From another board: I have permission to repost this response regarding various anti-homosexual Bible passages. I thought some might find this interesting.


(Direct reply to another poster removed by me - Bee)

A literal reading of the bible shows that there is no condemnation of homosexuality at all.

The various letters of Paul have historically been used to punish and oppress every identifiable minority in the world: Jews, children, women, blacks, slaves, politicians, divorced people, convicts, religious reformers, and the mentally ill. Currently the popular target of this discrimination are homosexuals

The phrase "shameful lusts is a modern invention and has no basis for translation. Just as the earlier "vile afflictions". In the original Greek, "vile affliction" translates as ecstatic or ecstasy, (the original meaning was not the modern meaning or the street drug name)…the word did not mean passion or lust but rather referred to ecstatic trance states described by anthropologists (Ref: Mircea Eliade). These ecstatic trances were part of every religion, such states were generally achieved by religious leaders but lay people could engage in them as well, the process was to connect to the spirit world for healing and blessing. The Hebrew version of ecstasy involved fasting and isolation in the desert usually. The Modern Christian analog would be "speaking in tongues" and the meditative state achieved in ritualistic prayer. Originally, the condemnation was against any religion but the one Paul was founding, (which was founded on the strange notion that the only way to connect with the spiritual or the Divine was through the church) but like so many other non-Christian traditions, ecstasy found its way into Christianity.

As for "natural." The society Paul is writing to, both Roman and Greek, considered homosexuality be quite natural. What would have been considered unnatural for Paul's audience would have been to force oneself to go against one's own nature, to pretend to be something one is not. Such relationships are referred to as being unnatural by many writers of the era.
The bible specifically used the Greek word paraphysi, contrary to popular belief paraphysi does not mean "to go against the law(s) of nature", as those promoting discrimination against homosexuals often claim, but rather it means to engage in action(s) which is uncharacteristic for that person or more simply an individual denying his/her true nature. An example of the word paraphysin is used in Romans 11:24, where God acts in an uncharacteristic (paraphysin) way to accept the Gentiles. Thus the passages correctly reads that it would be unnatural for heterosexuals to live as homosexuals, and for homosexuals to live as heterosexuals. And what Paul is condemning is the unnaturalness of going against one's nature. In the verse you cite God punishes individuals engaging in ecstatic trance work by forcing them to be something they are not.

The sin here is pretending to be something you are not.

Romans 1:26-27 is not a condemnation of homosexuality but a condemnation of trying to change or lying about ones sexual oriention. Thus it is a condemnation of ex-gay ministries.


Quote:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.         
At issue here is the translation of the Greek word arsenokoites to mean homosexual. It is only in recent history that this word has been translated to mean homosexual. Prior to the writing of the King James Bible it was translated as masturbation and that translation continued in some bibles until the late 1960's. There is no reason or evidence to believe that arsenokoites translates as homosexual at all.

Various attempts have been made to defend the interpretation of arsenokoites as a reference to male-male or homosexual sex in 1 Corinthians and the denial that there are translation issues with that word appears to be political rather than anything else. This defense is made by claiming that the meaning of this compound word is derived from the meaning of its two root words: arseno (man or men) and koitai (bed). This approach is linguistically invalid. Deconstructing compounds is generally a more sound strategy in Greek than English. It is highly precarious to try to ascertain the meaning of a word by taking it apart, getting the meanings of its component parts, and then assuming, with no supporting evidence, that the meaning of the longer word is a simple combination of its component parts. To "understand" does not mean to "stand under." In fact, nothing about the basic meanings of either "stand" or "under" has any direct bearing on the meaning of "understand." This phenomenon of language is sometimes even more obvious with terms that designate social roles, since the nature of the roles themselves often changes over time and becomes separated from any original reference. None of us, for example, takes the word "chairman" to have any necessary reference to a chair, even if it originally did. Thus, all definitions of arsenokoites that derive its meaning from its components are naive and indefensible. Using this method it would be equally valid to claim that when using the word arsenokoites Paul was condemning the lazy.

The most damming evidence that arsenokoites does not means homosexual is the fact that arsenokoites is a plural first declension noun. The word koitai, without the arseno- prefix, is feminine, just as most first declension nouns in Greek are. Thus referring to a man in a woman's bed, not in the bed of another man.

The only reliable way to define a word is to analyze its use in as many different contexts as possible. The word "means" according to its function, according to how particular people use the word in different situations. However writings contemporary to Paul that also use the word arsenokoites do not use it to mean homosexual, rather they use the word to refer to men who use women sexually in exchange for money…IE prostitutes.

Some have tried to claim that Paul was using words from the Hebrew to illustrate his point and that he really did mean homosexual. Given the audience Pual was writing to this is not likely. While loose analogies of the words koitai and arseno appear they are not combined into a compound word and always refer specifically to male/female intercourse. If you are going to use the appearance of the separate words arsen and koites in Leviticus as evidence that the compound word arsenokoites means homosexual then you have to ignore all the other appearances of the words in Leviticus.


Quote:

Jude 1:7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. (Genesis 19:3-13)         
this of course says nothing about homosexuality.



"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. They were haughty and did hateful things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen."
Ezekiel 16: 49-50