Integrity/Toronto



DOES THE BIBLE SAYANYTHING
ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

NO. The Bible says nothing about homosexuality because it knows nothing of homosexuality. The Bible assumes that everyone is heterosexual (just as it assumes that the earth is flat and that God lives just beyond the blue dome we call sky).

Within that framework of universal heterosexuality, the Bible knows of:

It is not surprising that the Bible knows nothing about homosexuality (the innate affectional orientation a small proportion of humans have for members of their own sex). The concept of sexual orientation, and with it homosexual orientation, came into parlance only in the late nineteenth century. Indeed, the word "homosexual" --in spite of its anachronistic and improper use in some versions of the Bible to translate words of indeterminate meaning (malakos in 1 Corinthians and arsenokoitai in 1 Timothy) -- was not coined until a little more than a hundred years ago.

The Bible knows nothing of what we today mean by "homosexuality." It follows that it can have no concept at all of persons of same-sex affectional orientation living in mutual, equal, consensual relationships where "sexuality (serves) personal fulfilment in a community of faithful love" (Canon XXI, "On Marriage," Anglican Church of Canada). This is one of the many things that separates the biblical world-view from our own.

HOWEVER, if we look at the question in another way, the Bible can be seen to say a great deal about gay men and lesbians in their intimate, faithful and loving relationships.

In the creation story we are told that God creates a partner for the solitary original Earth-creature (the Adam), and brings them together into relationship, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh," because "it is not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2). This is as true for the gay man and lesbian woman as it is for heterosexuals. It is not good for us to be alone; we are created for relationship.

As the marriage service says, this joining together of two people in "heart, body, and mind is intended for their mutual comfort and help, that they may know each other with delight and tenderness in acts of love," and that, if it may be, "they may be blessed in the procreation, care, and upbringing of children" (BAS 541). Now that we know that there are people who will naturally seek for that kind of union with a person of their own sex, there is no reason not to believe that God wills the blessing of such an intimate relationship for them as much as for heterosexuals.

With the blessing goes the responsibility. Gay spouses, just like heterosexual ones, are called upon to love one another as they love their own bodies, so that their lives can be a sacrament of Christ's love for the church (Ephesians 3). Lesbian and gay couples living in covenanted relationships of love and faithfulness will be powerful signs of God's "love to this broken world, so that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, and joy overcome despair"(BAS 546) --- especially to the gay community in its brokenness, so much of it caused by the Church and its people.

Christianity has survived the discovery that, no matter what the Bible says, the earth is not flat and at the centre of the universe, and has learned to read the Scriptures in the light of that new knowledge. It has survived the discovery that, no matter what the Bible says, the coloured races were not created by God to be slaves to the white, and is the better for that new knowledge. It will survive the discovery that, no matter what the Bible says, not everyone is heterosexual, and it will learn to read the Scriptures in the light new knowledge, and be the better for it.

So, once we come to understand the nature of sexual orientation and can then see that what the Bible says about faithful, loving, sacramental relationships applies to people no matter what their sexual orientation is, the Bible indeed does have much to say about gay men and lesbians---exactly what it has to say about their heterosexual relatives and friends.

Or, to put it better, the Bible has much to say TO gay men and lesbians in their relationships. What it has to say to them is what it has to say to their heterosexual relatives and friends: "It is not good for them to be alone. I will provide a partner for them" (Genesis 2.18).



Integrity has another pamphlet discussing the seven scripture passages often quoted against homosexuals. You may be interested to read What the Bible really says about Homosexuality.



Rainbow!


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This Page last Updated: 5 June 2001