I take offense at the Bible being used as a weapon as it seems to be happening with increasing frequency in today’s society. I take offense especially as it is being used in the ongoing debate over same sex marriage or homosexuality itself.
We live in a country that embraces freedom of religion as one of its founding principles. Even if you think homosexuality is against your religion, you have no right to persecute or discriminate against homosexuals or any group of people nor deny them any basic rights that other groups enjoy in this country. But it happens over and over again usually by some fundamentalist Christian holding a Bible in hand while spouting extremely un-Christian verbiage. I am frankly sickened by this narrow-mindedness. Granting a class of people freedom from harassment is not equal to condoning their lifestyle. And granting a class of people a basic human right is not going to bring God’s wrath upon our country. God’s wrath is more apt to come raining down on those who spread hatred in the name of Christianity.
In regards to Christianity and the Bible: Homosexuality does not appear in the gospels, nor in Acts or Revelation. Jesus is never once quoted as condemning it. It appears only in the epistolary literature and then only three times (I Cor., Romans, I Tim.).
If those who paraphrase the English translation of the Bible would care to learn more about the history of the times during which the Bible was written in, you would find some very interesting things. In I Corinthians 6:9, Paul uses only the Greek words “malakos” and “arsenokoital”. In the 1st century Greco-Roman world in which Paul was a Roman citizen, “malakos” was used to describe a “call-boy” in a pederastic relationship for money and “arsenokoital” was the older men who paid malakos for sex. In I Timothy 1:10 the words used again by Paul are “pornol”, arsenokoital”, and “andrapodistal”. These three words meant male prostitute, user of a male prostitute and sex slave dealer. The point here is that in the 1st century Greco-Roman world, homosexuality was almost exclusively pederastic – older men seducing boys – either forcibly, with money or by taking advantage of the youthful naiveté. This is the specific form of sex that Paul spoke against. The gay lifestyle today is not as it was in that society, so Paul’s words can be interpreted as being invalid today. The context is simply not the same.
There is not space enough here for a complete discussion of Romans 1:26-27 but for anyone interested in further research many would recommend the book “The New Testament and Homosexuality” by Robin Scroggs.
What Paul said about homosexuality is much less relevant than what Jesus said about loving your neighbor (including your enemy) as yourself.
As for the Old Testament, research into the story of Sodom and Gomorrah reveals that it is a story about rape and defiance of God, not a condemnation of homosexuality. Leviticus does make a statement against male homosexuality but this is in a list along with many other ethical laws of that society which have since been discarded – including Lev 19:13, which states that all laborers must be paid daily (some of us would appreciate that law today, although I doubt if most business accounting offices would find it appealing).
Continuing to use the Bible as a weapon does not draw people to God. Perhaps this explains why recent surveys have shown Americans leaving organized religion in ever increasing numbers. In the end, we are all just human beings and there is certainly no cause for arrogance on any of our parts.
We are all equal in the eyes of God but many Christians who say they believe this on Sunday can’t seem to be able to practice this during the rest of the week!