How can someone calling themselves a Christian say that homosexuality is not a sin?

Question

If you believe the Bible, which is a necessity to be a Christian, can you give me scriptural justification for believing that it is an ok way to conduct your life? If you don't have scriptural backing, how can you hold this belief?

I know what I believe the Bible says, and I know that many non-Christians believe this lifestyle is acceptable, but I am looking for answers from professed Christians here. I already know what many other people would say in answer to this, I'm looking for something else. Please respect my parameters for this question. Thank you.

It's amazing how many people just can't keep their nose out. I am asking for a specific type of person to give me an answer. Christians who say that it is not a sin. If you are not that person, I already know what you think.

To the person who said - love your neighbor not love your straight neighbor. That is the first proper answer.
But calling sin sin is not unloving. I still love my gay friends, I used to be gay myself, I understand the sin, but I know that the most loving thing anyone ever did for me was to tell me it was sin and to help me find freedom.

st. alia... -- I am "up in arms" about those other things, but I don't hear Christians claiming they're ok too often. I am only referring to this one subject in this question.

btw - I am just giving a thumbs down to every answer that does not answer the actual question I asked to get them out of the way so I can just look at those answers that are applicable. I may agree with the statements, but they aren't answers to my question.

Answer 1

I hope that you will agree with me that Christianity makes very few important demands on us. What we believe and how we live in the main is cast in very simple terms. Divisions based on doctrinal quibbles, hermeneutics, and such pale in comparison to the grace we receive through Jesus Christ, which is the identity that binds us. I make this statement because it is a curious thing to go around telling people that unless they think x and y about this or that then they aren't Christians.

The Bible tells women to keep silent and obey their men, bans the growing of two different crops in the same garden (punishable by torture and destruction of all you hold dear!), bans the wearing of blended fabrics, and tells us not to resist he that does evil (in the Sermon on the Mount). And yet you have not posted here about people who wear cotton/poly blends being unChristian, or even those that do oppose those that do evil as being unChristian. This expression against homosexuality is unique. I would suggest in the grand scheme of things it is every bit as important a doctrinal issue as planting carrots and tomatoes in the same garden.

So, first things first, let's calm down and get some perspective on things. There are only three places in the Bible that address homosexuality: Levitical law, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Paul's condemnation of the Roman cults competing with Christianity in Rome circa 50 AD. In contrast there are over 1,000 verses commanding us to make helping those in dire economic situations a central priority (in Galatians it is only this that the original apostles require Paul to agree with them on to include him!).

And what of those verses that are there about homosexuality? Paul also says "slaves obey your master" and Levitical law says it's okay for a Jew to rape and kill non-Jewish children. There are verses that tell us God will punisha nd rewadr us on earth for our behavior (it's the central theme of Proverbs) and verses that say our lot in life has almost nothing to do with our behaving good or bad (it's the central theme of Job and Ecclesiastes). These verses, aside from contradicting verses about Good Samaritans and Beatitudes, and each other for that matter, have to further be tested against reality. When St. Augustine reviewed the atrocities committed by the Hebrew tribes against the original peoples of Palestine (the story of Jericho is essentially a story of genocidal slaughter by the people of thr God you and I worship!), Augustine decided that what is important about those passages is not their literal validity - that God commanded the slaughter of innocent children is highly unlikely given that jesus tells us in the parable of the lost sheep that God never wills that a child should perish. So how do we read them then? According to this maxim: God is Love. If we read something that doesn't sound like love or that doesn't make scientific sense, the meaning we can gleam from it has to be metaphorical.

In the cases of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Paul's criticisms of what is likely the Bacchae cult in Romans those passages are written in a broad condemnation of perversion, or orgies and self absorption. Homosexuality is a sidebar in both cases, like writing that a villain who kills an innocent person has a tattoo of the Grim Reaper. And, yes, homosexuality was unethical in ancient Judaism. But is it objectively immoral?

I would argue it is not. And here's why.

Jesus often contradicts the Law. The Pharisees catch him working on the Sabbath, or eating a sacramental meal without washing his hands, and despite his talk about jots and tittles he says that what matters is not the observance of the Law itself. What matters is what the Law describes. He says that loving your neighbor and yourself and loving God with all yourself (which Matthew 25:31-46 and Romans 12:13-15 indicate is exactly the same thing) ar ethe whole of the Law and teh Prophets. If a law contradicts the Golden Rule, it does not supplant it - the Golden Rule determines whether the law is just or not in the first place in any given instance. The traditional definition of sin is doing my will and not God's - elevating my ego and being selfish to the exclusion of loving others, becoming inwardly focused instead of outwardly focused.

I know too many perfectly emotionally healthy, spiritually advanced, ethical gay people to believe that they are trapped in some sort of lifestyle sin. I know too many heterosexual people who are sinful to view it as an ethical standard the way I would charity or forgiveness.

I would never tell someone who thinks it is a sin and selects out gay people for special sin discrimination that they weren't Christian on that account. But it is a discussion that must needs having and I wonder what a God that offers free grace requires of us all to be good enough, and to what extent we can effectively judge others by the social and economic ideas of any 1st century society - democracy didn't exist then and women were thought to be genetically evil and inferior. Some things should change over time, the question is which ones. I have reason to believe homosexuality is one of those things, a "thou shalt not work on the sabbath" kind of law that may sometimes prevent us from loving our neighbors as ourselves.

I hope this is the sort of thing you were looking for. I appreciate the question.

Answer 2

My guess is that it's for the same reason that many Christians can wear clothing made from seperate materials. Or that they no longer worry about not working or turning on a light on the holy day of the week. Some of the rules handed out by "God" written by man, have become very outdated within the society we now live in.
Stoning cheating wives, drunken sons and witches are not tolerated any longer. Passing judgement onto others (gay or not) should be left to "God."
As facts that contradict the bibles stories emerge, like Noahs Ark never happened on a global scale or wiping out all of life but a few, or bats are not birds, then I think people are smart enough to know that being gay, whether sinful or not, is not something Christians should not concern themselves with.

Answer 3

this is a tough question. part of the bible says that a man or woman is not to lay with another man or woman, but once Jesus started his gospel, the said to forgive 7x7, and that judging people is not our responsibility. further more He states that we are all to see each other as brothers and sisters and to love everyone the way we love our selves. there is no direct verse in the bible that says homosexuality is NOT a sin, but it does say that we will have one person to spend the rest of our lives with. i am a christian. i don't like to label it that way. in this world christian can mean so many things. i prefer to say that i believe that Christ is the Son of God, and that he died for each one of us. the bible was tampered with by a bunch of selfish yet well meaning men and i think that some things were altered to their advantage. like "women speaking in church" and "homosexuality" if christians say that it's wrong, then why does God give a person the intense feeling of love and sacrifice that is a natural feeling for them, only to say that it is wrong. read the book "ain't nobody's business if i do" by peter mcwilliams. he goes into detail, better than me, about specific verses that state homsexuallity is not sinful and that God made each person on this earth different and in His own way.

Answer 4

Not a Christian but I have studied bible.

1) Bible is a book...not the living breathing word of God. It is a book written by MEN and not even the ones who are the main characters. None of it was written by Moses or Jesus but by some guy who followed them.

2) Homosexuality is genetic. Hence homosexuals were created and born that way. Hence God is ok with them being homosexuals. Hence calling it a sin and not accepting it is commiting the sin of pride by assuming greater authority to judge over God.


ADD> So non Christians are answering. People do that here...if you did not know that then you are brand spankin new to YA. Every question I ask saying no Christians there are 80 billion that answer......that's life

Answer 5

I LOVE ALL MY FRIENDS STRAIGHT OR GAY IT DOESN'T MATTER!!>>>>BUT!

Homosexuality is not OK in Biblical terms. I fail to see why homosexuals try so hard to conform to Christianity or even associate with the religion despite the fact that this religion Clearly is against such a lifestyle. I believe that if you choose to live your life a particular way then you should try to find a religion that conform to such dictates rather than to criticize another for not including your life choices. It is highly hypocritical to be preaching one thing and living another isn't it? The Bible is against homosexuality 100% so why should we force ourselves to find loopholes to solve this. If you do not want to live in accordance to what the Bible dictates then leave it alone, and stop trying to rationalize.

I agree that all sin is sin and none is greater than the other. However, the difference is made when the persons who are actually committing such sins are trying to stop rather than to continue therein, then say it is ok to do so. Do not call Christ your Saviour if he cannot save you from something that you obviously do not need to be saved from. That is shear hypocrisy. Frankly, if homosexuality is ok from a Biblical perspective, then so is murder, rape, gluten and all the rest of those so called SINS the Bible aptly points out.

God bless

Answer 6

I guess most true Christians do think that homosexuality is a sin, but just because they don't accept their lifestyle doesn't mean that they can't accept them as people. Christians are supposed to accept everyone, regardless of whether or not they agree with their choices. It is not possible to find a person alive who has not committed a "sin" as you people call it. According to Christians, fornication is a sin, yet only like less than 1% of the population can say that they have never fornicated. Most Christians, if they are good people, may disagree with people's choices, but that doesn't mean that they have to hate them.

Get a life. What do you care what other people do in the privacy of their own homes?

Answer 7

Several possibilities:

1. They are intelligent!

2. They understand something about medicine!

3. They make their own decisions.

4. The do not rely upon spoon-fed mantra being handed down by air-heads.

There are probably lots more reasons most of which have little or nothing to do with bible thumpery!

Answer 8

After years of study, devotion, and prayer, I have come to the conclusion that the Bible actually says nothing about homosexuality, in and of itself. Many of the verses actually condemn hetrosexuals acting in homosexual type temple worship. Certainly homosexuals sin like everyone else, but being homosexual is not one of them.

Answer 9

the Bible also says not to wear polyblend fibers...but i bet you have polyester in your closet. it also says for you to shave your whole body once a month, have you done that yet? it also says not to eat pork, but i bet you have bacon in your refrigerator. it also says not to eat scavengers, but i bet that doesn't stop you from getting down with the shrimp and lobster at the seafood buffet.

it also says to stone and maim people who commit adultery, are disrespectful to their parents, and who plant more than one crop in the same field. plus, slavery is okay.

why fundamentalists ignore these rules but pick out the verses about homosexuality? i'll tell you why...
To fit their agenda.

This isn't about wanting to follow God. It's about you being uncomfortable with someone else's lifestyle and cherry picking verses to validate your position.

Jesus even got mad at the Pharisees for acting high and mighty for following all of the minutia of old Bible laws but not knowing Him.

i'm a Christian and i believe the Bible...but obviously some of the rules were to avoid illnesses we don't have now and to satisfy the culture of man at that time.

in this vein, i'd rather focus on the things that Jesus focused on: treating people how you want to be treated, loving one another, praising the Lord, and sharing Christianity with others.

Answer 10

Being a Christian means that you believe Jesus is the son of god and that you accept him as your savior. The Bible, however was written by man and translated by men, who edited the bible to fit their purpose.

By the way, isnt believing men over god a bit contradictoral?