The Bible Doesn’t Condemn Homosexuality

I was born in New Orleans and grew up in Texas, so I’ve dealt with a lot of conservative Christians in my time on this Earth. In that time I’ve heard the anti-gay message in church more times than I can count, and have had family members and friends who felt a ton of shame for how they were born, many rightfully left the church, but some tried to stay and fought with the idea of “choosing sin”. This inevitably results in members of the LBGTQ+ community leaving the church even though they want to follow the faith, or facing unneeded anxiety, depression and sometimes suicidal thoughts or actions due to unneeded judgement of themselves or from others in the church community.

So where does the Bible allegedly condemn homosexuality?

There are only 6 verses pertaining to homosexuality in the Bible, meanwhile there are over 2000 verses pertaining to the taking care of the poor, but the church seems to focus a lot on these 6 verses to attack homosexuals. Given the prevalence of the insanely evil “prosperity gospel” this isn’t really a surprise.

For my answer I turn to the Bible, since that’s about all you can use to attempt to get through the thick skulls of these folk who are brainwashed into believing it is the only truth that exists (even then, good luck to you, but it’s a start!). I’ll also use the KJV since I’ve known so many Southern Baptists, and I know that’s all they’ll acknowledge as being “real”.

What are the 6 verses?

Genesis 19:1–10 The story of Sodom and Gomorrah

19 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,

7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

This one gets a lot of play saying that the cities were destroyed by god because of too many people practicing homosexuality, even though the Bible doesn’t say that. Pastors seem to focus on the homosexuality aspect of their demand rather than the rape part, or generally being horrible people it seems. Also why does god want to save Lot after he offers up his daughters to the rape gang outside, this scenario plays out very similarly in the book of Judges albeit much more grim…why are we taking moral advice from this book again?

Judges 19:21–30

21 So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.

22 Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.

26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light.

27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.

28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.

29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

The key point here is how they treat new guests to their town, men and women alike likely. Although more importance in that time was given to how men were treated, thus the reason Lot was so willing to give up his virgin daughters to be raped by the town rather than 2 men who were his guests(this is important later as somewhat of a recurring theme). Why the god of the old testament was fine with the Levite tossing his concubine out to be raped to death is beyond me, although the old testament god is very malevolent in many cases. But how do we know for sure that god didn’t destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for homosexuality? Let’s refer to Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 16:49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13

The Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament has two references condemning homosexuality:

“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable” (Leviticus 18:22) and “If a man lies with a man as one lies with woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads” (Leviticus 20:13).

This is one that many people take to be absolute, even though the same section also condemns many other things that Christians seem to ignore for some reason (even though sin is supposed to be equal in the sight of god). This section also condemns: tattoos, eating pork and shellfish, offers proper rules for selling slaves, bans mixing clothes you wear, planting different crops right next to each other, as well as stating you should invite any foreigners into your land and treat them as native born…I wonder if any of these gay bashing bigoted “Christians” are breaking any of these other rules?

Ultimately though this section has been mistranslated. The word for lying with a man here is the Jewish word miškevēis. This word is only used in two verses in the Bible, and the other one has to do with incest between Reuben and one of his father’s concubines. Gen. 49:4. Also this would fit in line with all of the condemnation of incest in Leviticus 18.

So rather than banning any male to male homosexual relations it seems to be banning male to male incestuous relations. Not to mention the chapter also condemns having sex when a woman is on her period, and that if you break any of these you should be exiled from the community…that also seems to go ignored by many Christians.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 & 1 Timothy 1:10 & Romans 1:26–27

1 Corinthians 6:9–10

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 1:10

10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Romans 1:26–27

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

All three of these books were written by Paul (although historians believe Timothy may have been written by another author, at a later date), and during his time period there was a king named Gaius Caligula who was known to abuse his power, and would rape women and men in large parties, sometimes doing this to men just to humiliate them in front of other guests.

The word homosexuality wasn’t invented when the bible was written, so all references are translated from earlier Hebrew and Greek. The Greek used in the New Testament is most often translated to “homosexual offenders” or “perverts” in some newer translations, but originally are the words malakoi and arsenkoitai. The second of which seems to have been invented by Paul. Malakoi translates closely to effeminate or soft, and arsenkoitai is a combination of two words arsen (male) and koites (bed). But later usage of this word in “The acts of John” which was a 2nd century writing uses this word to condemn economic abuses and exploitation in a sexual context.

Which is why the ancient act of “pederasty” is often brought up in relation to passages like this — the practice of Greek elite elder men who would adopt young men to use as sexual objects. This would fall in line with Caligula’s treatment of his subordinates and their significant others. Romans 1:27 also perfectly lines up with the ending that Caligula faced due to his behavior.

“Finally, a military officer whom he had sexually humiliated joined a conspiracy to murder him, which they did less than four years into his reign. Suetonius records that Gaius was stabbed through the genitals when he was murdered. One wonders whether we can hear an echo of this gruesome story in Paul’s comments in Romans 1: 27: “Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own person the due penalty for their error.” Gaius Caligula graphically illustrates the reality of which Paul speaks in Romans 1: the movement from idolatry to insatiable lust to every form of depravity, and the violent murderous reprisal that such behavior engenders.”

So ultimately what we can surmise from all of this is rather than the Bible condemning consensual homosexual relationships between adults, these verses seem to be condemning cowardice, incest, pederastry (pedophilia), and abuse of power over people for sexual exploitation…a message we can all agree with.