex with men did not accurately describe what he was talking about.
Then we have the word ‘malakoi’.
The Bauer Greek-English Lexicon defines malakoi as “men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually”.
In ancient Greece, pederasty was a common practice regulated by the government and viewed as educational – men ‘teaching’ male youth about sex via practical demonstration. These relationships were often characterised by mutual exploitation. The man gained easy sexual gratification (without needing to first woo a woman), and the youth gained favours in return for allowing himself to be sexually misused in that way. A modern equivalent would be people who agree to sex to get a promotion. The sex is technically consensual, but it’s based on exploitation and abuse. Living in Greece, Paul would have been surrounded by such relationships and was likely repulsed by them.
Several scholars suggest these were the arsenokoitai and malakoi that Paul was referring to. This theory is strengthened by how malakoi is translated as “male prostitutes” in the NLT, ISV and the older NIV editions. (In an interesting deviation, the Aramaic Bible in Plain English translates it as “sexual molesters”).
Many gay people have tried to become straight at some point in their lives. Some gay Christians have spent years praying for God to make them straight and a lot of us have combined prayer with Christian therapy, support groups, psychological treatments, or other methods of seeking change. Some have even undergone controversial therapies like electroshock treatment, hoping it would help them become straight.
Still, the vast majority, even those who have been through “ex-gay therapy”, remain attracted to their own sex. Some ex-gays marry a member of the opposite sex, and use this as “proof” that they have changed. However, many other gay people who married a member of the opposite sex and even raised a family in an attempt to change their inner feelings still remain, on the inside, attracted to their own sex. They’re still gay.
One’s sexual orientation does not dictate a person’s morals or values. Many LGBTQ Christians choose to be in a monogamous, committed and loving relationship because that is what they believe is the best option for them. Some choose to be abstinent as they wait for the right person while others choose to be celibate. As Christians, we make our decisions and choices with the help of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. So just as we wouldn’t apply the notion of a “straight lifestyle” on heterosexual persons, the concept of a “gay lifestyle” is similarly untenable.
