THE BIBLE condemns homosexuality, doesn't it? According to most conservative Christian leaders, it does. Most of these political and religious figures, from Jerry Falwell to Gary Bauer agree: The Bible is clear; homosexuality is wrong.
By taking a strict literal interpretation of the Bible, yes, it does condemn homosexuality. But the verses used by many on the Christian Right are taken completely outside of the proper historical context. Examining these verses more closely, it becomes evident that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
The Bible has long been used as a tool to persecute minorities. Anti-abolitionists used verses in the Bible to justify slavery, and opponents of the feminist movement and the civil rights movement both used biblical quotations to argue against granting equal rights to women and blacks.
Now, Christian leaders have been using these Bible passages to justify discrimination, sodomy statutes, denial of "civil unions" and, in some extreme cases, violence and murder. It's far past time that some of the Christians who condemn homosexuals take a closer look at the passages they use.
The most commonly cited verse in the Bible is Leviticus 18:22, which states that a man "is not to lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination." It seems fairly straightforward, until we look at it in its proper historical context. For instance, chapter 18 of Leviticus begins by saying that the Israelites should not do as the Canaanites did - this is the main focus of the chapter.
Daniel Helminiak, a biblical scholar and an ordained Roman Catholic priest, asserts that the laws included in this chapter were to prohibit acts used in Canaanite rituals, and included was the law against homosexuality ("What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality"). This was banned because doing so would be akin to identifying with the Gentiles, or to "betray the Jewish religion." In other words, homosexuality was not banned because it was morally or ethically wrong, but because it was associated with pagan rituals.
Seeing as that this context no longer applies, the law shouldn't apply either. In fact, Christians today are not bound by these laws (Galatians 3:22-25).
Similarly, the story of Sodom (Genesis 19:1-25) is used to point out how God will smite homosexuals. While the story details homosexual rape, this particular act was seen as one of violence and inhospitality, not of sexual deviancy. When the reasons behind the destruction of Sodom are mentioned later in the Bible (Ezekiel 16:48-50), arrogance, inhospitality and idolatry all are listed, but nothing is said of sex.
Likewise, in Romans 1:26, Paul essentially calls homosexual relations "unnatural," which is one of the few New Testament references to homosexuality. However, the Greek term used as unnatural, "para physin," is used to refer to something that is socially unacceptable, not something that is immoral in nature. Other uses by Paul of this word can be found to describe a father who refuses to give his daughter in marriage (1 Corinthians 7:36) and "unpresentable" parts of the body (1 Corinthians 12:23); in both cases, the use of this Latin phrase is to assert something that is socially taboo and not a moral condemnation.
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More comprehensive studies on the issue have been done; for some examples, Helminiak's "What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality," John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" and Walter Wink's "Homosexuality and the Bible." It also should be noted that throughout the New Testament, Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality.
Some Christians assert that a strict literal interpretation is correct, because everything written in the Bible is true and unchanging. If that's so, then there are a lot of rules that anti-gay Christians should be aware of. While the book of Leviticus does mention homosexuality, it also prohibits harvesting the corners of fields (18:19), wearing clothes that come from blended fabrics or planting two seeds in the same field (19:19), shaving or getting a haircut (19:27), and charging interest or making a profit at the expense of another (25:37).
But anti-gay activists are quick to attack anyone who would question their interpretation of these Bible verses. Bob Davies, former president of Exodus International, an ex-gay group, asserts that anyone who says that the Bible doesn't condemn gays "has absolutely no idea what the Bible actually teaches," and is guilty of "willful blindness" (http://www.bible.ca/s-homo=sin.htm). However, Davies fails to even acknowledge on the Web site any of the arguments against the literal interpretation of the Bible, much less address them.
The lie that the Bible condemns homosexuality has been repeated so many times, it has become commonly accepted as fact. While Christian leaders hide behind simplistic interpretations of these verses, a detailed look behind them shows the fundamental truth: that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@virginia.edu.)
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