This is the final blog on the topic of homosexuality in the Bible. I started by challenging the idea that just because God did not create or sanction homosexuality does not imply that it is prohibited. That sort of thinking is popular, as we see from the passage from John that I mentioned: “Who sinned”, the disciples asked, “that this man was born blind?” This is familiar but flawed logic: if God didn’t intend something, it must be evil.
Having shown the “natural law” argument to be on dubious grounds, we turned to Scripture itself, which is often thought to give several unambiguous condemnations of homosexuality. There are some passages which may speak against homosexuality, but there is simply no way of knowing. For example, Paul could have had homosexual men in mind when he condemned “soft men” in the New Testament, but we simply have to be smarter than the translators of the ESV who just assumed that Paul was condemning homosexuality there.
If you aren’t sure, just admit you’re not sure. We’re on a “need to know” basis with God, and there are simply many things we do not need to know to lead holy lives and spend our days talking about the need for everyone to experience salvation. Many wish that God would have revealed more of His thoughts, but he didn’t. I personally am glad – after all, “knowledge puffs up,” but “love builds up.” If God had wanted us to know more about the homosexual lifestyle, it would be in there somewhere. There would have been some verse, like “I hate divorce”. This verse leaves no doubt that God hates divorce, but if my arguments of the last few weeks have been sound, there is simply no similar verse about homosexuality or homosexual behavior. There are a few kinds of homosexuality condemned:
• Homosexuality that stems from rebellious worship
• Homosexuality that is pederastic or otherwise exploitive.
• Homosexual prostitution
But of course this tells us nothing of God’s thoughts on the actual homosexual condition anymore than condemning adulterers implies a condemnation of heterosexuality.
I’ll leave this topic with one fact I can’t get over. In Genesis 19, a town-full of men tried to gang-rape some of Lot’s visitors. He resisted on the grounds that they were foreigners and therefore they should not be degraded like that. Then, in Ezekiel 16, we finally learn why Sodom was destroyed: economic inequality. And still, some people label any homosexual male a “sodomite”. If the Evangelical church hopes to remain relevant to my son’s generation, we are simply going to need more subtle thinking than that.
