Paul's epistle's in the Bible reveal him as a homophobe trying to mask his own homoerotic feelings don't they?

Question

Paul, not Jesus, extended the Levitical attitudes toward homosexual acts into the Christian era. Contrasting Paul's fear and distrust of pleasure with Jesus' acceptance of the sexually marginal, Jeremy Bentham noted that "Jesus was one person, Paul was another. The religion of Jesus was one thing, the religion of Paul quite another; where Jesus had been silent about homosexuality, Paul was vehement." )

Some pastoral counselors, familiar with the psychology of the homophobe whose vehemence masks his own homoerotic feelings, have seen in Paul's epistles evidence of a psychosexual disorder.

Followers of the Bible are stuck aping Paul's homophobic attitude in perpetuity, it's like a never-ending broken homophobic hate record playing over and over isn't it.

You can't slander the dead but in this case the dead certainly can slander the living.

Love4jesus: but it is okay to be gay, I don't need to find any way to make it so!

Answer 1

I'd say this applies to sexuality in general. Paul, and many "Doctors of the Church" that followed him - Augustine is the other shining example - were morbid sexual degenerates. Paul prided himself on his neurosis of celibacy to the extent that he pitied the masses who were too "weak" to follow him, and had to resort to marriage to save them from damnation; while Augustine honed the concept of "Original Sin" from his own pathetic sexual guilt-complex. Hence the condemning attitude of Christianity, thence most of the Western world, with regard to ALL sexuality, but especially any form which lacks the excuse of propagation for its hallucinated "nastiness."

The original "Mosaic" proscription on homosexuality was probably purely pragmatic for the tribe of nomadic savages for whom it was written. Non-procreative sex was a "social crime" for starving people in the desert! Today there are 6 billion people in the world. Moral: times change. Christianity itself is built on this very idea - although it simply replaces the old "Absolute Rules for All Time" with new ones.

Answer 2

Remember that Paul was raised on Levitical law. Before his conversion he persecuted Christians, so he was quite a zealot.

Spending time in Rome and other Roman cities he would have witnessed deviant sexual behavior that most of us would find revolting, including using the children of slaves, boys and girls, for sexual gratification. Read accounts of Caligula.

I think he was responding to the abuse taking place in Rome, relying on Levitical law for support. It does seem pretty clear that he was talking about outrageous abuse and uncontrolled lust, not loving/supportive relationships.

We should also keep in mind that these were letters to churches dealing with specific situations that came to his attention. Who knows what he would have said if he realized his letters would be used as the foundation of the church.

I honestly think that Paul was pretty restrained considering the decadence of Rome.

Answer 3

Neither Jesus nor Paul were homophobic. But perhaps you are Christophobic or perhaps judgmentophobic. That is why those of you who wallow in the mud and filth of today's society so object to a moral standard which is clearly taught throughout the entire Bible. Jesus followed the rules of the Old Testament laws which forbid homosexxxual behavior...with men or with animals... It was not that he did not teach about it... he did... but you like to read between the lines and assume that he was pro gay because He loved Lazarus. Wrong! read the WHOLE book, and apply it they way Jesus meant it to be applied. Sin is still sin no matter what you call it.

Answer 4

LOL, you shouldn't listen to a man who demanded his dead body be preserved and put on display at a college, and who named his walking stick! The man sounds like a loon.......

On a serious note, surely you know Bentham wrote a 60-page essay in favor of homosexuality in 1785? Hasn't it occurred to you that he wasn't exactly neutral on the subject?

Paul wasn't homophobic. The truth of the matter is that God prohibited homosexual behavior even before the Mosaic covenant; when Jesus brought the New Covenant, He prohibited fornication and sex outside marriage. Since He also defined marriage as being between one man and one woman, it doesn't take much sense to realize Jesus was condemning homosexual behavior AND heterosexual sex outside marriage.

Answer 5

I notice that Jesus never said a thing against homosexuality. However, Paul did. Paul also appears to be a misogynist. Let's just say that I think Paul definitely had issues of his own that had nothing to do with Jesus. The NT, as I see it, is not a very cohesive or homogeneous collection of writings, leaving people to cherry pick scripture according to their prejudices.

Answer 6

Something else to keep in mind is that Paul's knowledge of "homosexuality" was probably limitted to the Greek concept of men having sex with boys, sometimes students, sometimes unwilling prostitutes. Neither of these senarios involves a mutually loving and respectful relationship.

It's also important to remember that the epistles are letters written from a human man to a human community on a very specific topic. There are a lot of good teachings in there, but you have to be careful to be mindful of the context.

Answer 7

Apparently, you like asking this question since you have done so several times.

Ignoring the obvious provocation of your question, perhaps you need better answers than you appear to be getting.

God's purpose for creating man and women was to be fruitful and populate the earth. They were created as perfect fits for one another in their bodies and minds. Again, with the fall of mankind, these purposes were conflated with seeking self gratification and excess.

Morality is defined by an ultimate moral authority, God. If you are a non-believer, then you have no objective moral truths.

Since God, speaking through the inspired prophets authoring the books of the bible, declared homosexuality a sin, then it is a sin.

Thus, homosexuality is just one of a litany of the degradation of the perfect moral state found in original creation. Homosexuality is just one of a plethora of sins now existing in the world. Like all sins, we hate the sin, but we love the sinner.

On the scale of the depravity of sin, homosexuality is no greater than other sins, just that it is practiced openly ("in your face"), so the reaction by some is over the top. Yet when we do some personal inventories of our own sinful natures, I am sure we are found wanting.

Here are some sources related to homosexuality for you to review.

Myths:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homomyth.html

Theology:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homotheo.html

Happiness to Christians is more than the needs of the flesh. Continue to pray for strength to resist your urges and strive to be obedient to the scriptures.

Answer 8

OK that's just slander. Psychoanalysing a man from 2000 years distance.

Answer 9

No. Paul spoke for the Lord. I'm sorry, but if you are gay, don't try to find a way to make it okay.

Answer 10

1 Corinthians 6:12-17:

"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.


1 Corinthians 7:1-9
Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.


Paul's writings reveal he was unmarried, celibate, and felt that it was a gift from God. He also understood that God created sex for a reason, and that it shouldn't be misused, or abused, not because God wants to withold sex from us, but because God wants us to appreciate it...