The Bible on Gay Marriage
What the Scriptures Say about Same-Sex Relationships
Addressing this sensitive issue from a Christian, specifically a biblical, perspective requires a step-by-step approach. Part of the reason that the Christian community is so divided over the matter is that these steps have not been followed. The steps are really questions, which help clarify and accentuate the issues in this debate.
What Is Hate?
According to Dictionary.com, hate is "to dislike intensely or passionately; [to] feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward [something or someone]."
Gay marriage proponents often argue that all those who oppose their agenda fall into the category of "hate." Even McDonald's has caught on. Defending the McDonald's decision to join the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, spokesman Bill Whitman declared: "Hate has no place in our culture."
Such claims by same-sex marriage proponents are unfair. While some opponents of gay marriage probably are motivated by hate, this hardly speaks to the issue itself. It IS possible to disagree with someone or something (even strongly), and not be guilty of hate.
Says William Einwechter, editor for The Christian Statesman and vice president of the National Reform Association: "The true Christian does not condemn sodomy and 'same-sex marriage' because of fear or hate, but because his faith in God’s revelation requires him to do so."
What Is the Bible?
This is a fundamental question to the religious aspect of the gay marriage debate. If the Bible is God's revelation, then both human reason and emotion must subordinate themselves to God's authority. If the Bible is fallible or merely the product of human hands, then it carries no absolute authority, and the church is free to respond to changing social mores and pressures.
Those churches that hold a liberal or progressive view of the Bible invariably favor (or are moving toward favoring) gay marriage. One need only see the divide in the Anglican Church as an example of this. The "conservatives" in the Anglican Church oppose same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay bishops, while the "liberals" favor both. The same dynamic is playing out in virtually every Christian denomination.
An open-ended, progressive view of the Bible is why John Shelby Spong, a former Anglican bishop and popular progressive thinker, can describe the religiously conservative position on homosexuality as being "trapped inside dying definitions" and praise those favoring gay rights as part of an "emerging new consciousness."
What Does the Bible Say about Homosexuality?
If one accepts the accuracy and authority of Genesis (again, see the conservative vs. liberal divide discussed above), then God's marriage model is clearly articulated in the Garden of Eden. And that model is based on one man and one woman (see Genesis 1-2).
The Mosaic Code is replete with condemnations (and penalties) for homosexual conduct. While the Old Testament penalties for homosexual conduct (and also witchcraft, teen rebellion, adultery, etc.) are not practiced by the Christian church today (and shouldn't be -- based on the New Testament dispensation), the moral principles remain.
In his letter to the church at Rome, the Apostle Paul adds his condemnation to homosexuality, when he writes:
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. (Romans 1:26-27, NKJV)
In Homosexuality: A Biblical View, Greg Bahnsen puts it bluntly:
God’s verdict on homosexuality is inescapably clear. His law is a precise interpretation of the sexual order of creation for fallen man, rendering again His intention and direction for sexual relations. When members of the same sex (homo-sexual) practice intercourse with each other...they violate God’s basic creation order in a vile and abominable fashion.
The Attack on the Bible
Whether marriage laws should be biblically based is a debate that is beyond the scope of this site, but clearly the Bible is no friend to gay marriage proponents. And this is why most gay marriage proponents have resorted to attacking, undermining, or redefining the Bible.
Bishop Spong, for example, writes: "The Bible, for example, was once quoted to support slavery, to oppose science and to prevent women from achieving equality. On every one of those issues the Bible was quite simply wrong. To quote it now to uphold the evil of homophobia is no less wrong."
Most Bible-believing evangelicals would disagree with Spong's assertion that the Bible was "wrong" on those issues. Rather, the people who misquoted and abused the Bible to oppose science, support slavery and oppress women were wrong.
Conservatives don't reflexively oppose examination of the Bible. On the contrary, to examine the Bible objectively and fairly (including whether our interpretations of or understandings of it are flawed) is something that all Christians should do. The Apostle Paul, after all, urged his readers to "test all things" (Philippians 3:9) and to "study to show yourself approved unto God" (II Timothy 2:15).
To raise questions about the Bible's meaning or intent is also valid. In fact, those exploring Christianity or wrestling with doubts should be free to examine the accuracy and claims of the Bible itself. True Christians should not fear the truth. Free and fair inquiries are to be encouraged.
What we must be careful of, though, is judging the Bible's accuracy or authority based on our own preferences and emotions. What it says about homosexuality has nothing to do with whether the Bible is God's Word. If it's God's Word, then God expects us to bring our lives in conformity with His revelation, whether we wish to do so or not. This is simply not a question of wish or desire. It's an issue of truth.
The Bible is either God's Word or it's not. It's either divinely authoritative or it's not. It is not for us to determine the answer, but rather to discover it.
**The preceding article has been written from an evangelical perspective. Those with differing opinions are encouraged to sign up as Contributing Writers with Suite101.com and offer their thoughtful perspective.
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