In a recent conversation where I was talking to someone about inviting non Christians to join in on something, they suddenly thought what if a gay person wanted to join in? For them that seemed to be a line they just couldn’t cross, a line worse for them than not calling themselves a Xn.
As much as everyone s going to talk about loving others the real question is can you be gay and Christian. I think yes and here’s why…
1. There are very few texts about homosexuality and they are not as strong as many think they are. The first is Sodom and Gomorrah and with just a quick flick with a Biblical concordance we can see that homosexuality has nothing to do with why it was destroyed. The second one is Leviticus. The part of the Bible written when the Jews were in exile a written to keep themselves separate from their captors, with lots of cleanliness laws (Leviticus 13:47-59 about mildew is one of my favourites) food laws and Sabbath laws and even a law about haircuts 19:27. I would guess you’d be lucky to find a strict fundamentalist Xn who follows even 75% of the laws in Leviticus, so to elevate one above all others that the text doesn’t elevate above all others is ridiculous. The third is Paul in Romans 1:25-26 where as a result of sin women "exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural" and men " were consumed with passion for one another". Now even though technically Paul doesn’t call these actions a sin (just a result of) I think that he thinks of them as wrong. Now Paul also thought women wearing hats in church was also wrong – a cultural issue akin to wearing fishnets and high heels to church. Now Paul is speaking to a culture who saw women as 2nd class humans (women were considered the property of a man) and a culture where sex with a younger male slaves (pederasty) was common place. It is importnat to note that lesbian activity is not mentioned. I think most likely that when Paul is talking unnatural he is talking about sex with male and female temple prostitutes. What I think Paul is doing is defending the value of a heterosexual relationship rather than dene grading a homosexual relationships per se (particularly as lesbian relationships do not get a mention anywhere). Akin in our culture perhaps to having a lover on the side.
As much as everyone s going to talk about loving others the real question is can you be gay and Christian. I think yes and here’s why…
1. There are very few texts about homosexuality and they are not as strong as many think they are. The first is Sodom and Gomorrah and with just a quick flick with a Biblical concordance we can see that homosexuality has nothing to do with why it was destroyed. The second one is Leviticus. The part of the Bible written when the Jews were in exile a written to keep themselves separate from their captors, with lots of cleanliness laws (Leviticus 13:47-59 about mildew is one of my favourites) food laws and Sabbath laws and even a law about haircuts 19:27. I would guess you’d be lucky to find a strict fundamentalist Xn who follows even 75% of the laws in Leviticus, so to elevate one above all others that the text doesn’t elevate above all others is ridiculous. The third is Paul in Romans 1:25-26 where as a result of sin women "exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural" and men " were consumed with passion for one another". Now even though technically Paul doesn’t call these actions a sin (just a result of) I think that he thinks of them as wrong. Now Paul also thought women wearing hats in church was also wrong – a cultural issue akin to wearing fishnets and high heels to church. Now Paul is speaking to a culture who saw women as 2nd class humans (women were considered the property of a man) and a culture where sex with a younger male slaves (pederasty) was common place. It is importnat to note that lesbian activity is not mentioned. I think most likely that when Paul is talking unnatural he is talking about sex with male and female temple prostitutes. What I think Paul is doing is defending the value of a heterosexual relationship rather than dene grading a homosexual relationships per se (particularly as lesbian relationships do not get a mention anywhere). Akin in our culture perhaps to having a lover on the side.
2. Just because something doesn’t feel right or natural doesn’t make it wrong. Some people argue aside from what is written that it doesn’t feel right or isn’t natural, and as a heterosexual male I can understand that for me it doesn’t feel right either, mind you it doesn’t feel right or natural to eat desiccated coconut either but that doesn’t make it wrong. There seems to be research going into seeing if there is a gay gene or studies of animals were homosexuality appears. Now even if science (or who ever) does prove that homosexuality is not natural this is not important to me. If someone is born without the use of an arm or if they were blind, that in some way that doesn’t feel right either, it is not the way that we expect someone to be born. But we do not demand that they live as if they were not born that way? What is more God has not given us the power to heal the blind and the lame in a miraculous “hey your back to how we expected you to be kind of way” instead God has given us the power to treat people so that they don’t feel like they are any different to us. Maybe we could give all people who are different to us, in what ever way, that same courtesy.
