The Bible, Christianity, and Homosexuality

[Petros Agapetos]

The Bible on homosexuality

In Genesis 2:24, “a man” “is united to his wife”

In Genesis 19, God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; some say that widespread practice of homosexuality was the main reason. Ezekiel 16:49 says otherwise.

Leviticus 18:22: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

Leviticus 20:13: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them."

Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 23:17) and 1 Kings (1 Kings 15:12) state that there shall be no sodomites allowed in Israel.

Romans 1:26-27: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence [sic] of their error which was meet."

1 Corinthians 6:9-10: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

1 Timothy 1:9-10: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine."

[Petros Agapetos]

Counter-arguments to the Bible's stance

Verses leading up Genesis 2:24 Bible-icon.png talk of finding a companion for Adam. That he is alone is stated as being unnatural. That a woman is the only suitable partner is only implied.

Genesis 19, while commonly held to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for the "sin" of homosexuality, more likely describes their destruction because of wickedness in general rather than just for homosexuality. They wanted to rape the angels, it makes sense that the sin was in fact rape, not consenting homosexuality. Ezekiel 16:49 (KJV) reads as such:

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

This supports the view that the sins of Sodom were not homosexuality.

Leviticus 18:22 can have more than one interpretation. Some people have suggested what is condemned in this verse is pagan rituals, which involved homosexual acts. This fits in with the context of the verse, as Leviticus 18:27-28 Bible-icon.png specifically says that the pagans defiled the land with such acts.

Although the book of 1 Kings does say that there will be no sodomites in Israel, that's only in the King James Version. Other, more accurate modern translations render the word "male temple prostitute".

The translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9 as "homosexuals" is contentious. The words translated as "homosexual"(RSV) are "malakoi" meaning soft or effeminate, and "arsenokoitai" whose meaning as debatable but literally translates as "male-bedder". It is possible that Paul in this verse is condeming prostitution. There were temple prostitutes in Corinth at the time who were involved in worshipping other gods.

There is also no indication that homosexuality is somehow a more severe sin than fornication. So at worst homosexuals should be treated the same as anyone else who has sex outside of marriage. Have you ever seen an angry mob opposing unmarried couples?

[Petros Agapetos]

Accepting homosexuals, condemning homosexual behavior

Some apologists draw a distinction between having a homosexual orientation, which is presumably determined by God, and homosexual acts, which God allegedly finds an abomination. Even if homosexuality is not a choice, they claim that expressing it is a choice.

It seems contradictory for God to give people a disposition to "sin" by homosexual acts (or in any other way); God seems to be setting up people to fail. This contradicts the idea of an omnibenevolent or just God.

If human behaviour is guided by natural laws (which is necessarily true under naturalism), then it is normal to have a mixture of heterosexual and homosexual people. Christianity seems to have moral prohibitions that are contrary to normal human tendencie

[Petros Agapetos]

Just as a point of comparison: Here is what the Quran has to say about homosexuality. Within Islam, homosexuality is generally considered to be forbidden, immoral or shameful, with many Islamic countries punishing it with the death penalty.

Qur'an

Surah 7:80-81: "And Lot! (Remember) when he said unto his folk: Will ye commit abomination such as no creature ever did before you? Lo! ye come with lust unto men instead of women. Nay, but ye are wanton folk."

Surah 26:165-166: "What! Of all creatures do ye come unto the males, And leave the wives your Lord created for you? Nay, but ye are froward folk."

Surah 27:54-55: "And Lot! when he said unto his folk: Will ye commit abomination knowingly?"

Surah 29:28-29: "And Lot! (Remember) when he said unto his folk: Lo! ye commit lewdness such as no creature did before you. For come ye not in unto males, and cut ye not the road (for travellers), and commit ye not abomination in your meetings ? But the answer of his folk was only that they said: Bring Allah's doom upon us if thou art a truthteller!"

[Taiguaitiaoghyrmmumin]

God is not real.

[Petros Agapetos]

Homosexuality is unnatural

Apologists sometimes assert that homosexuality is unnatural or "against nature". This is the position of most Christian denominations and mainstream Islam. Apologist Kirk Cameron called homosexuality "unnatural, detrimental, and destructive".

"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:"

— Romans 1:26

While it is more common for arguments to be made from other religious scriptures, religious critics have argued that homosexuality is unnatural because of magnetic attraction. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins claimed that normalizing homosexuality could cause the extinction of humans.

Even if homosexuality were unnatural or "abnormal", it does not logically follow that it is bad. This is an instance of the moralistic fallacy, an appeal to nature, as well as the is-ought problem. Instead, one would still need to show, why homosexuality itself is bad. And once you shift the argument to the alleged bad effects of homosexuality, the fact whether it is natural or unnatural does not add any additional value and loses its relevance.

[Petros Agapetos]

God is not real.

I know that, but these ideas are as real as the people who believe in them make them, and they do.

[Petros Agapetos]

Homosexuality is a choice

Some Christians maintain that people have a choice as to being homosexual or heterosexual. Choice is a dogmatic necessity because many apologists regard homosexuality as sinful, which necessarily implies it is a choice.

"You can deny it all you want to but I believe in the word of God. And God creates nobody in that way. It's a path that you have chosen. [4]"

82% of American Protestant ministers agree with "homosexuality is a choice people make".

[Petros Agapetos]

Counter-arguments

The discovery of homosexuality in many thousands of other species including goats and penguins, and even our closest relatives the bonobos and chimpanzees, has shown that homosexuality most likely isn't a choice, but rather something a person is born with. Homosexuality existing in many animal species suggesting it has some evolutionary origin (or at least it is not detrimental to species survival). The threat of extinction from homosexuality is exaggerated with only a small minority having such tendencies.

Researchers have also found evidence that hormones present in the womb effect the development of a fetus and may play a role in development of homosexuality.

An easy counter to the idea of sexuality being a choice is telling people (usually heterosexual ones) to choose to become gay for a few days, or at the very least "shut down their straight urges", since it's supposedly possible.

The idea that "Normalizing homosexuality will cause the extinction of humans" assumes baselessly that the entire human race will one day be composed of only homosexuals. Also, if the only reason people should exist is to bear more children (Disregarding the many orphaned children no one cares for), then something should also be done about infertile people of any sexuality.

"It has been known that homosexuality can run in families. If one of a set of identical twins is gay, there’s a 20% chance that the other will be, too."

In addition to relating to biological naturalness, the claim that homosexuality is unnatural (or "abnormal") may also be used to denote a deviation in behavior from the majority, or the norms of a society. To counter this argument, one just needs to slightly change the scope: it is natural for a society to include a certain amount of people who are homosexual, just as it natural for there to be a certain amount of people who are left-handed (Coincidentally, Left-Handed people were demonized in the Dark Ages).

If God (also taking in account Which god?) or absolute morality exists, we cannot reliably know his intentions. We therefore cannot use this as a basis for homosexuality's alleged unnaturalness.

Those claiming that "God doesn't create people flawed" forget: 1 - people born with physical handicaps and mental illnesses. 2 - (regarding the Abrahamic god) how the dogma states that everyone's born flawed because of the Fall and needs salvation.

Arguments from magnetism is an argument from analogy. However, it is still needs to be shown if the analogy is valid.

Romans 1:26-27 Bible-icon.png describes clearly how God himself made people homosexual. This passage could also be a reference to idol worship and prostitution, due to the context of the preceding passages.

A study of sexual activities performed by gay men found that anal sex was actually rare (34-36%). Almost half of straight women have tried anal sex. This statistics demolish common stereotypes of behavior.

[UkrainianGirl]

Bible is against homosexuality. Amen.