Homosexuality is, specifically, the practice of men having coitus with other men. This translates the Greek word arsenokoitai (from two words, arsen, 'male,' and koitus, 'coitus') which appears only in 1 Cor 6:9 (NIV, NASB, ESV) among a list of acts considered so wicked that they bar their practitioners from inheriting the kingdom of God, and in 1 Tim 1:10 (NASB, ESV) in a list of acts "contrary to sound doctrine." Other English words used to translate arsenokoitai include'sodomites' (NRS, NKJ), 'sexual perverts' (RSV). It is generally agreed by most evangelicat commentators that Rom 1:27 ("the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion") is also a clear reference to homosexuality. Though the female version of the practice is called lesbianism and though the word does not appear in the Bible, the practice is also clearly condemned in Rom 1:26 ("Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones").
The subject of homosexuality has become, in the last three decades, a major issue for churches around the world in light of the legalization in many countries, especially in the West, of 'same-sex marriage.' Unfortunately, the most common response of Christians to practising homosexuals is one of disdain and rejection that is contrary to Jesus's command to us to love our neighbours. There is not a little truth in the sometimes voiced criticism that the rigour and determination with which homosexuals have pressed for their rights to be recognized in the courts in the past two decades may have been a shaped by this very hateful rejection and opposition by the churches. It remains an issue that the church has hardly begun thinking clearly about.
While the Church is called to be the salt and light of society, nothing in Scriptures suggests that this means we are to police what non-Christians should believe or how they should behave. Policing, however, is effectively what the Church has done by the pressure we put on our governments to legislate against these practices. This has been seen, not unfairly, as sheer hypocrisy. The Church, e.g., has never pressed governments to maintain the criminality of adultery, and generally keep silent when prominent Christians are caught in the act. "They want to keep their cake but refuse us our piece," is how one non-Christian has put it. The mood in the Christian church is generally one of fear; especially the fear that our children may drop into the cauldron if we do not enforce a lid on it. Is this, we may ask, how poorly we deem the effectiveness of our own teaching and lifestyle to shape and mould our own children, and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives? We complain when the rights of Christians are denied them in oppressive countries; why then do we deny our non-Christian neighbours their right to live as they deem fit for themselves? Have the Church become a moral police state? These are hard questions that we have to work through.
Resources : (We hope to have major entry on the subject in Alberith; until it is ready, we hope you will find the following resources helpful.)
☰ Denny Burk, "Why Evangelicals Should Ignore Brian McLaren: How the New Testament Requires Evangelicals to Render a Judgment on the Moral Status of Homosexuality," Themelios 35.2 (2010):212-26. pdf
☰ J. Glen Taylor, "The Bible and Homosexuality," Themelios 21.1 (October 1995): 4-9. pdf
☰ David Malick, "The Condemnation of Homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27," Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (1993): 327-340. pdf
☰ David Malick, "The Condemnation of Homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6:9," Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (1993): 479-492. pdf
☰ Elaine Phillips, Thinking Biblically About Homosexual Practice pdf
☰ Thomas T. Schreiner, "A New Testament Perspective on Homosexuality," Themelios 31.3 (April 2006): 62-75. pdf
☰ J. Glen Taylor, "The Bible and Homosexuality," Themelios 21.1 (October 1995): 4-9.
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