What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

Article by Myles Markham* Published on the website of the LGBT Human Rights Campaign Association (United States), freely translated by Giacomo Tessaro

Behind the statements that the bible Would clearly say that "Homosexuality is prohibited by God" a little knowledge of the Bible themselves and many cultural prejudices are hidden.

Introduction

In the last twenty Years, The Pew research center constantly detects that one of the ethical issues that most divide christian traditions is sexual Diversity. many christians feel the same question always repeat: "What does the Bible say about the attraction for people of the same sex?".

Although it is unlikely that biblical authors knew something of sexual orientation (for example, the term "homosexual" he was coined only in the second half of the nineteenth century), many believers consider the Bible a timeless guide, who teaches to honor God through our lives, including undoubtedly our sexuality.

Before asking us how Christians can honor the Bible authority, and at the same time support sexual diversity, it can be useful to start with a concise but exhaustive review of the Christian assumptions about the Bible.

What is the Bible?

Christians who consider the Bible Word of God commonly think that God has produced it inspiring human authors to write about creation, of how sin entered the world, and how redemption and salvation are found in Jesus Christ.

Seen in this light, the Bible becomes the primary source to find out how the people of God should live. It is important to point out that “Word of God” it does not mean that we can understand what is right and what is wrong by reading isolated steps; Most of the Christians do these considerations by studying what the entire Bible says about a specific theme, taking into consideration the linguistic, historical and cultural context in which the steps were written, and comparing these discoveries with what we know, more generally, the character of God.

If the letter to the Jews states that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and always", our ability to understand and apply biblical teachings changes and deepens as we grow up in faith and know the world better.

What is biblical interpretation?

Every time someone opens the Bible, a process of interpretation begins. Those who are attracted to people of the same sex, and come to positive conclusions about their relationships and their identity, are regularly accused of placing their personal experience above the Scriptures, and of rejecting the authority of the Bible in their lives. But, and we humbly ask, is this a correct and truthful statement? Are there neutral interpretations? Is there only one correct way to interpret the Bible, and if so, who determines it?

The study of biblical interpretations is defined "hermeneutics", and helps us answer questions like this. Hermeneutics is when we take a text and don't just ask ourselves “what does he say”, but "what does it mean". When we ask ourselves “What does the Bible say about homosexuality” (or, in more appropriate terms, “What the Bible says about same-sex attraction”), our task is to study what the biblical passages concerning this topic meant in their original context, and what they mean for us today.

In particular, we seek to determine whether the biblical authors were condemning specific practices of the ancient world, or whether they were instead condemning any type of homosexual relationship, throughout the ages.

Shaking the waters of exclusion

For many evangelicals and conservative Christians, the answer to the last question is "Yes". Their interpretation establishes that same-sex relationships fail to reflect God's creative intent. Among other things, they assert that 1) theirs is a “without prejudice” of the steps in question, which has also always been Taught; 2) their basic belief is that sexual differentiation is an indispensable part of christian marriage. this Last point is of enormous importance, since, according to the New Testament, marriage is the primary symbol of the love Between christ and his beloved "wife", the Church.

For them, same-sex couples (and even singles) remain excluded from participating in this symbol, because they fail to fulfill one or more dimensions of that often vague category, which is called “gender complementarity”.

If gender complementarity is indeed present in the first two chapters of Genesis, it is worth noting that, according to these stories, God began to create human beings as male and female (defined as the complex result of combinations between chromosomes, gonads, genes, and genitals), but nothing in Scripture suggests that God created this binary alone. These stories say almost nothing about gender (the social and cultural norms and practices of what is considered masculine and feminine).

To complicate the interpretation even more, the Scriptures do not suggest at all that respecting the biblical authority means rejecting the teachings of the experience; In fact, the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mountain on the good trees that produce good fruits, and on the bad trees that produce bad fruits (Matthew 7: 17-18), indicate that the experience should guide us in learning the truth of God. It is what allowed the first Christians to decide to include the Gentiles who did not observe the law of the Old Testament in the primitive Church (Acts 15: 1-19). Experience is also the basis of Christian movements for the suppression of slavery and for the equality of the woman.

The invitations to reform the Christian doctrine do not intend to suggest that the experience must prevail over the scriptures, but that exclusion, injustice and destructive results of largely widespread beliefs should induce Christians to return to biblical texts to consider different points of view, which can be a better reflection of the heart of God.

Some Christians say that the Bible presents very hard steps on the suffering that awaits the followers of Jesus (Matthew 16:24), but it never approves oppression. In order for suffering to be similar to that of Christ, it must be redeeming, and redeeming suffering does not support oppressive forces, but always expresses resistance against them. For all these reasons, and others, Christians have the moral imperative of questioning their interpretation of what the Bible says of the LGBTQ+identities.

So what are those steps talk about?

The six [biblical] passages that speak of homoeroticism in the ancient world negatively judge those acts, but there is no evidence that they somehow speak of homosexual relationships based on love and reciprocity: on the contrary, the mass of cultural, historical and linguistic data on sexuality in the contexts of the biblical authors shows that what is condemned in the Bible is very different from the homosexual unions of our culture.

The stories of Sodoma and Gomorra (Genesis 19) and of the concubine of the Levita (judges 19) speak of sexual violence and the stigma that in the ancient Near East surrounded the violation of male honor. The injunction "You will not have male relationships as you have with woman" (Levitico 18:22; 20:13) is consistent with the context of a society that thinks of his health, to perpetuate the family lineage, and to distinguish Israel from other nations.

Whenever the New Testament addresses the topic in its lists of vices (1 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Timothy 1:10), it is most likely talking about the sexual exploitation of young boys by mature men, a practice called "pederasty", and what we read in the Letter to the Romans is part of a broader invective against idolatry and the excessive and selfish desire of "consume" instead of loving and serving, as is enjoined for Christian unions elsewhere in the Bible.

While it is likely that first-century Jews and Christians had no knowledge of a category such as sexual orientation, this does not mean that the biblical authors were wrong; rather, at a minimum it means that continued opposition to same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ identities must be based on nothing more than these biblical passages, which brings us to the theology of Christian marriage.

If sexual differentiation and gender complementarity do not constitute the basis of Christian union, then what is this basis?

While undoing such dominant and exclusive interpretations is important, the fight against positive theologies towards LGBTQ+ identities has given rise to a wealth of studies on the deeper meaning of sexuality. From Genesis 2 to Matthew 19, to Ephesians 5, what is explicit in these passages (with echoes throughout the Bible) is something we have already mentioned: marriage is sacred for Christians because it can represent the lasting love between Christ and the Church.

Christian union creates an opportunity to experience the love of God. A certain degree of difference seems to be important to embody this metaphor, but if we understand that all our differences can lead to empathy, compassion, the ability to listen , to sacrifice, to the meaning of “loving our neighbor as ourselves”, it seems difficult to argue that our biology or our concept of gender should be the necessary difference.

Anyone who has been in any kind of intimate relationship can attest to the wide range of differences (and related conflicts) that are inevitable when two personalities try to integrate their lives. And remember, even straight, unmarried people, such as singles and widowers, are welcomed as Christians.

What we mean is that god's project for the Christian union intends to reflect the most authentic and sweet love that can be known: the love that gives everything, the eternal and liberating love between God and the creation made possible for us through Christ. An arduous task, but still something that countless people and couples LGBTQ+ have lived and continue to live today.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that, in the history of the Church, the new information on the human and the world have often led Christians to question what they believed in. This must not be put aside the scriptures: it is rather an invitation to undertake a close comparison both with the contexts of the biblical authors, and with our experience lived. Currently there are millions of believing Christians all over the world that recognize the work of God precisely in LGBTQ+relationships.

As the neo -Testal scholar Daniel Kirk says, today's Christians would do well to recognize, following the tradition of the apostles and our current testimony in the world, which, beyond all theological abstractions, God has already explicitly welcomed the LGBTQ+ people in his full communion, and who is now responsibility for the Church simply to live and rejoice in this reality (Luca 15).

*Myles Markham is a christian educator. He graduated in practical theology from Columbia Theological Seminary.

Original text: What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?