Homosexuality IV: The christian POV.

This is my conclusion to this controversial topic. The final issue I plan to tackle in dealing with this topic is - What does the bible say about homosexuality in particular and sex in general?( I am a Christian, so that is the only worldview I can work with)

As prudish and unrealistic as this may sound, this is the Christian standard: No sex before marriage, and no homosexual sex – period!! As we have established earlier, the person who commits adultery or fornication is no better than the person who engages in homosexuality.

There are three main passages in the bible that deal with this issue (of homosexuality):

i)There is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (found in Genesis 19) where the principal reason for the destruction of the cities was supposed to be homosexuality.

The gay response? “The Genesis 19 account of Sodom and Gomorrah is a story of attempted gang rape of two "outsiders." It says nothing about loving gay relationships, and actually condemns the sort of violence sometimes done to gays and lesbians.” (read the rest here and also this interesting defense.

ii) There is the invocation in Leviticus 18:22
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Gay defense: National Gay Pentecostal Alliance (NGPA) interpretation: The NGPA has produced a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew. 4 In English, with minimal punctuation added, they rendered it as: "And with a male thou shalt not lie down in beds of a woman; it is an abomination. That is, "... rather than forbidding male homosexuality, it simply restricts where it may occur." This may seem a strange prohibition to us today, but was quite consistent with other laws in Leviticus which involve improper mixing of things that should be kept separate. e.g. ancient Hebrews were not allowed to mix two crops in the same field, or make cloth out of two different raw materials, or plow a field with an ox and a donkey yoked together. A woman's bed was her own. Only her husband was permitted there, and then only under certain circumstances. Any other use of her bed would be a defilement

.

This is just one interpretation that they put forth. There are several more.
Read the whole thing – Veeery fascinating.

iii)Then there is the passage in Romans: Romans 1: 26-28, which reads:
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting

Gay interpretation: Some question whether the word "perversion" in Verse 27, and "such things" in Verse 30 are related to only certain types of gay and lesbian behavior. e.g.: Homosexual orgies, or
Group same-gender sexual practices in a religious setting. This was a common practice among Pagans at the time; e.g. in the temples dedicated to the Goddess Aphrodite. Casual homosexual activities outside of a committed, monogamous two person relationship, or Homosexual molestation between a man and a child. In Paul's day, the child victim was often a slave.

These probably were the only forms of same-sex activity that Paul was familiar with. Paul may well have not been thinking of gays and lesbians in committed relationships when he wrote this passage. He never referred to such couples in his writings, and probably never encountered any during his lifetime. He might simply have been condemning homosexual orgies and other sexual activities outside of a monogamous same-sex relationship.
Read the rest

If I had to play devil’s advocate, and anticipate the argument from the other side, I would admit that there is stuff from Leviticus that I ignore – I eat all sorts of seafood for instance, there is stuff from Paul that I don’t really obey – like covering my head in church, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah – could be subject to interpretation if you so chose, I suppose.
However, there are several other verses, some of them pretty harsh that literally promise fire and brimstone for homosexual activity. All put together, they paint a certain picture – that sexual activity in Christiandom is limited to a man and a woman in a marital relationship – PERIOD!

For those who want objective, scientific answers, here is the truth: There is none. This is a question that can only be answered based on your worldview. If you have a faith-based worldview, then you just have to believe what the bible says. And if you don’t….., well I guess you have the right to live based on how you see life and eternity as well.

How do we handle the disagreement? Don't ask me, I have no idea. There are no easy answers, but I doubt that criminalizing is the way to go. The only way to change behavior is to change people's hearts.



One last interesting titbit before I leave this topic alone:

A couple of weeks ago, this lady pastor was all over the news. Obviously, one of her congregants was gay, and they decided that the solution was to carry out an exorcism. Then they posted the process on youtube, and all hell broke loose. It was interpreted by those outside the church as gay abuse. I found it interesting that nobody in the larger church body had anything to say ( that I am aware of anyway) about this. Everybody kind of kept their head down until the wind blew over.

See for yourself:



It sounds kooky to the CNN interviewer, but she is preaching the christian POV. Actually, any African pentecostal church would do the same thing. I applaud her courage standing up for her beliefs, even as if forces a realization upon the rest of us that the christian worldview is not popular and unlikely to be applauded by the larger society.

This whole series started with a policy question: Should homosexuality be criminalized? Now I ask another one: should Christians be casting out the "evil spirit"?

Well, I could say much more, but I will just leave it at that.
Comments, insights, etc are welcome from both sides. We need to keep having a civil conversation about these things even if we don't agree.


Ciao!

p.s did you notice this interview was done the same day MJ died? That is why I think everybody forgot about it so quickly.