GOD LOVES US ALL The Real Question of The Bible and Homosexuality

GOD LOVES US ALL The Real Question of The Bible and Homosexuality

Written by Peter Boykin on October 6, 2022

GOD LOVES US ALL

The Real Question of The Bible and Homosexuality

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

GOD LOVES US ALL The Real Question of The Bible and Homosexuality

In the seventeenth century, a famous philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, encouraged people to make a wager when it came to belief in God. If a person chose to believe in God and God did exist, that person would gain everything (eternal life). If a person chose to believe in God and God did not exist, that person would lose nothing. On the other hand, if a person chose not to believe in God and he was right, he would lose nothing. But if that person did not believe in God and he was wrong- he would lose everything (lose eternal life).

Based on this logic, Pascal suggested the rational person would choose to believe in God as believing offers a person everything (eternal life) while losing nothing. Wherever you are in your faith journey, would you consider taking Pascal’s wager? If the good God of the Bible exists, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by believing in Him today.

Whenever any person opens the Bible, they begin a process of interpretation. The study of biblical interpretation is called hermeneutics and helps us to address these kinds of questions. Hermeneutics is what we do when we take a text and ask not just “what does this say,” but “what does this mean?” In asking, “What does the Bible say about homosexuality” (or more appropriately stated, “what does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the same sex,”)

While some Christians say that the Bible presents a variety of hard teachings as well as promising suffering for followers of Jesus (Matthew 16:24), it never endorses oppression. In order for suffering to be Christ-like, it must be redemptive. Redemptive suffering does not uphold oppressive forces but always expresses resistance against them. For all of these reasons and more, Christians have a moral imperative to reconsider their interpretation of what the Bible says about LGBTQ+ identities.

Although it’s unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn’t even coined until the late 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.

While the six passages that address same-sex eroticism in the ancient world are negative about the practices they mention, there is no evidence that these in any way speak to same-sex relationships of love and mutuality. On the contrary, the amount of cultural, historical, and linguistic data surrounding how sexuality in the cultures of the biblical authors operated demonstrates that what was being condemned in the Bible is very different than the committed same-sex partnerships we know and see today.

The stories of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) and the Levite’s concubine (Judges 19) are about sexual violence and the Ancient Near East’s stigma toward violating male honor. The injunction that “man must not lie with man” (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) coheres with the context of a society anxious about their health, continuing family lineages, and retaining the distinctiveness of Israel as a nation. Each time the New Testament addresses the topic in a list of vices (1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10), the argument being made is more than likely about the sexual exploitation of young men by older men, a practice called pederasty, and what we read in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is a part of a broader indictment against idolatry and excessive, self-centered lust that is driven by a desire to “consume” rather than to love and to serve as outlined for Christian partnership elsewhere in the Bible. While it is likely that Jews and Christians in the 1st century had little to no awareness of a category like sexual orientation, this doesn’t mean that the biblical authors were wrong. What it does mean, at a minimum, is that continued opposition toward same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ identities must be based on something other than these biblical texts.

All things considered, it is important to remember that throughout church history, new information about people and the world has frequently led Christians to reconsider their beliefs. This need not be a reason to distrust Scripture, but rather should serve as an invitation to wrestle with the contexts of the biblical writers and our own lived experiences. As it stands today, there are millions of faithful Christians around the world who have come to recognize the work of God in and through the relationships of LGBTQ+ people.

Christians today would do well by the tradition of the apostles and our current witness in the world to recognize that theological abstractions aside, God has already clearly embraced LGBTQ+ people into full communion, and it is now the church’s responsibility to simply honor that reality and rejoice (Luke 15).

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment, you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure, you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37)

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Sources:

https://www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality
https://www.openbible.info/topics/judging_one_another
https://real-life.hf.church/answers/why-christians-hypocrites

Editors Note:

As a Gay Christian “Conservative” that is active in the Republican Party, I have come across many on the right who give me hell about being a homosexual, especially as one as bold as I am.

I will explore this more in the next article:

WHY ARE CHRISTIANS HYPOCRITES AND JUDGMENTAL?

WHY ARE CHRISTIANS HYPOCRITES AND JUDGMENTAL

but for this article, I wanted to explain that much of the information obtained was from sources (HRC mainly) that I would NOT agree with politically but when it comes to certain subjects their research is on par with my beliefs.

I know that just by posting this article like many others as a Right Winger there will be hate thrown at me from my own party and those on the “same side” as myself. Many people hold strong religious beliefs they have been “groomed” into believing, mine is not to try to change their beliefs because it’s just not possible.

What my goal is to publish or republish is to help fellow #GaysForTrump, #GaysAgainstGroomers, #LogCabinRepublicans, #GayConservativesOfAmerica, etc have a way to combat any hate we get for being gay. It absolutely is NOT easy to be a Gay Republican, but many of us in the LGBTQ+ community that does not feel that the left best serves ALL AMERICANS know that we belong more on the right than our fellow Republicans realize we do. Until they do we have to have access to resources that will support us when questioned. I hope that our articles help. God Bless all of you.

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