Explain to me how people who believe in God misuse the scripture to justify that people are not born gay?

Question

Some people say Christians, for example, are bigots because they use the Bible to justify their beliefs that people are not born gay.

I would like to hear your point of view of how Christians are misusing the Bible and what really makes them a bigot.

Thank you, I look forward to some great answers.

I'm going to lunch so I'll be back in 45 minutes.

Well, when I wrote this question I tried to carefully exclude my point of view. I was not calling Christians bigots, I was giving an example of what some people say when Christians use the Bible to justify that people are not born gay. People refer to them as bigots. I didn't say I think they're bigots.

Thank you everyone. You all gave me very good answers.

I have no argument...
This was something I was just curious about. I posted this same question in the Religion & Spirituality section and they gave good arguments as well.

Again, thank you and have a beautiful day!

Answer 1

Well, let's see.
The Bible was written in Hebrew. Genesis is the first book and actually many stories are taken from the Myth of Gilgamesh which predates the Bible by over 1000 yrs.
Genesis also contradicts itself in chapters 1 and 2 in the creation stories.

After people picked and choose what went into the Bible....it was MISTRANSLATED from Hebrew into Latin. Then into Greek. Then into English.
IE: No Hebrew word for homosexual and no concept of homosexuality in Hebrew, Latin or Greek civilizations. It just was another way to have sex.

An English king decided to change it...yet again. You know, James. He was a tyrant. History proves that.

Jesus never mentioned two men being in love or having sex.

Being gay isn't in the 10 commandments OR listed as one of the 7 deadly sins.

Paul wrote of gay people being sinners, that man and woman should procreate, but historians have a theory that he was a closet homo himself, he was a misogynist, and in fact...celibate. Um...that's means he was kinda a hypocrite, no?

Last and NOT least....I have a personal relationship with GOD. He has NEVER in several decades revealed to me that how HE made me was wrong, or how I live my life was wrong.

Need more?

Answer 2

The Bible also says I may keep slaves and I may stone my neighbors for not keeping the Sabbath. (yeah, like I choose to keep it either...but I'm a Pagan...so they could in defense stone me.. a never ending vicious circle.)
The Bible says a great deal of things. I personally like to treat my neighbor as I would myself and since I treat myself kindly, my neighbor gets the same.
Jesus didn't say *one word* about Homosexuality. NOT ONE. Paul on the other hand seemed to have said quite a few, but Paul ISN"T the Savior last time I looked. Jesus was.
When the Pauline Christians get that through their heads and start treating each other kindly then I'll stop being a Pagan.
They're not *all* really bigots though, Dearest. They're mislead and mis read. They learn from what they're taught.
You calling them ALL bigots can be considered the pot calling the kettle black. Please don't generalize. It makes us all look bad.

Answer 3

You should see this movie its called Hate Crime. Its just about that issue. A pastor who is a homophobic kills a guy man in the name of "god" its a really good movie.
Story is about:
Robbie and Trey live peacefully in a quiet neighborhood, until an unexpected conflict arises in the form of hostile new neighbor Chris, a preacher’s kid. Blindsided by a brutal attack, Trey winds up in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. Chris becomes the prime suspect, but he has a solid alibi. After he himself becomes a suspect, Robbie desperately attempts to carry out a complex and dangerous plan that will uncover shocking secrets and turn many lives upside down.

A thought-provoking suspense drama, Hate Crime, a testament to the power of love and the damaging consequences of intolerance, is a film by Tommy Stovall, shot on location in Dallas, Texas. Seth Peterson (Providence) stars as Robbie, with Bruce Davison (X-Men, Runaway Jury), Giancarlo Esposito (Usual Suspects, Homicide: Life on the Street), Cindy Pickett (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Chad Donella (Final Destination), Susan Blakely (The Towering Inferno), and Lin Shaye (There’s Something About Mary) rounding out the all-star cast.


Here is the website for the movie.

http://www.hatecrimemovie.com/home.html

Answer 4

my biggest problem is that they cherry pick the verses. Take something from here and there and say it still holds true, when something 2 verses over, no longer applies.

leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman, it is an abomination."

Leviticus 18:19
"You shall not approach a woman to have intercourse with her while she is unclean from menstruation.

how many anti-gay christians follow that rule? And that a few verses earler. They pick and chose that which they want to follow, and that which they dont. Either follow everythign, or nothing. Also, Divorce is forbidden in the bible, lots of anti-gay christians are divorced, but somehow thats become acceptable too. See how we could be upset about this? If christians themselves cant follow their own rules, and/or throw away ones that apply to them, then it seems to me like they are only keeping around the ones that they can use to keep hatred and biggotry alive.

Answer 5

Taking short incomplete excerpts of a story from the Bible and using it to justify anything is disingenuous. That is why some people take Leviticus instead of in its entirety, they pick and choose minimal text excerpts to justify the claim that Sodom was destroyed because of homosexuality. This claim is so far off base that if base was a star the light from it would decades to reach the claimant.

Answer 6

Its not Christians it is Homophobes who are bigots. I know lots of gay Christians. People use the Bible to try and justify lots of things. It also says Love Thy Neighbor.

Answer 7

Well, to be quite honest they usually quote that cliché from Leviticus which reads that "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."--KJV

However, they blatantly disregard the laws in Leviticus that come before and after this quote. Here are a few examples which god-fearing Christians have continued to ignore (and yet justify ignoring by stating that Jesus died for our sins so the Old Testament no longer applies--only the N. Testament and the 10 Commandments, yet somehow that *one* Levit. law against homosexuals *still* applies. Funny that, eh?):

Don't let cattle graze with other kinds of Cattle (Leviticus 19:19)

Don't have a variety of crops on the same field. (Leviticus 19:19)

Don't wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19)

Don't cut your hair nor shave. (Leviticus 19:27)

Any person who curseth his mother or father, must be killed. (Leviticus 20:9) Have you ever done that?

If a man cheats on his wife, or vise versa, both the man and the woman must die. (Leviticus 20:10). I wonder if Dr. Laura would like that one to be enforced?

If a man sleeps with his father's wife... both him and his father's wife is to be put to death. (Leviticus 20:11)

If a man sleeps with his wife and her mother they are all to be burnt to death. (Leviticus 20:14)

If a man or woman has sex with an animal, both human and animal must be killed. (Leviticus 20:15-16). I guess you should kill the animal since they were willing participants. Are they crazy?

If a man has sex with a woman on her period, they are both to be "cut off from their people" (Leviticus 20:18)

Psychics, wizards, and so on are to be stoned to death. (Leviticus 20:27)

If a priest's daughter is a whore, she is to be burnt at the stake. (Leviticus 21:9)

People who have flat noses, or are blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18)

Anyone who curses or blasphemes God, should be stoned to death by the community. (Leviticus 24:14-16)

Answer 8

Using scripture to claim people aren't born gay?

The arguments of most people attempting this essentially boil down to "God said it's a sin, and God wouldn't make you gay if it's a sin, so you must have decided to be a pervert!"

Most people attempting this appear to have a 3rd grader's grasp of scripture.

A slightly (very slightly) more complex line of reasoning is used by those who likewise claim that scripture "proves" that any same gender sexual/romantic contact is inherently sinful, and therefor they class such relationships with adultery. In this line of reasoning, inherent desire is pretty much meaningless - they don't argue over whether a person's ability to desire and love members of the same gender is inborn, because to them it doesn't matter.

Their position is based on semantics - they define sexual orientation specifically with regards to behavior. One is an adulterer only if one actually engages in adultery. One is a "sodomite" only if one actually engages in sexual contact with members of the same gender. Or, for that matter, one is an alcoholic only if one drinks.

They like to draw comparisons between being gay and inborn compulsive behavior, or to a genetic predisposition towards addiction. They literally do not believe we are capable of love of genuine affection, and claim our relationships are based on nothing more than a weak-willed and hedonistic abandonment to a pathalogical addiction to deviant sex. Because they see our relationships as not "real" love but a shallow and pathetic immitation of it, they see it as a disorder which by definition is socially destructive and makes the person "suffering" from it incapable of ever experience the "real" love, "real" family, or "real" life they claim is possible only through heterosexual, gender normative marriage.

From this position, they claim that since all behavior is ultimately a matter of choice, those "cursed" with same sex desires (or a predisposition towards alcoholism, or an intense desire to **** goats, etc) must learn to control this compulsion if they want to be a productive member of society. Otherwise, we are selfishly and short-sightedly "choosing" to abandon ourselves to an addiction.



Really, it's a long string of only vaguely associated assumptions.

Answer 9

They abuse scripture by not obeying what Jesus told us to do. He said "love your neighbor as you love yourself". He commanded that we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, dress the poor, welcome the stranger, care for widows and orphans, and to love one another as He loves us. He was also very explicit in saying that we must remove the sin in our own lives before we point out sin in someone else. That can't be done since we are all sinners, so we are to do this thing that He commanded: "Judge not lest you be judged. For in the manner that you judge shall you be judge." To me, my brothers and sisters would do better to do the things that He told us to do instead of doing the thing He told us not to do.

Answer 10

They don't misuse the scripture. However, the Bible does group homosexuality in with the same group of perversions as beastiality, etc., as a detestable sin.

The rightful rejection of the notion that people are "born gay" is based on the absolute lack of scientific evidence to support this. There is a HUGE amount of evidence to support the fact that homosexuality is a developmental disorder.

Those who believe that a "gay gene" will someday be discovered would be better off waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

You can throw around terms like "bigot" or "intolerant" if you'd like; however, you could just as easily be called a bigot for your views against Christians and their beliefs. It works both ways.