Setting the Bible Straight on Its Flawed Condemnations of Same-Sex Love
Gay pride in defiance of Bible nonsense
It baffles me that devout Christians consider the apostle Paul a source of wisdom and moral guidance. A careful reading of his authentic letters in the New Testament (that is, deemed authentic by scholars) reveal a tortured soul. His Letter to the Romans is considered a foundational document of the Christian faith, yet in Romans 7 he revealed that he was a troubled theologian:
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:14-20)
Sin that dwells within me.
Would Paul have written this if he had known that these words would be read, studied, and analyzed two thousand years later? He had no clue that his writings would become scripture, because he was obsessed with the idea that Jesus would arrive from the sky soon, very soon—as we read in I Thessalonians 4. And he assured his devout Christian converts that he would be there to join them in the clouds when it happened.
The faithful today should step back from their confidence in Paul—and they would if they bothered to read his letters. In Galatians 1:11-12 he assures his readers that he didn’t learn about the gospel he preached from any human sources, but got his information directly from Jesus via his private revelations. Perhaps his readers were impressed by this sign of spiritual superiority. But the depth of his knowledge of Jesus was shallow indeed, since his letters don’t mention the teaching, ministry, miracles performed by his holy hero—as presented in the gospels. It’s not a stretch to say that he was a rogue apostle, indeed the label delusional cult fanatic applies as well.
He fretted about the sin that dwells within me, yet he had worked out a magic spell to escape his torment. In Romans 10:9 he describes this magic spell: “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Now, on to Gay Pride
[Full disclosure here: I am gay. Last month my husband and I celebrated our 47th anniversary. We were able to get legally married in 2008, after we had been together for thirty years.]
I have made these observations about Paul to introduce this essay on gay pride, to make the point that it’s often a mistake to credit his opinions. At the beginning of his Letter to the Romans, Paul suggests that his god’s eternal power and divine nature can be deduced from observing his marvelous creation. There are consequences for those who fail to do so:
“…God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Their females exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the males, giving up natural intercourse with females, were consumed with their passionate desires for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26-28)
His final word in Romans 1 is a list of those who deserve to die, which includes gossips, people who are boastful and haughty, and rebellious children (Romans 1:29-32). There is very little compassion or tolerance here.
And we could add that Paul seemed to have zero understanding about sex. He offers his guidance on marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, including this gem: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” He goes on to offer advice on how husband and wife are supposed to relate—begrudgingly admitting that they should give in to having sex. But this was obviously distasteful to him, and there is a better way: “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.” (I Corinthians 7:8-9)
Say what?! Married people cannot be aflame with passion?
Paul, an adult Jewish male, never married? Right away, we have to wonder what was going on in his head. Was he attracted to men, but could never admit it? It’s not uncommon for men who are alarmed about their attraction to men to lash out in fits of homophobia.
It has often been pointed out that, in all of the Jesus-script in the gospels, there are no references to same-sex love. And here too we find the same curiosity about Jesus as we did with Paul: he never married, again highly usual for an adult Jewish man. The author of John’s gospel introduced a character not found in the other gospels, The Beloved Disciple, with this specific verse in his depiction of the Last Supper: “Lying back on Jesus’ chest was one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” (John 13:23) It is inappropriate to read too much into this—especially since it’s in John’s gospel, so deficient in history—but it is a curious text nonetheless.
Paul’s verses in Romans 1 are among the famous clobber texts used to condemn homosexuals, but the Old Testament has a few as well, the most famous—and commonly cited—is found in Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities were incinerated by Yahweh—so the homophobes claim—because Sodom was filled with homosexuals.
But the text doesn’t say that. Lot was himself a stranger in Sodom, and he urged two other strangers—sent from Yahweh to investigate Sodom—to stay in his house. The town was suspicious: just who were these intruders? There are three issues to be considered:
(1) We read that “…the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house…” (v. 4) On the claim that the sin of Sodom was the violation of Yahweh’s laws about same-sex behavior, we have to point out that it is absurd to suggest that ALL the men of the city—to the last man—were homosexuals.
(2) This is their demand: “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” (v. 5) The Hebrew word for to know is yada. It was used in the Adam and Eve story as a euphemism for sexual intercourse, but most of the time it means to get to know. A more plausible explanation of this episode is that the crowd of local citizens wanted to find out for sure who the strangers were.
(3) To appease the crowd, Lot offers them his daughters as compensation for not being allowed to interrogate his guests. If the crowd was all homosexuals, why would be offer them his daughters?
Moreover, in the book of Ezekiel, 16:49-50, we find this explanation for the destruction of Sodom: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.” Did abominable things could suggest a wide variety of sins and abuses, but there is no hint whatever of attempted homosexual gang rape.
Keep in mind as well that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is folklore, not history. Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt as they fled the burning city, and at the end of the story Lot’s two daughters got him drunk on successive nights, to have sex with him. Two of Israel’s enemies, this bit of folklore claims, the Ammonites and Moabites, are the results of these acts of incest.
Two of the favorite clobber verses in the Old Testament are Leviticus 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” and Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their bloodguilt is upon them.” These provide Ah Ha moments for homophobes: “See, it says so right there in the Bible!” But they fail to appreciate that many ancient laws preserved in the Bible are simply ignored, e.g., the prohibition against tattoos, severe penalties for working on the sabbath (in Numbers 15::32-36, Yahweh orders a man to be stoned for picking up sticks on the sabbath), eating certain kinds of seafood, wearing mixed fabrics.
Is a gay love affair mentioned in the Old Testament? There has been much dispute about the famous friendship of David and Jonathan; were they just good friends, or lovers? In 2 Samuel 1:26, we find this text: “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been a close friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of women.”
But why should be pay much attention to so much that we find in ancient scripture? The Bible’s understanding of cosmology, the nature of our planet, the causes of disease, are seriously defective. We can hardly be surprised that some of its ideas about human sexuality are flawed as well. It’s a better idea to do as much study as possible of the findings of medical and psychology professionals about the realities of sexual orientation.
Believe it or not, I’ll close with one of the feel-good quotes found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13:4-7:
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
This is such a contrast to his nasty pronouncements in Romans 1. Maybe Paul’s good mood here was prompted by a few lovely, clandestine days spent with his boyfriend.
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:14-20)
Two of the favorite clobber verses in the Old Testament are Leviticus 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” and Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their bloodguilt is upon them.” These provide Ah Ha moments for homophobes: “See, it says so right there in the Bible!” But they fail to appreciate that many ancient laws preserved in the Bible are simply ignored, e.g., the prohibition against tattoos, severe penalties for working on the sabbath (in Numbers 15::32-36, Yahweh orders a man to be stoned for picking up sticks on the sabbath), eating certain kinds of seafood, wearing mixed fabrics.
Is a gay love affair mentioned in the Old Testament? There has been much dispute about the famous friendship of David and Jonathan; were they just good friends, or lovers? In 2 Samuel 1:26, we find this text: “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been a close friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of women.”
· Guessing About God (2023),
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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