Bible vs Homosexuality... 05/07/2004

It's been a bit since updating... my shit's been busy... I've no time to really update, so here's something I wrote a while ago. Basically, the next time someone talks about how the Bible condems homosexuality, print this out and have a discussion.

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Out of all the verses in the Bible, the only one which mentions Sodom with any sort of sexual activity is from Jude, which says that the people of Sodom were �giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh.� Of course, the verse doesn�t specifically say what that strange flesh might be. Strange flesh is described, in various translations, as perverted sensuality, unnatural lust, lust of men for other men, or just perversion in general. Some Biblical scholars interpret it as referring to a Jewish legend that the women of Sodom had sex with angels (as contained in the apocryphal Naphtali 3:3-5, in The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs).

Giving the biblical context of the surround verses, the final theory seems to make the most sense. This seems especially true giving that the author of Jude alludes to non-Biblical references several times in the book (Jude 1:6, referring to Enoch 1:6-8; Jude 1:9, referring to a Jewish tradition that the archangel Michael argued with Satan over the body of Moses).
Of course, even so, Jude 1:7 does not specifically refer to Genesis 18-19, though even if it does, at most you can only assume that �strange flesh� refers to homosexuality, especially since Lot�s guests were angels.
In context, the passage is condemning a new teaching in the church which did not honor angels, and used the reference to Sodom to help illustrate the point.

Sodom�s main sin seems to be inhospitality. They �did not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow�s case does not come before them� (Isaiah 1:23). They also �did not help the poor and needy� (Ezekiel 16:49) Every time Jesus mentions Sodom, he connects it to inhospitality (Matt 10:14-15, Matt 11:23-24).

This certainly makes a lot of sense. In desert regions, like where Sodom was located, inhospitality is a sin second only to murder. Why was Lot spared? He invited the angels into his home. They had a guest right which he was willing to defend; he offered his two virginal daughters to the town in place of the angels. And this crime the townspeople wanted to commit was rape, by the way. They didn�t want to enter a loving, committed relationship with the two angels.

Specific verses in the Bible which speak out against homosexuality also have troubling contexts.
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 relate to homosexuality, and indeed is quite specific about it. Those verses are part of the 613 commandments that God gave to Moses.
Of course, those commandments also permit slavery (Leviticus 25:44). And they also require:

• A child to be killed if he or she disrespects their parent (Lev 20:9)
• Anyone guilty of adultery to be killed (20:10)
• The daughter of a priest who engaes in prostituion to be burned alive (21:9)
• The bride of a priest must be a virgin (21:3, though this implies that it's not necessary for a bride to be a virgin before marrying anyone else)
• The ritual killing of animals (22:19)
• The observation of 7 feasts: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Firstfruits, Feast of Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles (23)
• A person who takes the Lord's name in vain is to be killed (24:6)

These commandments also prohibit:

• Sex with a woman who is menstruating (Lev 18:19)
• Harvesting the corners of a field (19:9)
• Eating fruit from a young tree (19:23)
• Cross-breeding livestock (19:19)
• Sowing a field with more than one type of seed (19:19)
• Shaving or getting a haircut (19:27)
• Tattoos (19:28)
• The disabled from becoming a priest (21:8)
• Charging interest on a loan (25:37)
• Collecting firewood on the Sabbath to prevent your family from freezing
• Wearing clothers made from two types of material
• Eating non-kosher foods (shrimp or pork)

It doesn�t make a whole lot of sense to me to focus on the laws making homosexuality taboo, without focusing on all the other laws which are no longer relevant in today�s society. I�ve yet to hear a logical argument as to why it�s okay to pick and choose.

And then there�s the actual word �abomination.� In addition to being used to describe homosexuality (Lev 18:22), is used more than 100 times throughout the Old Testament.
The actual Hebrew word is �to-ebah� and is often translated as �abomination� or �detestable� in English. A closer translation is �ritually improper,� or �involving foreign religious cult practice.�
This is important, because when Leviticus refers to homosexuality being an abomination, it is referring to a ritual or religious act, which both the Egyptian and Canaanite religions employed, and speaks nothing of a loving, committed relationship. It�s used to distance the newly formed Jewish religion from the land they came from and they land they were going to.

When striving to prove Biblically that homosexuality is wrong, the verse I am shown most often is Romans 1:26-27:

�For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.�

In addition to prohibiting homosexual behavior, this verse also has been taken to mean that even a homosexual who doesn�t act on his inclination is wrong. So when examining this verse, it�s important to understand exactly what is being said.

• �Vile affections�: Though many translations go this way, it doesn�t mean �passion� or �lust� in the normal, everyday-type of emotion that you usually encounter in a marriage or other sexually active relationship. If you look at this verse in context with the surrounding verses, Paul is talking pretty specifically of religious ceremonies. The lust being described is that brought on from religious frenzy, drugs, and alcohol. Fertility cult worship was very prevalent in Rome at the time, and many ceremonies ended with ritualized orgies.
• �exchanged,� �leaving,� change,� and �abandoned�: It�s important to look at these words, because they directly refer to the people about whom Paul is speaking. He is talking about heterosexual men and women who �exchanged� their natural inborn behavior for same-sex behavior, in direct violation of their natural desires. Keep in mind that they are abandoning their natural inclination under the influence of drugs, alcohol, and religious fervor.
• "natural�: The Greek word Paul used is �phooskos,� which means �inborn, produced by nature.� These men and women were turning away from their natural sexual inclination. But as most homosexuals can attest, and medical science confirms, homosexual and bisexual behavior is natural and inborn. Just as you were born with a natural inclination for the opposite sex, some people are born with the natural inclination for the same sex. Paul is not talking about homosexuals here. He is talking about heterosexuals doing homosexual activities.
• �against nature,� �unnatural�: Unnatural may not be quite accurate of a translation. The Greek word is �para physin�, which is �deviating from the ordinary order in either a good or a bad sense, as something that goes beyond the ordinary realm of experience.� A more precise word would have been �unconventional� to translate to.

Also, keep in mind that Paul refers to it as an �error�, not a sin, though I suppose that�s just splitting hairs.