Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Homosexual Argument Fails

The issue of homosexuality and God/Jesus seems to have been awakened with the recent outing of Jennifer Knapp's homosexuality. At least in the circles of Christianity I am exposed to.

You can read Christianity Today's interview with Jennifer Knapp here:

Also see here, a Ministry I have close ties to which has decided to devote a blog series to address the issue of homosexuality:

In the later link, you'll find some of the fallacious arguments used by the Christian church to argue for a Bible that is completely against homosexual marriage. I will address the main arguments and why they fail here.

1.) Jewish law forbade homosexual marriage. Biblically, this is 100% incorrect. The Bible does, however, read "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." Lev 18:22 The context of this verse will further my argument for why this statement is incorrect:

Lev 18:21 - Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Lev 18:23 - Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.


It is very clear that these passages are a separation form the former passages in the chapter. We have ceased talking about general sexual taboos and have entered the realm of pagan worship. The verse on homosexuality is no exception.

To further this point, there are no ancient records of homosexual covenental couples. The only records we have, thus far, on homosexual practices are in cult worship, i.e. orgies. Therefore, it is impossible for the Torah to be addressing consensual homosexual relationships as they did not exist. It is very obvious that they are addressing something different and higher than simply the sexual relationship between same sexes.

2.) Jewish law is separated into 3 parts: judicial, moral, and ceremonial. We are not obligated to follow anything but the moral. This argument is completely fabricated and nonsensical. Who separated the law into these parts? Certainly not Jesus, and certainly not any Jew! It's baseless. It may sound good, but it has no foundation whatsoever. Torah is Torah, period.

This argument is usually used to avoid those knit-picky people who point to other verses in the context of the homosexual verses. For example, Leviticus 18:19 says not to lay with a women during her period. If this is a sin on the same line as homosexuality, than men should be more conscientious of when a woman is menstruating. Or, in the context of Lev 20:13, those who curse their parents should be stoned. So the next time you see a little kid throwing a tantrum in the marketplace, get your rocks ready!

3. Homosexuality is called an abomination, and is therefore a higher standard than any of the other laws. This only holds water if 1) you know the Hebrew understanding of the word, or 2) you can validate this with extrabiblical sources and traditions that show that this was the case. I can not do either of these, and do not know Hebrew well enough to say if it really holds water. Also, Lev 11:10 reads that eating shellfish is an abomination as well. Although, I believe, this is a different Hebrew word, arguing that it's different than the Hebrew word used for homosexuality only works if, again,you know Hebrew well enough to argue this.

The best argument I've read for a biblical argument against homosexuality is found in William Webb's book. Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals.I highly suggest reading it. However, even he see the point I made in #1 and sees it as a major failing point in the argument.

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