Gay Individuals and Christianity

What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?

Introduction

In the past twenty years, the Pew Research Center has reported that one of the most persistent ethical dilemmas across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For numerous Christians, one of the initial frequently asked questions on this subject is, 'What does the Bible have to say about attraction to someone of the same gender?'

While it's unlikely that the biblical authors had any concept of sexual orientation (for instance, the term homosexual wasn't even created until the late nineteenth century), many individuals of faith look to the Bible for enduring direction on how to honor God in their lives; and this definitely incorporates our sexuality.

Before diving into how Christians can uphold the authority of the Bible while also affirming sexual diversity, a brief, clear overview of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to Bible understanding might be beneficial.

What is the Bible?

For Christians, to whom the Bible represents God's written word, it is generally acknowledged that God produced its content through inspired human authors to recount the narrative of God's creation, how sin entered the world, and the redemption found through Jesus Christ and His salvation.

Viewed in this light, the Bible is often regarded as the primary source that aids us in understanding how the people of God should live. However, it's crucial to note that being God's word doesn't mean we ascertain what is right or wrong by reading isolated passages. Rather, most Christians make these difficult determinations by studying what the entirety of Scripture expresses regarding a specific subject, examining the linguistic, historical, and cultural context in which the words were written, and then integrating these discoveries with what we understand to be true of God's nature more broadly. Although the book of Hebrews affirms that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,' our ability to comprehend and apply the Bible's teachings evolves and deepens as our faith grows and we learn more about the world.

What is Biblical Interpretation?

Whenever someone opens the Bible, they embark on a process of interpretation. Those attracted to others of the same sex are routinely told they are ‘prioritizing' their experience over Scripture when they reach affirming conclusions about their relationships and identities. They are often told this is a direct dismissal of the Bible's authority in their lives. Yet, one might ask, is this an equitable and precise evaluation? Are there such things as neutral interpretations? Is there one true or correct way to interpret the Bible, and if so, who decides that?

The study of biblical interpretation, known as hermeneutics, facilitates our addressing such inquiries. Hermeneutics is what we do when we take a text and ask not just 'what does this say,' but 'what does this mean?' In posing the question, 'What does the Bible say about homosexuality' (or, more accurately, 'what does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the same sex,') our objective is to explore what the relevant biblical passages on the topic meant in their original setting and what they signify for us today. More specifically, we are seeking to determine if the biblical writers were condemning certain practices related to sexuality in ancient times, or were they indeed condemning all same-sex relationships of any kind for all time?

Troubling the Waters of Exclusionary Interpretations

For many evangelicals and other conservative Christians, the answer to this question is ‘yes'. Their interpretation is that same-sex relationships aren't able to reflect God's creative intention. Their reasoning includes, but isn't restricted to, 1) what they were always taught was an 'unbiased' understanding of the relevant passages and 2) a central belief that sex differentiation is an essential part of Christian marriage. The latter is of immense significance, because according to the New Testament, marriage is a key symbol of the love between Christ and his beloved 'bride,' the church.. To them, same-sex couples (and single people for that matter) are uniquely excluded from participation in this symbol on the basis of a failure to perform one or more dimensions of an often vague category referred to as ‘gender complementarity.'

While gender complementarity is, in fact, rooted in passages from Genesis 1 and 2, it's worth recognizing that these narratives state God began by creating human beings of male and female sex (defined as the intricate outcome of combinations between chromosomes, gonads, genes, and genitals) but there is nothing that shows in Scripture that God only created this binary. This account provides minimal to no information about gender, (the social and cultural norms and practices associated with what is regarded as masculine and feminine.) These two dimensions of the text become important when considering the biblical affirmation of intersex, transgender, non-binary, and other gender diverse people, discussed at greater length here. To further complicate the argument against same-sex relationships, Scripture does not propose that respecting biblical authority means Christians should reject experience as a teacher. In fact, what Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit (Matthew 7:17-18) indicates experience should inform how we learn God's truth. This allowed the initial Christians to include gentiles who were not following the Old Testament law in the early church (Acts 15:1-19). It also provided the basis for the Christian arguments that ended slavery and has supported movements for women's equality throughout church history as well.

The call to reform Christian teaching in these instances didn't imply that human experience should be held above Scripture. What it did suggest was that the obvious exclusion, injustice, and destructive outcomes of widely held beliefs should lead Christians back to the text to consider a different perspective, one that might better mirror the heart of God. Though some Christians say that the Bible presents a variety of difficult teachings and also promises suffering for followers of Jesus (Matthew 16:24), it never endorses oppression. For suffering to be Christ-like, it must be redemptive. Redemptive suffering does not uphold oppressive forces but consistently 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.

So Then What Are Those Passages Talking About?

While the six passages that discuss same-sex eroticism in antiquity express negativity regarding the practices they mention, there's no proof that these passages in any way allude to same-sex relationships of love and mutuality. On the contrary, the vast 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 significantly different than the committed same-sex partnerships we recognize and witness 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 towards violating male honor. The injunction that 'man must not lie with man' (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) aligns with the context of a society anxious about its health, maintaining family lineages, and preserving 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 likely involves 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 part of a wider indictment against idolatry and excessive, self-centered lust that is driven by a desire to 'consume' rather than to love and serve as outlined for Christian partnership elsewhere in the Bible. While it's plausible that Jews and Christians in the first century had little to no awareness of a category like sexual orientation, this doesn't mean that the biblical authors were incorrect. What it signifies, at a minimum, is that continued opposition towards same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ identities must be based on something other than these biblical texts, which returns us to a theology of Christian marriage or partnership.

If neither sex differentiation nor gender complementarity are the basis for Christian partnership, then what is?

While the endeavor to undo the decades-long, dominant, and exclusionary understandings of these passages is crucial, its emphasis over and against the affirming dimensions of Christian theology for LGBTQ+ individuals has hindered exploration of a deeper meaning of sexuality for everyone. From Genesis 2, to Matthew 19, to Ephesians 5, what these passages make explicit (and is echoed throughout the remainder of Scripture) is something mentioned earlier: marriage is sacred for Christians because it can represent the everlasting love between Christ and the Church. Christian partnership offers an opportunity to live out God's love. While some kind of difference seems to be important in embodying this metaphor, recognizing that all our differences can cultivate empathy, compassion, good listening, sacrifice, and what it means to 'love our neighbor as ourselves,' there is limited evidence that it is our biology or our perspectives on gender that are the required difference. Anyone who has ever been in an intimate relationship of any kind can attest to the spectrum of differences (and resulting conflicts) that are an integral part of any two personalities attempting to integrate their lives. And remember, those who are not married but are not LGBTQ+, like single individuals or people whose spouses have passed, are embraced as Christians. The larger point here is that God's design for Christian partnership is about reflecting the truest and most exquisite love anyone could know; that is the self-giving, ever-enduring, liberating love between God and creation made possible for us through Christ. A significant challenge, but nonetheless something countless LGBTQ+ individuals and couples have been living into and continue to live into presently.

Conclusion

Considering everything, it is vital to bear in mind that throughout church history, new information about people and the world has often led Christians to revise their beliefs. This need not be a reason to distrust Scripture, but rather should serve as an invitation to grapple with the contexts of the biblical writers and our own lived experiences. As it stands today, millions of faithful Christians worldwide have come to recognize the work of God in and through the relationships of LGBTQ+ people (click here to view a list of denominational positions on LGBTQ+ individuals within Christianity). As New Testament scholar Daniel Kirk has noted, Christians today would be well served 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 fellowship, and it is now the church's responsibility to simply honor that reality and rejoice (Luke 15).

Read about what the Bible says about transgender people here.

Myles Markham (Author)
Christian Educator
Master of Arts of Practical Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary

Michael Vazquez (Lead Editor)
Religion & Faith Director, Human Rights Campaign
Master of Theological Studies, Duke Divinity School

Stan Mitchell (Contributing Editor)
Co-Founding Pastor, GracePointe Church
Co-Founder, Everybody Church
Master of Theological Studies, Vanderbilt Divinity School

Josh Scott (Contributing Editor)
Lead Pastor, GracePointe Church
Master of Arts in Religion, Western Kentucky University

For further reading:
Cheryl B. Anderson. Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies: The Need for Inclusive Biblical Interpretation (Oxford University Press 2009)
Karen R. Keen. Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2018)
Matthew Vines. God and The Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships (Convergent Books, 2014)
James V. Brownson. Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex Relationships (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013)
Elizabeth M. Edman. Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know about Life and Love and How it Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press, 2016)
Eugene F. Rogers. 'Same-sex Complementarity: A Theology of Marriage.' (Published by The Christian Century, 2011)