re homosexuality issues in christianity can someone cite biblical references to homosexuality being immoral other than leviticus so far when i ask around here i get the verses from leviticus spouted at me but the whole rest of that book tends to be ignored by christians haven t seen any stonings in a long time later max bob muir the list was posted not long ago as i recall aside from lev commonly cited passages are the story of sodom note however that this was a homosexual rape and there s no disagreement that that is wrong i take an intermediate position on this note that sodom is referred to elsewhere in the bible for its sinfulness it doesn t seem to have been known specifically for homosexuality rather i think it was considered a cesspool of all sins however from what we know of jewish attitudes homosexuality would have contributed to the horror of the action described it almost seems to have been contrived to combine about as many forms of evil in one act as possible homosexual rape of guests who were actually angels but this story is not specifically about homosexuality in the nt the clear references are all from paul s letters in rom there is a passage that presupposes that homosexuality is an evil note that the passage isn t about homosexuality it s about idolatry homosexuality is visited on people as a punishment or at least result of idolatry there are a number of arguments over this passage it does not use the word homosexuality and it is referring to people who are by nature heterosexual practicing homosexuality so it s not what i d call an explicit teaching against all homosexuality but it does seem to support what would be a natural assumption anyway that paul shares the general negative jewish attitude towards homosexuality the other passages occur in lists of sins in i cor and i tim unfortunately it s not entirely clear what the words used here mean there have been suggestions that one has a broader meaning such as wanton and that another may be specifically male prostitute again we don t have here a precise teaching about homosexuality but it is at least weak supportive evidence that paul shared the ot s negative judgement on homosexuality jude is sometimes cited however it s probably not relevant the context in jude involves angels since those who were almost raped in sodom were angels it seems likely that strange flesh refers to intercourse with angels as you can see the nt evidence is such that people s conclusion is determined by their approach to the bible conservatives note that the passages from paul s letters imply that he accepted the ot prohibition this is enough for them to regard it as having nt endorsement liberals note that there s no specific teaching and no clear definition of what is being prohibited or why is the concern in rom the connection of homosexuality to pagan worship what exactly do the words in the lists of sins mean thus some believe it is legitimate to regard this as a attitude paul took with him from his background and not a specific teaching of the gospel this is an explosive topic which tends to result in long dissertations on the exact meaning of various greek words but it s clear to me that that s mostly irrelevant what it really comes down to is whether people are looking to the bible for law or whether they believe that such as approach is inconsistent with the gospel this appears to depend upon one s reaction to the message of the bible as a whole as well as one s perception of the needs of the church today this is a difference of approach at least as serious as the difference between protestant and catholic in the th cent and one where both sides believe that the bible is so obviously on their side that they keep thinking all they have to do is quote a few more passages and the other side will finally come to their senses that makes things very frustrating for a moderator who realizes that such an optimistic outcome is not very likely clh
