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Homosexuality and the Bible

The following is the view of the Rev Kevin Jones, it may not represent the views of all members.

Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. Either it wasn't important, or everyone knew that it was right or wrong. It certainly wasn't something he thought was central to a relationship with God or he would have said so and someone would have written it down.

In the days of the Old Testament one of the key imperatives for the people of Israel was to go forth and multiply – homosexuality wasn't helpful if you wanted your nation to grow and be strong in numbers to defend itself! And so homosexuality was considered wrong. However we don't keep other Old Testament laws which we consider to be culturally determined e.g. not eating pork. We keep the Old Testament instructions that are considered to be commandments (e.g. don't murder), not those which are cultural laws (e.g. mixing fibres in clothing), so why should the instruction about homosexuality be any different?  

What about St. Paul? Surely he clearly condemned homosexuality. But was he referring to a different sort of practise? Greek society had strange ideas (as have had other cultures) about rites of passage for men – one of which may well have been for a man to have sex with another man. What has this to do with a loving faithful same-sex relationship? Probably not  a lot. It all seems to be focussed on the sexual act. Modern day same sex relationships are not simply about sex (any more than heterosexual relationships are). I think that what Paul was against was the using of sex for the wrong purposes – i.e. outside of a faithful loving relationship.  

One issue that seems to influence St Paul (a legacy from his days as a Pharisee) is his grounding in the so-called "purity laws" of the Old Testament. These “purity laws” seem to continue to have influence on us too. For example until recent times women in many parts of this country were expected to be "churched" after childbirth before they were allowed to leave the house - i.e. made "pure" after the "unclean" act of childbirth! And so the question is what what do we consider makes us "unclean" nowadays? For some people homosexuality is "unclean". If I'm honest the thought of two men together does make me react like it is "unclean". But one of the points of education is to give us the ability to stand back and examine our prejudices and work how why we hold them and if they are valid.  There is clearly a place for limitations on sexual behaviour: most importantly it should be non-exploitative and be within a faithful relationship. On that basis sex between consenting adults within a loving relationship is right: prostitution, child abuse, and casual sex are wrong. I believe this can all be derived from Jesus teaching on how we treat each other.

My conclusions are that to think of modern day same-sex relationships as being sinful has more to do with Church tradition than it does what the Bible actually says.