Many people believe that the Bible condemns homosexuality.  But only six or seven verses of the Bible refer to same-sex behavior - and none of these refer to homosexual orientation or its expression in healthy relationships.

The biblical authors are silent about homosexual orientation as we know it today. They neither approve it nor condemn it.  Old Testament authors and Paul assumed all people were created heterosexual, just as they believed the earth was flat, that there were heavens above and hell below, and that the sun moved up and down.

There is a growing body of evidence from science, psychology, history, psychiatry, medicine, and personal experience that leads to a clear verdict: Homosexuality is neither a sickness nor a sin. Unfortunately, the church has often been slow to accept new truth.

Two examples:  Martin Luther said, "This fool Copernicus wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture in Joshua 10:13 tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth."  Galileo was declared a heretic and placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life. In 1992, 359 years later, Pope John Paul II finally admitted the church had been wrong to ignore science and to interpret the Bible literally.

The authors of the Bible are authorities in matters of faith.  They can be trusted when they talk about God.  But they should not be considered the final authorities on sexual orientation any more than they are the final authorities on space travel, gravity, or the internet.  Homosexual orientation wasn't even known until the 19th century.

Jesus says nothing about homosexuality.

The Jewish prophets are silent about homosexuality.

The Bible is the story of God's love for the world and not a handbook about sex.  This insight should guide our study the Scriptures.  In fact, the Bible accepts sexual practices that we condemn and condemns sexual practices that we accept.  Here are a few examples.

DEUTERONOMY 22:13-21 - If it is discovered that a bride is not a virgin, the Bible demands that she be executed by stoning immediately.

DEUTERONOMY 22:22 - If a married person has sex with someone else's husband or wife, the Bible commands that both adulterers be stoned to death.

MARK 10:1-12 - Divorce is strictly forbidden in both Testaments, as is remarriage of anyone who has been divorced.

LEVITICUS 18:19 - The Bible forbids a married couple from having sexual intercourse during a woman's period. If they disobey, both shall be executed.

MARK 12:18-27 - If a man dies childless, his widow is ordered by biblical law to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bears her deceased husband a male heir.

DEUTERONOMY 25:11-12 - If a man gets into a fight with another man and his wife seeks to rescue her husband by grabbing the enemy's genitals, her hand shall be cut off and no pity shall be shown her.

Biblical texts that have been used to condemn homosexuality:

GENESIS 2:21-25

The text says it is "natural" that a man and a woman come together to create a new life.  Some people think this means gay or lesbian couples are "unnatural."  In fact, the text is silent about relationships that do not lead to having children.  For example: couples who are unable to have children, couples who are too old to have children, couples who choose not to have children.  These relationships are not condemned as "unnatural."

GENESIS 19:1-14

Jesus and five Old Testament prophets all speak of the sins that led to the destruction of Sodom - and not one of them mentions homosexuality.

Ezekiel 16:48-49 says, "This is the sin of Sodom; she and her suburbs had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not help or encourage the poor and needy. They were arrogant and this was abominable in God's eyes."

The sexual act that occurs in the story of Sodom is a gang rape - and homosexuals oppose gang rape as much as anyone.

It was common for soldiers, thieves, and bullies to rape a fallen enemy, asserting their victory by dehumanizing and demeaning the vanquished. This act of raping an enemy is about power and revenge, not about homosexuality or homosexual orientation.

LEVITICUS 18:22 AND 20:13

Leviticus is a holiness code written 3,000 years ago.  This code includes many of the outdated sexual laws listed above.  It also includes prohibitions against round haircuts, tattoos, working on the Sabbath, wearing garments of mixed fabrics, eating pork or shellfish, getting your fortune told, and even playing with the skin of a pig.

"Abominations" were behaviors that were considered tasteless or offensive.  To the ancient Jews an abomination was not a law, not something evil like rape or murder forbidden by the Ten Commandments. It was a common behavior by non-Jews that Jews thought was displeasing to God.

For Jewish writers of Scripture, a man sleeping with another man was an abomination. But it was also an abomination (and one worthy of death) to masturbate or even to interrupt coitus (to halt sex with your spouse before ejaculation as an act of birth control).

The pre-scientific understanding was that the male semen contained the whole of life. With no knowledge of eggs and ovulation, it was assumed that the man's sperm contained the whole child and that the woman provided only the incubating space. Therefore, the spilling of semen without possibility of having a child was considered "wasting" a life.  The Jews were a small tribe - outnumbered by their enemy - struggling to populate a country.

Note that both Jesus and Paul declared that the holiness code in Leviticus does not pertain to Christian believers.

ROMANS 1:26-27

Paul had seen great temples built to honor Aphrodite, Diana, and other fertility gods and goddesses of sex and passion instead of the one true God the apostle honors.  Apparently, these priests and priestesses engaged in some odd sexual behaviors - including castrating themselves, carrying on drunken sexual orgies, and even having sex with young temple prostitutes (male and female) - all to honor the gods of sex and pleasure.

It is unreasonable (and unjust) to compare the love of committed homosexual couples to the rituals of the priests and priestesses who worshiped the statues of Aphrodite and Diana.  Was this behavior by ancient priests and priestesses caused by homosexuality?  No.  Homosexual people do not lust after each other any more than heterosexual people do. The love of a homosexual couple can be deeply spiritual and personal – just as heterosexual love can be.

And what about homosexuals who have not rejected God?  How could they have been abandoned to homosexuality as a punishment for refusing to acknowledge God?

Also note the beginning of Romans 2.  "Therefore, [referring to Romans 1], you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself..."

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9 AND 1 TIMOTHY 1:10

To remind the churches in Corinth and Ephesus how God wants us to treat one another, Paul recites examples from the Jewish law.  Don't kill one another.  Don't sleep with a person who is married to someone else.  Don't lie or cheat or steal.  The list goes on to include admonitions against fornication, idolatry, whoremongering, perjury, drunkenness, revelry, and extortion.  He also includes "malokois" and "arsenokoitai."

Greek scholars say that in first century the Greek word malaokois probably meant "effeminate call boys." The New Revised Standard Version says "male prostitutes."

As for arsenokoitai, Greek scholars still don't know exactly what it means.  Some scholars believe Paul was coining a name to refer to the customers of "the effeminate call boys."  We might call them "dirty old men."  Others translate the word as "sodomites," but never explain what that means.  In 1958, for the first time in history, a person translating that mysterious Greek word into English decided it meant homosexuals, even though there is, in fact, no such word in Greek or Hebrew.

Paul is most likely condemning the married men who hired hairless young boys (malakois) for sexual pleasure just as they hired smooth-skinned young girls for that purpose.

In the past, people used Paul's writings to support slavery, segregation, and apartheid. People still use Paul's writings to oppress women and limit their role in the home, in church, and in society.

Our theology focuses on the Biblical imperative for justice, especially for those who struggle to find justice in society.  We feel called to care for, and to reach out to, those who have been outcasts in society, to those who are the most vulnerable, to those to whom justice has been denied.

We hear the prophets calling for justice for the stranger, the foreigner, and the outsider.

We see Jesus reaching out to those who were socially stigmatized because they were considered unworthy (tax collectors and sinners), unclean (lepers), impure (women), or powerless (children).  We hear an emphasis in Jesus’ teaching on caring for “the least of these.” 

And we see Jesus’ disciples coming to the realization that God’s love embraces a far more diverse world than that which they had as yet experienced.  (see Peter’s revelation in Acts 9 and 10: “I now understand, that God has no favorites!”)

Furthermore, we strive to understand and to live out the depth of Jesus teachings that we are to love one another as God has loved us; that we are called to love not just those whom we find it easy to love, but also those whom we find it difficult to love; and that we must take care that our judgments of others do not exceed the standards by which we ourselves could stand to be judged.