Religion and Ethics Forum

Religion and Ethics Discussion => Christian Topic => Topic started by: Steve H on April 08, 2024, 01:11:23 PM

Title: Jesus, the Bible, the Pope and homosexuality.
Post by: Steve H on April 08, 2024, 01:11:23 PM
Interesting article. Comments?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality-well-for-starters-jesus-wasn-t-a-homophobe/ar-BB1lfWzr
Title: Re: Jesus, the Bible, the Pope and homosexuality.
Post by: Nearly Sane on April 08, 2024, 01:31:51 PM
Interesting article. Comments?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality-well-for-starters-jesus-wasn-t-a-homophobe/ar-BB1lfWzr
That blaming other's for  interpreting the Bible according to their biases, and then claiming you have the correct interpretation is indicative of the general problem rather than about an actually correct interpretation.


'But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex'. This seems to mean that any sex between people of the same sex thar isn't loving, or not in a long term relationship isn't 'homosexuality', and the same for heterosexuality in terms of sex between people of the opposite sex. There's also a hint there of the 'bronze age goatherders' just being too dumb to understand things.

I don't think the Bible is a coherent guide to ethics so in the end the dispute  between people about what they think it says tells me much more about them than the Bible.

Title: Re: Jesus, the Bible, the Pope and homosexuality.
Post by: Nearly Sane on April 08, 2024, 08:37:37 PM
It may be that the Pope gets a less enthusiastic write up in Pink News after this.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68761487
Title: Re: Jesus, the Bible, the Pope and homosexuality.
Post by: jeremyp on April 09, 2024, 02:34:02 PM
Interesting article. Comments?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality-well-for-starters-jesus-wasn-t-a-homophobe/ar-BB1lfWzr

Yes. I think the author is straining very hard to put a sympathetic spin on it. His interpretation of the Sodom and Gomorrah story is particularly doubtful.

His contention that Leviticus 18:22 is about relationships that cross the boundary between clean and unclean or different ethnicities (yeah, that's inclusive, not) is laughable.

The truth is, we have no evidence of whether Jesus was homophobic or not. You might infer that he was sympathetic to gay people, but it is not stated explicitly.