Homosexuality: What Does the Bible Say?

Taken from the May/June 1993 issue of The Presbyterian Layman

One of the hotly disputed issues that is coming before the General Assembly in June is the church's stance toward homosexuality.

By Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier

Several presbyteries have passed overtures to the General Assembly asking that homosexuals be allowed to be ordained.

In addition, there are several backdoor attempts to allow homosexuals into our pulpits. The new COCU document (Churches in Covenant Communion), on which the General Assembly will vote in June, would have us recognize ministers of the United Church of Christ, and that denomination ordains homosexuals. Also there will come before the Assembly a recommendation to make the Book of Order leaner, and the leaner version would state that presbyteries have powers beyond those stipulated in the present Book of Order. Thus, a consenting presbytery could ordain Jane Spahr or Lisa Larges, both practicing lesbians.

And of course our present moderator, John Fife, has publicly endorsed the admittance of homosexuals to the offices of the church. But if that admittance is given, the church will say to the world that homosexual practice--not orientation, but practice, involving genital sex--is an acceptable lifestyle in the eyes of God.

Now a lot of arguments are being used to support that point of view, and throughout the country, articles and books are being circulated that purport to show that homosexuality is not condemned in the Scriptures and that it should therefore be accepted in the church. One of the most widely quoted of these books is by John Boswell, entitled Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980). There are others: John J. McNeill's The Church and the Homosexual; Embodiment by James B. Nelson (who was employed as a consultant in the preparation of the 1991 Human Sexuality Report); Is The Homosexual My Neighbor? by Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott. All set forth their own interpretations of biblical passages having to do with homosexuality, and because their interpretations are being so widely quoted in the church. I think we need to know the facts. Only then can we carry on responsible discussions, that are based on sound exegesis. about this burning issue in our denomination.

What does the Bible say about homosexuality? There are only six passages in the Bible that have to do specifically with homosexual practice, three of them in the Old Testament, and three in the New.

That which comes immediately to mind, of course, is Genesis 19, the story of the sin of the men of Sodom, from which we get our term "Sodomite." The Old Testament itself is by no means agreed on the nature of Sodom's sin. "Isaiah seems to have considered it the barbarity of their administration of justice (Isa. 1:1-10; 3:9); Ezekiel, however, thinks of 'pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease' (Ezek 16:49); and when Jeremiah speaks of adultery, lying, and unwillingness to repent (Jer.23: 14), he does not appear to be thinking directly of homosexuality (G. Von Rad, Genesis, p.213). Indeed, Richard Hays, professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School who published his very careful views in the 1986 Spring issue of The Journal of Religious Ethics, as well as in the July 1991 issue of Sojourners, maintains that Genesis 19 is irrelevant to the morality of consensual homosexual intercourse.

Certainly the story has nothing to do with consent. The two men, who are guests in Lot's house, and whom we know to he angels, are threatened with homosexual gang rape. The story follows immediately on Chapter I 8, in which God has told Abraham that he will forgive if a righteous men can be found in a city, and the point of Genesis 19 is to show that there arc no such righteous men in Sodom. Lot tells the gang. "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly" (v. 17) which is certainly a comment on their homosexual sinfulness as well as on their violence. Indeed, the whole story is a protest story--protesting those sexual aberrations so prevalent in Canaan at the time, and protesting the treatment to which Lot then wants to subject his daughters in v. 8. For such wickedness, brimstone and fire are rained by God on Sodom, and the only thing that saves Lot is Cod's remembrance of his covenant with Abraham (v. 29). The homosexuality in the story may not be consensual, but it is certainly condemned.

The other two passages concerning homosexuality are found in the Holiness Code, in the laws of Lev. 18:22 and 20:13. Lev. 18:22 reads, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination" and Lev. 20:13 decrees death for both parties participating in such an act.

It is often argued by those supporting homosexuality that the laws found in Leviticus are irrelevant for the church, because they have to do only with Old Testament matters of ritual purity, and because Christians are now free from the law. But the commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" is also found in the Holiness Code of Leviticus (19:18). Is that commandment too only a matter of ritual impurity, having nothing to do with the Christian who is now free from the law?

The point is that some of Leviticus' laws have been reaffirmed and reapplied in the New Testament as guides for the Christian in his or her new life in Christ. Not all of the law has been abrogated. And so we have to ask, have Leviticus' laws concerning homosexual practice been reaffirmed and reapplied to Christian life in the New Testament?.

Indeed they have. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Included in the list are the Greek words, malakoi and arsenokoitai. Malakoi is not a technical term meaning "homosexuals," because no such term existed either in New Testament Greek or in Hebrew. But it comes from Hellenistic Greek and is often used pejoratively to describe the passive partners--often young boys--in homosexual activity. (Hays, Sojourners, p. 18). Arsenokoitai, on the other hand, has been shown to be a translation of the Hebrew. mishkav zakur, which means "lying with a male," and it is taken directly from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Thus, Paul is reaffirming Leviticus' laws concerning homosexuality and applying them to the Christian life. In the same manner, I Timothy 1:10 includes arsenokoitai in a list of the "lawless and disobedient," "ungodly arid sinners," "unholy and profane"--a list that includes everything from murderers of parents to liars.

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