TODAY I’M READING.
I’ve got a tough topic to write about. Homosexuality and the Christian faith.
I’ll read what the Bible says about homosexuality—a word some in the gay Christian community says wasn’t around in Bible times and wasn’t invented until 1892. That’s the first known usage, according to Mr. Webster, the Word Guy.
I’m also going to read what a variety of Christians have to say about the topic.
Some Christians will latch onto Bible verses that gay Christians call the “clobber passages” and swing them like a hammer.
It’ll leave a mark.
Other Christians will say that something is amiss because the clobber passages don’t line up with either science or our personal observations.
Clobber passages describe same-sex lovemaking as “perversion,” “twisted,” “shameful” (Romans 1:27, God’s Word; NIRV; NLT).
Many gay Christians read a different context into these passages. Some don’t read them at all, figuring the Bible writers weren’t paddling with both oars when they sailed down this particular canal.
I’m also going to be reading the gay take on the Bible passages that seem to talk about homosexuality. I think people interested in the Bible and Christianity would like some honest reporting on the matter, from all sides of the debate.
At the moment I’m wondering how to process something a gay Christian woman wrote me yesterday:
I have learned that those stubbornly ensconced in their argument of the infallible word of God…will never budge on their positions. This is when I appeal to love and Love Divine. Put down the book that you would use to hurt me. Look into my eyes and now tell me that you would have me scorned, bullied, discriminated against, medically tortured, and separated from my beloved and even murdered in the name of your god’s love.
Now who is the pervert?
In the end, Love trumps all arguments that clearly favor injustice of any kind.
If theology were a poker game—and listening to some theologians bluffing, I occasionally think it is—would love trump the clobber verses?
My biggest issue is with Christians who decide this “sin” trumps all others. Even as they have sex outside of marriage, divorce and remarry and otherwise skirt the edges of a Christ-like life.
I’m doing my humble best. Thanking God for grace. And the last thing I feel worthy of doing is judging another person’s walk with God.
In the end, if God doesn’t grade on some sort of bell curve, we’re all in trouble!
Thanks, Steve. There’s a bit of a debate going on at reddit over this blog. It’s a tough issue. I just listened to a sermon by John Piper who talks about bullying of gay folks. He was trying to help them overcome the attacks from without as well as the desires from within–speaking of them as both harmful. I don’t think gay Christians consider their sexual desires as any more harmful than those of heterosexuals. This is starting out as an engaging day of research for me.
When Jesus was confronted with a woman who was caught in adultery (obviously guilty of sin), his only response to her accusers was, “Let any of you who is without sin cast the first stone at her.”
I’ve never understood why Christians want to be a judge of someone else’s sin. Shouldn’t we, more than any other group of people, know that we ourselves are sinful and that we are in desperate need of our savior. Shouldn’t that make us humble and loving and allow us to leave the judgment to God?
You’d think. A lot of us work really hard trying to defend our view of the Bible and God. I wonder if we ought to let God defend himself, and concentrate a little more on loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Steve,
I have been thinking a lot on this issue after I read your Blog. I have struggled with what my attitude should be; however, I think we should take a lesson from those bracelets the teenagers wear–What Would Jesus Do?
Jesus talked to the woman at the well, a Samaritan.
Jesus defended the adulteress.
Jesus chose Matthew, the tax collector, an outcast.
Jesus touched the leprous man, also an outcast.
ETC……
Nowhere did He trash them, bash them, or otherwise slash them! He just LOVED them in their sins, and then, He DIED for them! Who am I to do otherwise?Jesus did NOT condone the sin (He told them to “nip it in the bud!”), BUT He did associate with them, eat with them, touch them, and love them all the way to the cross!
Thanks, Sherry
Thanks, Sherry. It’s kinda hard to go wrong with loving our neighbor. This is one tough issue to sort through.
Great point, Sherry!
Jesus, interestingly enough, saved most of his vitriol for religious leaders.
I will take this a step further in what I hope is an exercise in consciousness raising, and say this:
Stating as a Christian that you “love” gays, despite their gay sin, is still, at it’s core, a belief built on fear, prejudice, homophobia and bigotry. I would propose that being gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, queer, trangendered or identifying with any of the multiple gender expressions (gender IS an expression, by the way, and there are countless genders one may express, not to be confused with what kind of genitalia you are born with), is NOT a sin, anymore than being attracted to someone whose gender appears the “opposite” of yours would be a sin. I would tend to have an ounce more respect for gay-bashing hate mongers than I would those Christians who look down on anyone in the LGBTQ community, including LGBTQ advocates, with pious pity, claiming they love the person despite the fact that they (tsk, tsk) sadly, are living in sin. At least the hate mongers are up front and honest about their bigotry, and I can see them coming. I abhor passive-aggressive speech or actions. Comparing your tolerance for anyone who identifies within the LGBTQ spectrum by pointing out that Jesus (you) spoke to whores and gamblers (gays) is an insult, and my LGBTQ friends and family members will do quite fine without your display of ostensibly “Christian” virtue. It is lukewarm bigotry, with a foundation of nothing more than fear, and I simply have no tolerance for it. It also smacks of ignorance, and a lack of the kind of education that would allow one to have a broader world-view…broader than the view they cling to in a literal, or even not-so-literal-except-for-the-guys-having-sex-with-guys-part-that-is-definitely-literal interpretation of one particular sacred text. How sad to live in such fear. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, my friend. Matthew 5:37.
I just want to say after reading the comments, how I love the fact that everyone was able to voice their opinions respectfully and tastefully. Wow. Seriously. I don’t think people kno how”rare”this is. Good bless us all and may humbleness be one of our biggest accomplishments. Oh, n Steve is one of the BEST authors EVER!
Thanks Kesha. Not all the Christians on reddit were quite so polite. But that’s tomorrow’s blog.
There seems to be some confusion between..Jesus forgiving all and any sin ..and him somehow authorizing people now forgiven continuing in that sin …since the woman caught in adultery has been raised…what were his final words to her ….go and sin no more .
Hi Larry. I think one counter-argument that some Christians would make is, simply, that Paul got homosexuality wrong. Just like he got it wrong when he said women should stay quiet in church and not teach men.
One key difference between some Christians who argue that homosexuality is a sin and those who say it’s a fact of nature is how they interpret the Bible.
Some would say that if it’s a position reported in the Bible, it’s the position of God. Paul speaks for God.
Others would say God probably wouldn’t want blamed for some of those positions, including the one about homosexuality.