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 The author argues that the meaning of the Bible's passages on homosexuality have been lost in translation.
May 15th, 2012
05:39 PM ET
My Take: What the Bible really says about homosexuality
By Daniel A. Helminiak, Special to CNN President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage, like blood in the water, has conservative sharks circling for a kill. In a nation that touts separation of religion and government, religious-based arguments command this battle. Lurking beneath anti-gay forays, you inevitably find religion and, above all, the Bible. We now face religious jingoism, the imposition of personal beliefs on the whole pluralistic society. Worse still, these beliefs are irrational, just a fiction of blind conviction. Nowhere does the Bible actually oppose homosexuality. In the past 60 years, we have learned more about sex, by far, than in preceding millennia. Is it likely that an ancient people, who thought the male was the basic biological model and the world flat, understood homosexuality as we do today? Could they have even addressed the questions about homosexuality that we grapple with today? Of course not. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Hard evidence supports this commonsensical expectation. Taken on its own terms, read in the original languages, placed back into its historical context, the Bible is ho-hum on homosexuality, unless – as with heterosexuality – injustice and abuse are involved. That, in fact, was the case among the Sodomites (Genesis 19), whose experience is frequently cited by modern anti-gay critics. The Sodomites wanted to rape the visitors whom Lot, the one just man in the city, welcomed in hospitality for the night. The Bible itself is lucid on the sin of Sodom: pride, lack of concern for the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:48-49); hatred of strangers and cruelty to guests (Wisdom 19:13); arrogance (Sirach/Ecclesiaticus 16:8); evildoing, injustice, oppression of the widow and orphan (Isaiah 1:17); adultery (in those days, the use of another man’s property), and lying (Jeremiah 23:12). But nowhere are same-sex acts named as the sin of Sodom. That intended gang rape only expressed the greater sin, condemned in the Bible from cover to cover: hatred, injustice, cruelty, lack of concern for others. Hence, Jesus says “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19; Mark 12:31); and “By this will they know you are my disciples” (John 13:35). How inverted these values have become! In the name of Jesus, evangelicals and Catholic bishops make sex the Christian litmus test and are willing to sacrifice the social safety net in return. The longest biblical passage on male-male sex is Romans 1:26-27: "Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another." The Greek term para physin has been translated unnatural; it should read atypical or unusual. In the technical sense, yes, the Stoic philosophers did use para physin to mean unnatural, but this term also had a widespread popular meaning. It is this latter meaning that informs Paul's writing. It carries no ethical condemnation. Compare the passage on male-male sex to Romans 11:24. There, Paul applies the term para physin to God. God grafted the Gentiles into the Jewish people, a wild branch into a cultivated vine. Not your standard practice! An unusual thing to do — atypical, nothing more. The anti-gay "unnatural" hullabaloo rests on a mistranslation. Besides, Paul used two other words to describe male-male sex: dishonorable (1:24, 26) and unseemly (1:27). But for Paul, neither carried ethical weight. In 2 Corinthians 6:8 and 11:21, Paul says that even he was held in dishonor — for preaching Christ. Clearly, these words merely indicate social disrepute, not truly unethical behavior. In this passage Paul is referring to the ancient Jewish Law: Leviticus 18:22, the “abomination” of a man’s lying with another man. Paul sees male-male sex as an impurity, a taboo, uncleanness — in other words, “abomination.” Introducing this discussion in 1:24, he says so outright: "God gave them up … to impurity." But Jesus taught lucidly that Jewish requirements for purity — varied cultural traditions — do not matter before God. What matters is purity of heart. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” reads Matthew 15. “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” Or again, Jesus taught, “Everyone who looks at a women with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Jesus rejected the purity requirements of the Jewish Law. In calling it unclean, Paul was not condemning male-male sex. He had terms to express condemnation. Before and after his section on sex, he used truly condemnatory terms: godless, evil, wicked or unjust, not to be done. But he never used ethical terms around that issue of sex. As for marriage, again, the Bible is more liberal than we hear today. The Jewish patriarchs had many wives and concubines. David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, and Daniel and the palace master were probably lovers. The Bible’s Song of Songs is a paean to romantic love with no mention of children or a married couple. Jesus never mentioned same-sex behaviors, although he did heal the “servant” — pais, a Greek term for male lover — of the Roman Centurion. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Paul discouraged marriage because he believed the world would soon end. Still, he encouraged people with sexual needs to marry, and he never linked sex and procreation. Were God-given reason to prevail, rather than knee-jerk religion, we would not be having a heated debate over gay marriage. “Liberty and justice for all,” marvel at the diversity of creation, welcome for one another: these, alas, are true biblical values. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Daniel A. Helminiak. soundoff (8,832 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 Next » |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's note:
America was founded on a group of pilgrims fleeing the oppression of the Church of England. Thomas Jefferson intended us to think for ourselves and must be turning over in his grave to see the way Christians are assuming they can govern OUR Country with THEIR priorities. Google "Jefferson Bible" to see exactly how progressive he was about having your own ideas about Christ.... He intended ALL citizens of our free nation to have the right to LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. If one chooses to practice their religion, then they have that right, but must also respect the rights of others to do so as they choose, or NOT to at all! We were supposed to be FREE from the persecution of the Church. 'll never understand how a group of "Christ loving" individuals have turned out to be so hateful and exclusionary. Mob rule, indeed. Sad.
yes, american christians have forgotten the teachings of christ
What a sad bunch of willfully ignorant individuals...read 1 Corinthians 6:9 then tell me about man on man love and the consequences
Who cares, who cares, WHO CARES??? We aren't a Theocracy, it doesn't damn matter what the Bible says about it.
Mark, unfortunately these nut jobs are working their damndest to make our society a theocracy. Care, very much. And fight the idiocy!
Actually, its becoming a dictatorship!!!!!!
JEsus himself said "for this reason a man will leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife" but today as in the city of Ninaveh years ago nobody knows their right hand from their left, just great trolling by CNN......
montyross,
The rest of the quote says that what God has joined man should not separate.
So it doesn't matter if your spouse even beats you, NO DIVORCE unless they cheat.
Ooops.
Come on CNN. Really? You could at least use an unbiased source for your propaganda!
CNN: Take this bible crap off your front page, and you will improve the demographic quality of your subscribers.
Please don't push your beliefs off on others. You live your life and we will live ours.
What a sad bunch of willfully ignorant individuals...read 1 Corinthians 6:9 then tell me about man on man love and the consequences........Geee...
someday soon you will know the truth anthony........I hope you come to know Jesus as your savior before its too late....what happened 2012 years ago that reset the calander and established a new time keeping method? It was Jesus birthday......Do some research............
Because CNN needs to create crazy stories that keep people confused so they spend more time on the web site and look at more ads?
what a bunch of crap !!!! just a bunch of people that think they know it all cuz you read the bible. who cares who maries who . afterr they marry today your life will still be the same tomarow so who cares . if it doesnt affect your life and family then who cares !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
youre right God deals with the individual now, not the country as a whole, as he did in ancient times, thanks to JESUS B.C.-A.D.
To Butch: do you read as well as you spell and type?
Well put Butch. Thanks. I think the world is moving in this direction but it is really going to take some time.
TAX RELIGION! Make them follow the laws of society if they want us to follow the laws of their fairy-tale deity.
ghost
think you should check up your a s s. think there is some evil sh it in there.
+++++++++++++
You first.
I find it ironic that those who support the gay life style will condemn the bible, now all of a sudden someone gives his opinion that the bible is misinterrepted. and how ironic that now, of all time this guy writes this article. Why didn't he tell us this correct interruptation last week, or last year or 5 years ago, seems very well timed, doesn't it.
Wow. Just because this is the first time you have heard of this, does not mean it is the first time it has been interpreted this way. I was raised traditional catholic, and upon trying to learn more about my religion found out about the stuff in this article 5-10 years ago. This information has existed long before that. CNN may be trying to make money by pushing out a "controversial" opinion to people who have never heard of it because it is a hot issue now, but it doesn't mean it is not true and has not been there long before.
How do you explain 1 Corinthians 6:9 then?
drunk with power men trying to control everything around them via fear.
This guy doesn't know His Bible or the true God, he is his own god. And writes his own rules. THere are words for that at the end of the Bilble, those that add to this book or take aware from it have not place in the book of life.
You mean . . . free will? Wasn't that given to us by said god?
Mr. Helminiak cited the Bible. And you did what? (You attacked his person instead of his argument. Is this love for your neighbor?)
Ken: "Billions care [about what the bible says] you freak now go back under your rock fool"
The only reason billions "care" about the Judaism, Christianity and Islam are because there has been so much violence done in the names of these pathetic religions. Lots of money and power behind all that crap!
People don't kill because of religions, they kill because of oil,gold,money and power.
Crusades.
I don't have to read books. CNN finds people to tell me what they say so I can remain an illiterate dolt.
want to know what it says? Read it. If it matters to you at all you'd want to learn first hand.
but the author admits he is gay on his website. how could we expect anything other than a gay biased article.
So, do you accuse pastors of being biased towards the bible and therefore they're not an authority?
I only hate the gay lifestyle because God hates it!
Amen
And since God exists only in your head the real bigotry is exposed.
How do you know God hates it? God didn't write the Bible.
Atheist are the unbelievers mentioned in the bible. There are many places where it says what will happen to those unbelievers, i'm just glad i'm not one of them.
Ah...but only you fools are dumb enough to believe what you read in that wretched book of lies. Happily your threats of hell only affect you poor fools.
^Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid.
That was intended for "YouRWrong"
Some of the most shoddy linguistic work ever. Nothing like adopting lexical gymnastics to make yourself sound scholarly.
No kidding...people can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say. I'm very religious, but I still take anyone's interpretation of Biblical text with a grain of salt.
This is clearly written by a gay man trying to twist the bible to justify his chosen lifestyle so he and his partners feel better about themselves.
As opposed to twisting the bible to justify your personal beliefs. Rigggghhhhhhtttt.
You clearly are a religious nut looking to impose your will on others, wanted or not. Here's a hint: it's not wanted. Re-evaluate yourself.
Agreed.
Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Do you eat shellfish?
Want the new testament version?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 gentiles were exempted from old law under Acts, however some things remained sins even for gentiles.
yo Drew, that's OLD Testament buddy, Old Mosaic Laws were done away with when Christ died, that's why we don't sacrifice animals for our sins anymore ~ really cute, but know the whole story buddy, your logic is pointless because your not knowledgeable of the scriptures, those laws are silly to Christians to because they are not required anymore, read & learn so you can be educated like us, just a baby, you need milk, just a child you are
So . . . what you're saying is god was wrong the first time around? No, wait, if it's in the bible, then god said god was wrong the first time around. Got it.
Or shave Drew, not to mention about 20 other things that Leviticus prohibits.
That was actually my point, what is the truth.
Tingle, uh huh. Try reading the KJV instead of something like NIV for verses 9 and 10. Did you somehow miss 11?
There are a billion fools out there.
more, probably