Why does the bible say gay relationships are wrong

Leviticus 18:22

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”[1] It is not a surprise that this verse seems to say that gay male sex is forbidden in the eyes of God. The dominant view of western Christianity forbids homosexual 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 interpretation of what this channel means for the LGBTQ community. More specifically, it presents the interpretation of K. Renato Lings in which Lev. 18:22 refers to male-on-male incest.

While Lev. 18:22 is used to condemn homosexuality, we must understand that the phrase “homosexuality” was only recently coined in the English language. So did this term exist 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 Neighboring East problem. The ancient Near East tradition included pederasty and relations between an older guy and

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 same-sex attracted man and a woman loving woman. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a little 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 guide 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 guide and his perspective on how Christians can beat navigate the complexities of this issue with authenticity and grace.

In your publication you say that it’s time for Christians to own the issu

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

What Does The Bible Declare About Homosexuality?

Introduction

For the last two decades, Pew Explore 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 tell about attraction to someone of the same sex?”

Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the word homosexual wasn't even coined until the late 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 jump 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 brief 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

What the New Testament Says about Homosexuality

The Fourth R Volume 21-3 May-June 2008

Mainline Christian denominations in this country are bitterly divided over the doubt of homosexuality. For this reason it is vital to ask what soft , if any, the Novel Testament sheds on this controversial issue. Most people apparently assume that the New Testament expresses formidable opposition to homosexuality, but this simply is not the case. The six propositions that follow, considered cumulatively, lead to the conclusion that the Modern Testament does not provide any direct guidance for understanding and making verdicts about homosexuality in the modern world.

Proposition 1: Strictly speaking, the Brand-new Testament says nothing at all about homosexuality.

‍There is not a single Greek word or phrase in the entire New Testament that should be translated into English as “homosexual” or “homosexuality.” In proof, the very notion of “homosexuality”—like that of “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and even “sexual orientation”—is essentially a current concept that would simply have been unintelligible to the New Testament writers. The word “homosexuality” came into use only in the latter part

This article is part of the What Did Jesus Teach? series.

Silence Equals Support?

In a 2012 article for Slate online, Will Oremus asked a provocative question: Was Jesus a homophobe?¹

The article was occasioned by a story about a gay teenager in Ohio who was suing his high school after educational facility officials prohibited him from wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe.”

Oremus was less concerned about the legal issues of the story than he was about the accuracy of the statement on the shirt. Oremus suggests that Jesus’s views on homosexuality were more inclusive than Paul’s. He writes,

While it’s justified to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would have disapproved of queer sex, there is no record of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, enable alone expressed particular revulsion about it. . . . Never in the Bible does Jesus himself offer an explicit prohibition of homosexuality.

Oremus seems to suggest that since Jesus never explicitly mentioned homosexuality, he must not own been very concerned about it.

There are at least two reasons that we should be skeptical of this view.