Homosexuality - Saint Matthias Episcopal Church

Homosexuality:
Frequently Cited Scripture Passages
(with Comments in italics by the Revd Canon Daniel Weir)

Genesis 2:23-24
Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

One thing is clear from this passage - marriage is to be seen as an integral part of creation. What is not clear is whether other forms of sexual intimacy are to be seen as sinful. The passage seems to suggest that monogamous marriage is normative, but we know that Scripture allows - and in some circumstances even requires - polygamy.

Genesis 19:1-9

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. He said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the square.” But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down.

Some scholars have suggested that the sin described in this passage is a violation of the rule of hospitality. In Ezekiel 16:49-50 the description of the sin of Sodom does not mention homosexual behavior - "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it."

Leviticus 18:22

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

These two passages are from the Holiness Code, which prohibits a wide range of activities, including the eating of foods considered unclean. Peter Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, has suggested that the purpose of the Code is "nation building; their setting is the entry into a promised but very foreign land. These are fundamental law for the formation of a frontier community."(Note 1) Some scholars have suggested that this specific prohibition needs to be understood in the context of the patriarchal nature of Israelite society in which women were subservient to men. For a man to take a subservient role in a sexual relation would have been a violation of the accepted social order. It has also been suggested that the practice that was being condemned was same-sex intercourse by men who were heterosexual or pagan temple prostitution.

Romans 1:18-32

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.

While verses 26 and 27 ("For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another.") are often quoted out of context in discussions of homosexuality, it is important to see them in context. Paul was writing about fallen humanity, about those who could plainly see the evidence of God in the world but chose to worship false gods. These God abandoned to their degrading passions. In a statement of the House of Bishops of the Church of England, passions are described as "emotions out of control." (Note 2) Peter Gomes has written that what Paul is describing in verses 26 and 27 is not "the conduct of homosexuals, but rather of heterosexual people who performed homosexual acts." (Note 3) Gomes and other scholars have pointed out that the practices that would have been to Paul would have pederasty, in which boys were exploited by men, or male prostitution.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

The New Revised Standard Version translation of this passage is helpful, because it gives us the figurative meaning of the Greek word that literally means soft or effeminate, i.e., male prostitute. The Greek word translated as sodomite may refer to the dominant person in a homosexual act. It could be also translated as pederast. The placing together of these terms suggests that the gentile practice that Paul was condemning was the exploitation of young male prostitutes by older men.

1 Timothy 1:8-11

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

The Greek word translated as sodomite is the same as in 1 Corinthians 1:9 and it may only refer to the practice of pederasty.

While it is very clear that there are many scholars who would disagree with my comments on these passages, I believe that they do not condemn committed same-sex relationships between adults. In my view they are addressing practices of the alien cultures in which Israel and the early Church found themselves. As communities which sought to be distinct from these alien cultures, both Israel and the Church developed both prescriptions and proscriptions to maintain their distinctiveness.

A passage which I find much more instructive in our current discussion is Ephesians 2:11-22:

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. or he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Notes

1 Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart (New York: William Marrow and Co., 1996), p. 153

2 Quoted by Gomes in The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart (New York: William Marrow and Co., 1996), p. 157

3 ibid., p. 157