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Gay and the Bible

The BIBLE has been used to to justify such horrors as torturing "heretics" with stretching machines and spike collars during the Inquisition, enslaving blacks in early America, killing Jews in the Holocaust, permitting child beating and marital rape, and imprisoning and lobotomizing gay people. How will YOU use the Bible today?

What does the Bible really say about being gay? Why is it we are still treated like our families are not real, our love is not real and we shouldn’t have equal rights? We are even murdered in the streets simply because of our sexual orientation.

What is it about gays that provokes such hatred and lack of understanding? There may not be any one answer that makes any sense. At least some of the mythology behind gay hatred is largely based in religious misconceptions. Christians and non-Christians alike use the Bible as an excuse to hate us, ignore us and even kill us.

How are we supposed to continue fighting against decades, even centuries of persecution? Gay Prides, legal action and civil protest may be part of the answer, but they don’t get to the root of the problem. Before we can take the next step in achieving equality, we first have to debunk millennia of Christian mythology. It is not enough to just ignore what the Bible supposedly says, or ‘interpret it’ for ourselves. The nastiest dilemma for us gays may be found in this one tiny book that has haunted us through the ages. The Bible.

We are all at least somewhat aware of what the ‘good’ book says about homosexuality. We are attacked by biblical quotes from left and right. What is irritating most about those that do this is most of the time, they have little idea what they are talking about.

First thing to know about the Bible? Most people are quoting nowadays from the King James version - widely acknowledged by scholars as being full of mis-translations and incorrect text. King James, by the way, was a rather insane, power-hungry man who seems to have re-written the Bible to his own liking in many ways. If someone wants to argue about homosexuality in the Bible, I have a simple response. Throw away King James and get one that is as directly translated from original texts as possible. The Bible was written over as much as a 1,200-year period by mortal men with human limitations in a much different time and place than we are in today.

The first thing that will probably get brought up in this kind of conversation is Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:8). Let’s get this straight; the punishment in this story is based on in-hospitality rather than on homosexuality. Anyone who thinks the Sodom story is a tale of God's wiping out a wicked town for homosexuality might want to re-read the bizarre account that seems to endorse offering up one's daughters for gang rape by men. God is not preaching on the morality of sex in this story, considering that Lot offers his virgin daughters to be gang raped rather than let his visitors get raped. God destroys the city because the citizens tried to rape his emissaries in disguise, the fact that they were men trying to rape men really has nothing to do with it. Obviously, rape is wrong. Just as obviously rape has nothing to do with loving relationships, gay or straight. Of course, they had committed various other heinous sins - but homosexuality is lumped with a whole bunch of other normal behavior that taken to excess becomes criminal.

The whole Sodom and Gomorrah argument is bunk to anyone who truly bothers to read the story (in a correct translation). It is also very important to note that homosexuality was not even brought into the story of Sodom until after the first century A.D.! The whole thing about the male citizens trying to rape the male guests may be completely baseless. The Bible says they wanted “to know” the men. This phrase, in fact the whole story, did not even have a sexual connotation until after 1 A.D., far after the story was written! The word that was translated in the bible as “to know” actually was used far more often to indicate lying than sex. Something wrong there! Many scholars believe that actions condemned in this story were about abuse or even the intention of murder rather than homosexuality.

One fact overlooked by those who use biblical quotations as a justification for anti-gay views is that a word for homosexual did not exist in either Old Testament Hebrew or New Testament Greek. Which means that other words, probably not even meaning anything homosexual were later translated as such - probably by people who had personal prejudices against gays.

The big stumper though comes in Paul. It is possible to interpret Paul’s statements as being aimed at certain groups of homosexuals, such as those who were not truly homosexual, or those that preyed on others. However, when we consider Paul, let’s consider his other declarations, such as that women should pretty much be unequal citizens as well. If you are going to use Paul to bash gays, then you have to take his statements about women equally to heart - which means a large number of women are probably going to hell too.

Be serious. Another good point is that some of these homosexuals Paul mentions were made into homosexuals by God as a punishment for being vain. Sure, homosexuality would be a vile affection if I were straight and forced to have gay sex, just as it would be vile if a gay person were forced to have straight sex. God also was not in the habit of punishing sinners by giving them more sins, God’s punishments were about stopping sin, not perpetuating it. So that is a strong argument that God did not consider homosexuality as a sin.

Then we have Leviticus; “do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.” At first, this seems painfully anti-gay. However, let us first consider the translation issue - some scholars have argued that this passage does not say what it originally said. We may never know what it actually said, but doing some research will turn up some interesting alternative translations such as that it is another anti-adultery pronouncement - that seems to make more sense. Once again, anyone who argues using Leviticus should read up on all the other things that are said to be terrible sins in this chapter. One would argue no one could read it and not find one they have done themselves - and frequently. Anyone who tries to condemn someone for doing one thing, while doing other things considered equally as ‘heinous’ in Leviticus is nothing but a hypocrite. After all, do you know if you have eaten something that has been strangled? Did you know that the Bible also states this as a sin in Acts?

Corinthians (and Timothy) are other widely abused Bible passages. These passages give us a list of people who won’t inherent the kingdom of God. Paul uses several words here, none of which actually meant the word ‘homosexuality’, though one does translate into Greek as ‘those who go to bed with men’. The words are more far more likely to mean those who prostitute themselves rather than regular homosexuals.

More evidence of mistranslations are common in the bible - as those that re-wrote it did so to follow their own personal biases. The word sodomite was often translated from a word that more likely meant ‘whore’ for example - and generally a whore who whored under temple service. Wouldn't you agree that you shouldn’t have prostitutes working at church? Sodomite is also a word that came about in later translations of the Bible - and probably did not mean homosexual (see above paragraphs).

It would be impossible to list all the reasons why the Bible as a weapon against homosexuality is ridiculous. What is important is that gays lesbians be able to show why it is ridiculous. If we as individuals and as a community can gain the knowledge to fight back against these attacks - we will stand a much better chance of gaining equality in this very religious world. Every gay person should study what the Bible says - and why it doesn’t actually say what most people tell you it does. This knowledge is a valuable tool to help convince Christians and non-Christians alike that we are normal, natural humans, not evil creatures. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian. Ignorance will only perpetuate mis-conceptions and mis-information that has been used to condemn us for centuries.