Is Homosexuality Condemned in the Bible?

This is an important question in our day and age, where homosexuality is becoming more and more prominent. When a LGBT Christian realizes that they are not straight, they often go through a crisis of faith. At that point, one of two things usually happens. They will either attempt to suppress their homosexuality (which can lead to mental illness such as depression and personality disorders) or they give up their faith. The good news is that the Bible isn't anti-
LGBT. Only the common interpretations of the Bible is.

There are many interpretations of the so-called clobber passages (those that seem to condemn homosexuality
) that are LGBT affirming. I will give just one set of interpretations of these passages below. I will very briefly outline my interpretation on each passage. If you would like more information, feel free to ask them in the comments.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) is about gang rape, not about monogamous same sex relationships. We have a very similar story in Judges 19. In that story, however, it is a woman who is gang raped and murdered, not a man. If we say Genesis 19 is a condemnation of homosexuality, then by the same logic Judges 19 must be a condemnation of heterosexuality.

The 2 verses in Leviticus (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) uses the verb shakav (Hebrew Strong's number 7901). This verb means to lie down with. It is used in the sense of lie down to sleep, to lie down in death, to rest, and have to sexual relations. When used in the sense of having sexual relations, it has the connotation of being coerced. For example, in Genesis 19:32, when Lot's daughters get him drunk in order to have sex with him. Or Genesis 35:15, when Rachael pretty much "sells" her turn with her husband to her sister for some fruit. Then there is the case of Tamar's rape in 2 Samuel 13:14. So what is being condemned in Leviticus is the humiliation of another man through anal rape, a common practice in the ancient world.

The Romans passage (Romans 1:26-27) is describing idolatry leading to same-sex sexual rituals, not homosexuality in general. Verse 26 begins with "For this reason" (or therefore, or because of this, depending on your translation). For what reason? For people who knew God (verse 21) turning away from God to worship idols. This is referring to the countless times in the Hebrew Bible where the Isrealites would turn away from the Lord to worship other gods. Many rituals in the ancient Canaanite religions included men having sex with male temple prostitutes.

Then we have the problem of translating the Greek terms arsenokoitai and malakoi in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10. Many conservative scholars believe this refers to the active and passive partners in a gay male relationship. However, malakoi simply means soft, and is translated that way 3 times in the New Testament, referring to John the Baptist's clothing. The only other time is in 1 Corinthians 6:9. This is referring to someone who has soft morals, in other words cowardly and two-faced, to use modern vernacular.

No one is sure what the term arsenokoitai means, as it was coined by Paul. It was never used before him, and not used after him for several hundred years except to quote him. It comes from the Greek words for man (singular) and beds. Up until Martin Luther, it was thought to mean a masturbator, since the part of the word meaning man in the sentence is singular. However, if you look at Leviticus 18 in the Septugint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament that the New Testament authors quote from), Leviticus 18:22 is literally translated as "You shall not lie with a man in the beds of a woman." I think it then becomes clear that arsenokoitai is condemning the same thing as Leviticus 18:22, forced anal sex with another man in order to humiliate them.

If you accept these interpretations, monogamous same-sex relationships are never condemned in Scripture. So whether or not gay sex is a sin depends upon whether or not is done in the context of a life-long monogamous relationship (marriage) just like it does with heterosexual couples. After all, God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and will therefore hold gays and straights to the same rules.

I would also like to point out that Jesus never explicitly condemned homosexuals. Also, the Bible only has 6 passages which seem to condemn homosexuality, yet has dozens, if not hundreds, of condemnations against other sins like adultery, fornication, greed, etc. If homosexuality was as big a sin as many Christians say it is, why would Jesus have never mentioned it, and why would it be mentioned so relatively few times in the Bible?

Updates On My Life

I just reread my introduction on this blog, and thought it amazing how much has changed since then. So I thought I would post an update.

All the changes relate to my upcoming divorce. I spoke highly of my wife in my introduction. While I still have the highest respect for her and wish her the best happiness in life, I don't think her and I were as good a match as I once believed. She had a lot insecurities due to her first marriage, and my bisexuality seemed to only magnify those insecurities. My close friendship with a gay man (it was platonic) really revealed just how insecure she was. She decided that she couldn't handle me being bisexual anymore.

I moved a state over after our separation. I wanted a fresh start, and also wanted to be closer to my family (they have really been an invaluable morale support to me through this time). My area doesn't have any gay-friendly Pentecostal churches, so I have returned to the Episcopal Church. I still hold many Charismatic views though, and still speak in tongues in my private prayer life.

My theology has become a little more progressive. While I still strongly hold to a literal interpretation of everything espoused in the Nicene Creed (which I believe to be the  fundamentals of Christianity), I believe not everything in the Bible need be taken literally. It is the inspired Word of God, so everything does need to be taken seriously. But not necessarily literally. I am also a Christian  Universalist now. I do believe in hell, and I believe the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ. But I don't believe death is the last chance. The Apostle Paul said that not even hades can separate us from the Love of God. Those who die outside God's grace will be sent to hell after Judgment Day. But their stay there will be based upon their sins. Someone who's worst sin was lying will not be in hell as long as Hitler. Eventually though, everyone will be saved from hell. It would be unjust for someone to receive infinite punishment for a finite amount of sins. These non-Christians, however, will only be citizens of Christ's kingdom. Those who die within God's grace will be inheritors of the kingdom. They will be the princes and princesses who will reign with Christ in his Kingdom to come.

I guess that is all for my update
God bless you all, and may you grow in  love and mercy. Amen.

I am Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion

Say what?!? How can one be pro-choice and anti-abortion? Well, its very similar to the concept of separation of Church and State. You see, Jesus had plenty of moral convictions, and many of these ran counter to the legal standards of Jewish and/or Roman societies.

Take divorce, for example. It was common in both Roman and Jewish societies. Jesus said that remarrying was committing adultery. However, he never advocated changing Roman and/or Jewish laws to reflect his moral convictions. He only taught his disciples to follow them.

Now, I believe that abortion is against the Christian faith (except in cases where the mother's life is at stake). I do agree with the pro-lifers on that. However, American society is no longer based upon Christianity (if it ever was is a debate I will not go into here). And its not fair to force the Christian religion upon non-Christians.

It is similar to my opinion on adultery. I unequivocally denounce adultery as immoral, and very un-Christian. However, I do not believe adultery should be illegal. We should not jail or fine adultery. Same with abortion.

So I am all for women's choice to do whatever she wants with her body. I may not agree with a woman's decision to have an abortion, but I do agree with them that it's her choice, not mine. So I vote for their decision to have that choice. I will counsel against abortion in the vast majority of cases if a friend or loved one asks my opinion. However, I will not do anything to stand in their way.

I also work to reduce the amount of abortions by being in favor of sexual education in middle/high schools, and by supporting universal access to birth control. Both of these measures help reduce unwanted pregnancies, and so reduce the number of abortions.

So there you have it, why I am pro-choice and anti-abortion. Feel free to comment below!

Introducing the Nerdy Christian Democrat

Hello, all! I thought I should start my blog off with an introduction to me, so you can get to know me a little. Anything else you want to know, feel free to put in the comments and I will consider writing a blog to answer your question!

First off, I am a nerd. I run Linux on all my computers, and even convinced my wife to switching from Windows 7 to Linux Mint on her computer. For myself, I love to use the cutting edge Arch Linux. Not a newbie friendly distro though, so I recommend Linux Mint to newbies to Linux. I also love computer programming (C++ is my favorite language, followed by Java), and own a small business that does web development (PHP, javascript, html, and CSS). I also love Scifi (Star Trek is my favorite scifi franchise, followed by Star Wars).

I am also a Christian. I attend a non-denominational church that leans heavily towards Pentecostal. We are pretty conservatively Pentecostal in our theology, with the exception of how we view the so called clobber passages (Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10). I am planning a series of posts on the clobber passages, but I am not sure when I will get around to it. In summary, though, we believe that these verses have been mistranslated and/or misinterpreted to support an anti-LGBT bias.

Although I am pretty conservative in my theology, I am pretty liberal when it comes to social issues. I am for welfare (No, I do not receive any welfare!) to help the poor, I am pro-choice (while being anti-abortion!), for gay rights (including gay marriage!), and support the two-state solution in the Middle East, and support the separation of Church and State. The party that most closely fits my politics is the Democratic Party, so I tend to vote Democrat.

What else about me? Well, I am a bisexual man. I have been happily married to my wife for a little over a year, and am monogamous. Yes, that's right. You can be monogamous and bisexual. Forget all those old bisexual stereotypes you have heard. I have 2 children from a previous relationship, and a wonderful step-daughter. I adore all three of my kids.

Well, I think that sums me up! Any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I will either answer in the comments, or write a blog post about it. Have a good day and God bless you!