published by American Baptists Concerned of Massachusetts
LEVITICUS 18:22 and 20:13
These two verses are the most often quoted passages used against homosexuals and bisexuals. On the surface they seem clearly to condemn sexual acts between men. But surface reading of a document written in another language, for a different culture, over two millenia before the reader's time is dangerous - especially if that document is being used to condemn other people. These verses occur in a context in which ritual "uncleanness" is being discussed, and they are parallel to commandments not to eat pork or to have intercourse with a woman who is menstruating. The Hebrew word 'teovah', which is translated in the King James version as "abomination," does not indicate an action which is in and of itself evil, but one which is forbidden to Jews because of its association with ethnic contamination, especially idolatry. (See I Kings 14:24. There, the word 'kadash', which is mistranslated in the King James as "sodomite," is more accurately rendered in modern translations as "male cult prostitute.") The worship of the Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses (Ball and Astartes) called for union with cult prostitutes, both male and female, and were denounced throughout the Hebrew Bible. At most, these verses in Leviticus should be read as a religious proscription against homosexual intercourse, no more or less binding than the proscription against eating pork or shellfish. Equally likely, they may be simply a command to keep away from cult protitues - males ones, in this case."
ROMANS 1:24-27
These verses are part of a larger discourse by Paul showing everyone's need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But who is Paul talking about in verse 24-27? A quick reading would suggest that he is speaking of lesbians and gay men. Reading the preceding verses, however, makes it clear that Paul saw the behaviour described in verses 24-27 to be the result of the PARTICIPANTS' WORSHIP OF IDOLS. This has little to do with the thousands of faithful gays, lesbian and bisexual Christians today who are steadfastly committed to their Saviour despite enormous persecution within the Church."
I CORINTHIANS 6:9-11 and I TIMOTHY 1:5-10
In the first of these passages Paul gives a short list of the wicked who will not inherit the Kingdom of God unless they are, as we would put it, saved. The second passage gives a list of the wicked for whom the law is written. Two words in the Corinthian list and one repeated in Timothy are relevant to this discussion. Confusion over what Paul meant by those words is reflected in the different ways they have been rendered in various translations. The best modern scholarship takes the first word, malakoi (which is translated as 'effeminate' in the King James), to mean 'soft or lacking in self-control'. This word is used several other times in the New Testament, but never in a sexual context.
The second word, arsenokoitai, is even rarer, appearing in no other literature of the period. Its component parts, arsen for 'male' and koitai, a coarse word for sexual activity, and later usage would indicate the word originally meant a male prostitute (not necessarily homosexual). That this word probably did not mean 'homosexual' in the modern sense in Paul's works is evident in the writings of early church fathers who spoke Greek. Although some of these were virulently homophobic, none of them uses either of these two passages toward that end.
In other passages, Paul condemns licentious sexual behaviour - presumably by heterosexuals or homosexuals - but there is little evidence that he considered homosexuality to be wrong or licentious in itself. The real question, apparently, was whether love was present and active.
THE EXAMPLE AND TEACHING OF JESUS:
Jesus left no recorded teaching about homosexuality at all. Nor is homosexuality mentioned in the rest of the New Testament except for Paul's letters. Might this not signify that the matter was not of great concern to Jesus or to the early Church that collected and codified his words? In any case, it is clear that Jesus associated freely with persons whom his culture considered to be sinners, and taught fervently that the scorned and outcast are to be welcomed.