"It is time to stop misusing the Bible to support bigotry against homosexual people."

Dear Dr. Taylor,

The rejection and fear of homosexuals is wrong and thinking Christians everywhere should condemn it in the same way they should condemn sexism, racism, and anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, many think that the Bible gives them easy support for their prejudice against gays and lesbians. But as the late minister of Riverside Church, William Sloan Coffin, Jr., was fond of saying, too many Christians use the Bible as a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than illumination.

Only seven texts – four in Hebrew Scripture and three in the New Testament – mention what some people associate with homosexual behavior. The most common text of reference is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, typically cited as justification for condemning homosexual relationships today. But the story does not apply. It refers to dehumanizing homosexual rape, not homosexual relationships between two adults committed to each other in mutuality and love. In fact, the Bible itself includes interpretation of the story that is completely void of condemning homosexuality. Instead, the guilt of Sodom is pride, greed, and failure of aid the needy (Ezekiel 16:49). Condemnations of same-sex relations also occur in the New Testament, but again historical and social contexts make their usage to our own time inappropriate. One example among many others is that in the Greco-Roman world, “pederasty,” arranged erotic relationships between adult males and boys were common. We should not compare the dehumanization of such arrangements with the reciprocal love shared between homosexual partners.

In short, biblical judgments against homosexual relations are not relevant to our modern debate. They carry categorically different social contexts than today’s debates about the validity of caring, mutual relationships between consenting adults. Besides, even if a biblical text does condemn homosexuality, we are not bound by theological conviction also to condemn it. Historically, Christians have revised morally inadequate stances found in the Bible. We do not support slavery, ethnic cleansing, or putting a rebellious son to death – all in the Bible. This is why in 2007 The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York decided to affirm the ordination of gays and lesbians. Conservative Judaism rightly readdressed its traditional stance toward homosexuals and found it wanting. They concluded that their specific theological objections to homosexuality are countermanded by radically different historical contexts and the overwhelming mandates of the Torah that rejected such intolerance.

It is time to stop misusing the Bible to support bigotry against homosexual people. Human sexuality is morally neutral. Scripture does not create hostility against modern homosexuality. Hostility against homosexuals prompts some Christians to find a text that seems to fit their prejudice and then lean on it like a drunk on a lamppost for support.

Samford leaders could learn from Conservative Judaism. They could readdress their theological views. They could start by asking the old question, “What would Jesus do?”

Dixon Sutherland, Ph.D.
Samford, 1972, B.A. Philosophy and Religion