Bible and gay people

There are some key Bible verses about homosexuality to understand the biblical view of gay relations. The most commonly quoted Bible verses are Leviticus and Leviticus , which state that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man as he would with a woman. The Bible includes several verses that are often cited in discussions about homosexuality, such as Leviticus and Romans However, interpretations vary widely among scholars and believers, influenced by historical and cultural contexts.

This carefully documented article examines what the Old Testament, New Testament, and Jesus actually teach on the issue of homosexuality. It also includes a Question/Answer section and many further resources. The Bible doesn’t mention “gay” or “trans,” but a few verses still spark debate. Here’s what scholars say they actually mean.

Today, we will look at several key verses and ideas from the Bible that relate to gay men. By examining these texts, we can gain insight into how faith and love play a role in our understanding of sexuality. It’s essential to approach these discussions with compassion and an open heart. The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is one of the main topics of discussion in our culture today.

does god love gay people

There are a number of other books that take the opposite view, namely that the Bible either allows for or supports same sex relationships. Over the last year or so I and other pastors at Redeemer have been regularly asked for responses to their arguments. The two most read volumes taking this position seem to be those by Matthew Vines and Ken Wilson. Hence the length.

Vines and Wilson relate stories of people who were sure that the Bible condemned homosexuality. However, they were brought to a change of mind through getting to know gay people personally. It is certainly important for Christians who are not gay to hear the hearts and stories of people who are attracted to the same sex. In fact, they must have been essentially a form of bigotry.

They could not have been based on theological or ethical principles, or on an understanding of historical biblical teaching. They must have been grounded instead on a stereotype of gay people as worse sinners than others which is itself a shallow theology of sin. So I say good riddance to bigotry.

However, the reality of bigotry cannot itself prove that the Bible never forbids homosexuality. We have to look to the text to determine that. Vines and Wilson claim that scholarly research into the historical background show that biblical authors were not forbidding all same sex relationships, but only exploitative ones — pederasty, prostitution, and rape.

Their argument is that Paul and other biblical writers had no concept of an innate homosexual orientation, that they only knew of exploitative homosexual practices, and therefore they had no concept of mutual, loving, same-sex relationships. These arguments were first asserted in the s by John Boswell and Robin Scroggs. Vines, Wilson and others are essentially repopularizing them.

However, they do not seem to be aware that the great preponderance of the best historical scholarship since the s — by the full spectrum of secular, liberal and conservative researchers — has rejected that assertion. Here are two examples. Bernadette Brooten and William Loader have presented strong evidence that homosexual orientation was known in antiquity. Whether Aristophanes believed this myth literally is not the point.

It was an explanation of a phenomenon the ancients could definitely see — that some people are inherently attracted to the same sex rather than the opposite sex. Contra Vines, et al, the ancients also knew about mutual, non-exploitative same sex relationships. That is mutuality. Paul could have used terms in Romans 1 that specifically designated those practices, but he did not.

He categorically condemns all sexual relations between people of the same sex, both men and women. Paul knew about mutual same-sex relationships, and the ancients knew of homosexual orientation. I urge readers to familiarize themselves with this research. Loader is the most prominent expert on ancient and biblical views of sexuality, having written five large and two small volumes in his lifetime.

A third line of reasoning in these volumes and others like them involves recategorization. In the past, homosexuality was categorized by all Christian churches and theology as sin.