This brochure is intended to share
the Good News of Jesus Christ that every person is loved
by God. There is no condemnation of a person being
Lesbian or Gay. Christian leaflets which claim to give
"simple answers" condemning homosexuality do a great
injustice to the depth of God's Word. We hope that this
brochure will begin to build your knowledge and
understanding. We encourage you to examine the subject
in more detail.
Perhaps you are Lesbian or Gay, or one of your loved
ones or friends may be. You undoubtedly know Lesbian/Gay
persons, whether or not you are aware of it. It may be
that the traditional attitude of church and society
toward Lesbians and Gay men causes you concern and even
pain. You may have been convinced that Lesbian and Gay
people are rejected from God's realm and Christ's
Church.
Many people have been taught that the Bible condemns
homosexuality. Metropolitan Community Churches, and many
other religious leaders and organizations, are convinced
that this is not true. We know that Lesbians and Gay men
receive complete love and acceptance from God.
How can there be such differences between parts of
the Christian Church over this issue? We believe that
Christians who present anti-homosexual biblical
arguments base them largely on unexamined traditional
interpretations which have been asserted for centuries
about some passages. In recent times, scholars have
finally studied these passages in depth. Many
archaeological discoveries about biblical times have
also provided fresh insights.
There is no credible evidence for an anti-homosexual
interpretation of Scripture. The facts about the few
passages at issue are briefly summarized in this
brochure. Such brief statements only begin to do justice
to sound interpretation of Scripture. That must be a
continuing, searching endeavor. This summary is a
starting place. It is an assurance that Biblical truth
is not on the side of tradition in this matter.
Christians in Metropolitan Community Churches believe
in the authority of Scripture. We know that there are
some ideas which people claim are biblical which, in
fact are not. We are far more concerned, however, with
those things which the Bible does teach us about God and
ourselves. We are free to be ourselves. God will guide
us in that freedom. We are committed as Christians to
lives which follow the principles and teachings found in
the Bible.
Deuteronomy 23:17-18 (Related-- I Kings 14:22-24,
15:22, 22:46; II Kings 23:7)
These verses have been applied to homosexuality
because of a mistranslation of two Hebrew words. The
Authorized ("King James") Version translates them
"whore" and "sodomite. " They are actually the masculine
and feminine forms of the same noun. The word is
literally translated "male (or female) holy one" and is
understood as "temple (or cult) prostitute." This person
was a kind of priestess or priest in fertility cult
worship. In these cults, sexual activity in the temple
was believed to lead the deity to bestow fertility. The
verses have nothing to do with homosexuality, as we
understand it today.
Genesis 19:4-11 (Related -- Judges 19:22)
Ezekiel 16:49-50 states clearly that Sodom was
destroyed for a general, deep sinfulness. Neither
homosexuality nor any specific sexual sin is cited. Even
if the men of the city meant to rape God's messengers,
which is in dispute, the issue is not that such an
assault would have been homosexual but that it would
have been an abuse of guests, a profound crime in the
ancient world. This account is only one example of the
ungodly behavior toward others which actually brought
Sodom's condemnation.
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13-14
These verses are found in the section of Leviticus
known as the "Holiness Code" of law. Observance of these
laws reminded the Hebrew people that they were set apart
to God. (Remember that the New Testament teaches that
Christians are no longer subject to this former law.)
The verses involve the belief that anal intercourse (the
only practice mentioned here) was humiliating and
subjugating. It was used for that purpose by some
cultures against conquered enemies. In such cases the
view was that captive men were being "used" like women,
who were chattel property in those societies. The Hebrew
people believed that to do this to a male was to violate
the dignity of the male sex. Their sexist culture
believed that each male was the image of God. To "lie
with a man as with a woman" was, in their eyes, to
violate his dignity. This was considered "abomination,"
the translation of a Hebrew word which meant
specifically that a practice was idolatrous. The
universal issue here is not homosexuality but the use of
other human beings as objects, thus violating their
humanness and the image of God in which they are
created.
I Corinthians 6:9; I Timothy 1:10
At issue are two Greek words: malakee (some scholars
transliterate the word malakoi), which occurs only in
the list in I Corinthians, and arsenokeeteh (some
scholars transliterate the word arsenokoitai), which
occurs in both lists. The meanings of the words have
been assumed traditionally to refer to homosexual
people. Their exact translations, like those of some
surrounding words, are not known precisely. Recent
scholarship has shed some light on them which shows that
they certainly do not refer to homosexual people or
behavior in general. Indeed, there was no word which
referred to homosexual people or homosexuality in
general, though there were Greek words for particular
homosexual behaviors.
Scholarship indicates that the words may refer to
participants in a Greek form of pederasty which was
widely condemned for its manipulative and abusive
character. Another theory is that they refer to
particular participants in fertility cult worship, and
are about temple or cult prostitutes similar to those
being condemned in Deuteronomy 23. While these words may
perhaps refer to specific homosexual activities, they
certainly cannot be construed as references to
homosexual orientation or homosexual people in general.
Romans 1:26-27
This is the only passage in Scripture which,
apparently, refers to homosexual behavior among women,
as well as among men. The unjustified, traditional
interpretation that this passage condemns homosexuality
in general arises in part from failure to relate the
passage to the whole chapter. Paul is writing about
idolatrous people who put things or concerns ahead of
their devotion to God. As an example here, he cites a
specific group of people, probably in a Roman fertility
cult, who are engaging in homosexual activity. These
particular people are so consumed with a self-centered,
destructive craving for sex that they ignore God and the
image of God in the other person. Paul writes that God,
having given them free will, allows them to plunge to
self-destruction. He warns of the danger of behavior and
attitudes which turn from caring for God and for others.
This certainly is a dangerous path for both Lesbian/Gay
and non-Gay people. Traditionalists infer that Paul
means that homosexual behavior can never be loving. In
reality, the Christian Lesbian or Gay man is freed by
and subject to the same law of love which Christ
commanded for all of us. Behaving lovingly toward one
another and acknowledging God's image in the other is
basic to all of Christian life, including sexuality,
whether the Christian is Lesbian/Gay or non-Gay.
"Against Nature" (Contra Naturam)
Traditional theology has argued that God created male
and female genders, as recorded in Genesis, only as a
means of procreation. Homosexuality is condemned with
the assertion that it is not procreative. The argument
is that, since a gender difference exists,
heterosexuality is the only way in which God meant
sexuality to be expressed. In the Genesis accounts,
however, procreation was only one of God's purposes. The
other, equally important, was human companionship --
relationship. God did not wish us to be alone.
It is also dangerous to argue merely from biology
when discussing God's intents and ourselves as the
"image of God." Jesus told us that "God is Spirit." We
are created in this image of God as spiritual beings.
Human beings are distinguished from other animals by
that spiritual nature, partly by our capacity for
relationship which is the context of human sexuality.
Our "natural" capacity for sexual expression,
heterosexual or homosexual, is given its deepest meaning
by our capacity for loving relationship.
In the whole of Scripture it is the grace of God
which shines through. In a lifetime of study we learn of
the God of love who creates and sustains and builds us.
We learn of our freedom to choose relationship with God
and, by doing so, to choose wholeness and health.
To whatever degree God's gift of sexuality may
involve homosexual or heterosexual orientation, it is a
gift which, like all of God's gifts, is meant to be
dedicated to God and submitted to God's guidance. This
is part of the Good News of Christ which we in MCC
believe comes through Scripture from our Creator.
This literature is digested from the book The Bible
and Homosexuality, Fourth Edition, by the Rev. Michael
E. England, published by Chi Rho Press. For a more in
depth discussion of the issues touched upon in this
writing, write Chi Rho Press to order the book.
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