God hates gays
About the Author: Rich Barlow
Pamela Lightsey, here teaching Queer Theology, is Methodism’s only openly lesbian, African American minister. Photo by Cydney Scott
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Class by class, lecture by lecture, question asked by question answered, an education is built. This is one of a series of articles about visits to one class, on one day, in hunt of those building blocks at BU.
Are stereotypes about gays—for example, that gay men talk, dress, or gesture differently than straight guys—bigoted blather? Or is there such a thing as reliable gaydar that helps people, including gays, to perceive others’ sexual orientation?
You might not hope for openmindedness about stereotyping to come up in a seminar called Queer Theology, which studies questions about God and religion posed by gay, transgender, bisexual, and gender-questioning people, many of whom, according to teacher Pamela Lightsey, request “does God hate me?” because of widespread prejudice.
Lightsey herself is, she says, the only openly lesbian, African American cleric in the United Methodis
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Speak About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Research Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the equal sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even coined until the behind 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can vault into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a brief but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible
What does the New Testament say about homosexuality?
Answer
The Bible is consistent through both Old and New Testaments in confirming that homosexuality is sin (Genesis –13; Leviticus ; ; Romans –27; 1 Corinthians ; 1 Timothy ; Jude ). In this matter, the New Testament reinforces what the Old Testament had declared since the Law was given to Moses (Leviticus ). The difference between the Antique and New Testaments is that the New Testament offers hope and restoration to those caught up in the sin of homosexualitythrough the redeeming control of Jesus. It is the same hope that is offered to anyone who chooses to consent it (John ; –18).
God’s standards of holiness did not change with the coming of Jesus, because God does not transform (Malachi ; Hebrews ). The New Testament is a continuing revelation of God’s interaction with humanity. God hated idolatry in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy ), and He still hates it in the New (1 John ). What was immoral in the Old Testament is still immoral in the New.
The New Testament says that homosexuality is a “shameful lust” (Rom
This article is part of the Tough Passages series.
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24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged adj relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are occupied of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, dis