Is homosexuality really against the bible?

Since Pastor Holt seems to be justifying his homophobia with the bible lately, I thought it would be fun to ask the question, does the bible really forbid homosexuality?

The biblical scriptures most often used to argue AGAINST homosexuality have been horribly and repeatedly misinterpreted, according to more than a few theologians and biblical scholars. How about we dissect the scriptural excuses for homophobia one by one?

Let us begin with the Creation story. Being Jewish, I was taught from an early age that the creation story isn't a literal story of where we came from, but meant to teach that we are all the same -- we are all made in God's image, be we black, white, purple, green, gay, straight, unsure, at the end of the day, we are ALL made in God's image.

Though the part of the creation story most used to justify homophobia seems to be the part about it being "natural" for man and woman to come together and make babies. That apparently passes for justification -- God says make babies, and gay couples can't do it, therefore, they are unnatural right? Well. What about couples that are infertile? Are they unnatural? What about people like my Aunt Ginny and Uncle Jack? They married in their sixties, far too old to have children. Are they unnatural? What about people who simply choose not to have kids? Are they unnatural? God didn't mean to exclude gay couples.

One really has no choice given the other possibilities but to take that line to mean "hey, sex is okay! It serves a purpose!" Which is great, because I sure love practicing making babies with my husband!

With Sodom and Gomorrah God wasn't mad about them being gay, God was mad because of their arrogance, and because they didn't share their wealth with the poor, but chose to hoard it all away. Ezekial 16:48-49 states that incredibly clearly.

As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done. (48)
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.(49)

Nowhere in the bible is the word "sodomite" used to describe anyone other than people from Sodom. Which would make sense. I mean, you wouldn't use the word "Canadian" to mean anyone that says "eh?" would you?

And the passages in Leviticus that shun homosexuality? Calling it an abomination? The actual hebrew word used is TO'EBAH. It doesn't mean the same thing as abomination does in English -- it isn't a law, it's used to describe something that non-Jews did that Jews thought was displeasing to God. It isn't a quote from God, it isn't his law or his rules, it is what a bunch of people way back decided might probably not be cool in God's eyes. TO'EBAH doesn't refer to things like rape, or murder being evil, or the ten commandments -- not cold hard law, but closer to "you should probably wash your dishes before they get moldy."

Then Jesus showed up and said "all those rules? pfft. They don't apply to Christians" Though I'm sure he said it in a much nicer and more Jesus-y way. When Jesus says all those rules, he doesn't mean "just the ones about selling your daughter into slavery and wearing mixed fibers" he means, ALL of those rules. As in, don't pick and choose.

Keep in mind also, that back then things like STIs still existed, but we didn't have things like latex condoms to protect us from it. So the TO'EBAH made sense -- thousands of years ago. Not anymore. Just like we don't need rules telling us how to sell our daughters into slavery.

The TO'EBAH's actually based on pre-science. Back then, scholars believed that the whole of life was in semen (preformationism? Really?) As in, the baby was IN the sperm, and the woman was just an incubator. So if a guy masturbated, or withdrew before coming in his wife, he was killing a baby, not just a bunch of non-sentient haploid cells. When you've got a teeny tiny tribe of Jews trying really hard to populate a large space, that was a REALLY big deal.

Romans 1:26-27 has also been used to justify homophobia. Just for clarification, it was written by Paul, and is not the direct word of Jesus or God. Now, the word "unnatural" is used here again in reference to sexuality. To really understand the context of this word, you have to take into account what Paul was doing at the time -- he was writing a letter to Rome after being a missionary to the Mediterranean where he saw a bunch of pagan temples with a bunch of really weird habits.

First we have to agree that sexuality is a gift given to us from God. I'm not talking about specific sexual orientations, but the fact that God made sex feel really, really good as a treat for us (to oversimplify). He gave us either penises or vaginas, and he made the first fit really nicely into the second in such a way that makes the owners of said genitalia really, REALLY happy for a few minutes. No? The point however is that we shouldn't let our sex lives take control of the rest of our lives. Meaning, don't shirk responsibilities so you can get it on with your baby's daddy. Feed your kid, clean your house, and go to work already!

So, when Paul was busy preaching the word of God to all these pagans back then, he saw that they had some really weird sexual habits. Like castration and humping young hookers in an attempt to please the Gods of love and sex.

And THAT is what he meant by unnatural. God gave men testicles so they could ejaculate. And because they're fun. He didn't give them to guys so they could cut them off. He didn't give you your vagina so you could see how many penises you could stuff into it at once, and he didn't give you young children so you could hump them in honour of him. He definitely didn't like the false gods bit either. As a matter of fact, it would make sense that God would consider that kind of behaviour unnatural. You wouldn't pee in your kitchen sink just because you can, would you?

As for the last places homosexuality is mentioned anywhere in the bible (1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10), it comes down to the mistranslation of a word no one really knows the meaning of. It's an old greek word "Arsenokoitai." Personally, I think it sounds like a cocktail. It wasn't until 1958 when some dude just randomly decided with no basis whatsoever that it meant gay people. Seriously. We are talking Greek scholars who study old Greek for a living throwing their hands up and going "I have no idea what it means, maybe it's a typo?" and some random dude decides it means gay people. Since the true meaning of the word is unknown, it becomes obvious that someone was inserting their own bias into the bible. Which makes it really, really depressing that so many people have been misled into believing that God hates people because of their sexual orientation. Especially sad is the fact that these come from letters Paul was writing trying to get Christians in Ephesus and Corinth to seriously quit bickering. And it really was bickering. He was telling everyone to grow up and love each other, and then some dude with a hate on for gay people decided to twist it around and corrupt it and turn it into a rant against two random guys that happen to be very much in love with each other. If Paul had meant homosexuals, he would have used the popular term of the time "paiderasste" which brings me to my next point.

Homosexuality did not exist then the way it does now. There weren't committed, loving relationships between two people. Instead, people engaged in pederasty. As in, grown men and little boys. I think we can all agree that THAT is morally corrupt.

Besides, God told us to love everyone and not judge. By saying homosexuality is immoral, you are passing judgement. God teaches us to be good people, and follow the moral outline he alone sets for us. Our relationship with him is personal, and so is our morality. Meaning, one should never impose their morality on others.