Is gay a sin in bible
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible State About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Research Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the equal sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even coined until the delayed 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can hop into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a concise but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible is God’s very written word, it is widely understood that God produced its contents through inspired
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a queer man and a womxn loving womxn. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a adolescent adult. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality while loving his gay parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new manual Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his publication and his perspective on how Christians can surpass navigate the complexities of this issue with correctness and grace.
In your publication you say that it’s time for Christians to own the iss “You shall not stretch with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”[1] It is not a surprise that this verse seems to say that male lover male sex is forbidden in the eyes of God. The dominant view of western Christianity forbids same-sex relations. This verse is one of the clobber passages that people cite from the Bible to condemn homosexuality. This essay first looks at the various ways the verse is translated into the English Bible and then explores some of the strategies used to create an affirming translation of what this corridor means for the LGBTQ community. More specifically, it presents the interpretation of K. Renato Lings in which Lev. refers to male-on-male incest. While Lev. is used to condemn homosexuality, we must realize that the term “homosexuality” was only recently coined in the English language. So did this term live in ancient Israel? Charles D. Myers, Jr. confirms that none of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible mention homosexuality.[2] He also contends that in ancient Israel same-sex relations were viewed as an ancient Near East issue. The ancient Near East tradition included pederasty and relations between an older man and a young man, which was The aged man then responds just as Lot did, saying in verses 23 and 24, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t carry out this outrageous thing. Watch , here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can exploit them and do to them whatever you long for. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.” Unfortunately, with no angels present this time to stop the attack, the men in Gibeah are able to carry out their plans. Verse 25 horrifyingly tells us that “the male took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they permit her go.” But she didn’t survive the cruel sexual violence. As the next verses explain, in the morning, the Levite found her lying gone in the doorway. This is among the most horrific stories in the Aged Testament, and it’s unachievable to read it without feeling sick to your stomach. But as gruesome and disturbing as it is, it provides us with a clear picture of what the men of Sodom had in mind when they said they wanted to “have sex” with Lot’s guests. The men of Gibeah make the ex .Leviticus
Was Homosexuality the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?