THE FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF HONOLULU
A Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Is Homosexuality a Sin According to the Bible?
by Rev. Mike Young, Minister
First Unitarian Church of HonoluluThe first surface answer is, "Yes, it is." There is no straight forward approval of homosexuality in the Old or the New Testaments. Read in a literalistic fashion as God's laws, there are several negative citations and no positive ones. Given the historical and cultural contexts of the Biblical literature, it would be surprising if it were otherwise.
On the other hand, there is no particular concern about or interest in the issue. Certainly not in ethical terms. In the Old Testament, the interest, in fact, is the other way around. Sexual relationship laws are basically supportive of the patriarchal family and clan. Anything that might disrupt those property and economic arrangements are "outlawed." Some of those laws would seem a bit bizarre today, like the requirement to get your brother's wife pregnant with a son if the brother dies son-less. Otherwise, the property might be lost to the clan. There is a laundry list of forbidden relationships, all of which had property and economic consequences. Male homosexuality is included in that list, but there is no mention of female homosexuality because it would pose no economic threat. However, it is unlikely that an openly lesbian relationship would have been tolerated, if only because women were essentially the property of males. Even rape in the Old Testament is handled as basically a property crime.
There does appear to have been some level of tolerance for male homosexual relationships, as long as they did not preclude proper marriage. The relationship between David and Jonathan when they were both young men is acknowledged as very close and intimate. (I Samuel 18:1-4 especially, but read the whole tale, Chapters 13 to 20) It never says they had sex, but one needn't have a very dirty mind to hear loud and clear that they were more than just buddies.
The usual story quoted against homosexuality is Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19); but it only works as long as you don't actually read the whole story. Lot has visitors--angels who have come to see if Sodom is as evil as God has heard. The townsfolk want to have sex with Lot's visitors. Lot's solution is to offer them his virgin daughters instead; a solution that most people today would have some qualms about. The story ends with those daughters both getting themselves pregnant by Lot ! This Lot is the one righteous man that Abraham wants rescued from Sodom ?
In the New Testament, the condemnation comes in the form of disapproval of the loose marital practices of King Herod's dynasty and the Roman Emperors. Those practices make modern soap operas seem tame by comparison.
However, the primary citation is from Paul's letter to the young Christian church in Rome, written in advance of his coming there: Romans 1:18-32. It's a somewhat complex passage, and there is disagreement among Biblical scholars as to who he is talking about here. "Those that knew God, but glorified him not as God." Paul's list of their abominations includes everything from holding that Jesus was only a human being to back biting and being disobedient to parents. Many Biblical scholars hold that he is talking here about Christian heretics, and painting them with as broad a black brush as possible. The probable primary target, a Hellenistic Christian Gnostic group called Antinomians. They held that only what you do in the spirit counts. What you do in the flesh doesn't. You can imagine how such a notion could be abused, but also what fantasies in might stimulate in the dirty minds of those with other major theological differences with them.
It is worth keeping in mind that Paul is not very fond of sex in general. He says that "it is better to marry than to burn;" but just barely.
One can say that the basic thrust of Jesus' teaching is toward interpersonal relationships that are compassionate, truthful and forgiving; rather than using, depersonalizing and condemning. In those terms, heterosexual promiscuity--using the other as a masturbation machine--is as much to be condemned as homosexual promiscuity. It would seem that it is the quality of the committed relationship that is at issue here, not the sexual orientation.
So, if the opinion of the Bible is important to you, you have to decide whether to take it at a surface, literal level; or to attempt to understand the spirit of it, taken in its cultural and historical context. You pays your money and takes your choice.
In the spirit of the WWJD* bracelets that were recently popular, I assume that Jesus' attitude toward gay and lesbian relationships would go something like this:
"If you have lusted in your heart, you have committed adultery with her already" That is, it's not just following rules that is at issue in sexuality, but where your head is at. If all you see is sex organs, that pretty much says the kind of person you are.
"Judge not, that you be not judged; for the measure you give is the measure you will get." What you've got your mind on with respect to other people says more about what you've got your mind on than anything else. We had a Family Values leader in Tampa that had a strange sexual adjustment. By publicly campaigning against homosexuals and pornography, he was able to wallow in sex with moral impunity. He was as obsessed with sex as the most promiscuous porn addict.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Few of us would prefer to be treated merely as a sex object. And those who would have short odds on having healthy, satisfying relationships.
In short, Jesus interest in such matters appears to have been on what you have your attention on and the quality of your interpersonal relationships. That is, it's the spirit of "God's Law" that is important, not just details of the rules.
A Buddhist view point might be useful here. Avoid that which interferes with your own spiritual health and growth, and that of those you meet. In that light, it is whether you are truly making love that matters; not which body parts you use to make it.
*What Would Jesus Do