Romans 1 is often taken as the clearest Biblical condemnation of homosexuality. But in my final three blogs on this subject, I will attempt to demonstrate that while Romans 1:18-32 is certainly condemning something, it is not at all a condemnation of homosexuality. Rather, only a certain kind of same-sex is condemned here. We can focus our question this way: what group of people is being referred to in this passage? By my count, there are 24 uses of a plural pronoun in verses 18-32: in the subjective case (they) it is used 12 times, in the objective case (them) it is used 6 times, and in the possessive case (their) it is used 6 times. So who does this they/their/them refer to? It turns out to be quite vague: the description is only “those who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v.18). This ambiguity gives rise to two interpretations of the passage, one arguing that the referent of “they/them/their” is “all homosexuals,” the other arguing that the referent is a much smaller group: not all homosexuals, but a certain group of people who practice same-sex activity. Since Paul never specifies his referent, we will have to decide which interpretation is appropriate by looking at the rest of the passage.
I will first briefly explain the second interpretation. In Corinth, worship services sometimes took a sexual form. Worship services to the goddess Aphrodite, for instance, consisted of the worshippers “flipping” genders in order to experience the other side of sexuality. In their minds, this was probably something holistic and healthy. The claim, then, is that Paul is condemning this group in this passage, which is obviously quite different from the interpretation which says that the “they/them/their” are “all homosexuals.” So which interpretation is more likely?
The passage itself can be divided into three parts: the crime (vv.18-23), the primary punishment for the crime (vv.24-27), and the secondary punishment for the crime (vv.28-32). The crime that ‘they’ committed was clearly idolatry. And this is not some kind of metaphorical idolatry either. No, Paul says quite clearly that ‘they’ (remember, we don’t yet know who ‘they’ is) were bowing down before actual representations of human beings and reptiles and birds and fish, to the exclusion of the worship of God. In vv.24-27 we get a description of the punishment: same-sex desires and same-sex acts. Why does Paul talk about same-sex desire here? The answer is clear – because it is a punishment for the crime of idolatry. The transition is in the word “therefore” in v.24, or “for this reason” in v.26. As a result of the idol worship, God gave ‘them’ (again, we don’t know who ‘them’ is yet) over to these passions. Now we are ready for the third section: what else is true about 'them,' given 'their' punishment? Paul actually gives 22 different adjectives to describe the destiny of this lowly group of folks, including “faithless,” “murders,” “haters of God,” “disobedient to parents,” etc. Some group is clearly being condemned by Paul here, but we still do not know who. Is it likely that Paul meant to describe the condemnation all those who practiced same-sex activity, or is it more likely that his anger was being unleashed on the lecherous, idolatrous Corinthian worshipers? More on this next week.
