Homosexuality and Christianity

During different eras and in various cultures, homosexuality has been frowned upon, banned, punished or even tolerated and approved of. In ancient Rome and Greece, homosexuality was common as adult men related to adolescent males. Many religions of the world have considered homosexuality to be a sin. Many Christian and Jewish leaders have taken it upon themselves to declare that their religions forbid the actions of homosexuals. There are some Christians from fractions of mainstream Protestantism and Reform rabbis that advocate that homosexuals should be accepted into the church as well as their actions. The two aspects have caused conflict for the homosexuals that practice Christianity2. It goes without saying that some people see the combination of Christianity and homosexuality as contradictory, but there are still people that believe Christians whose sexual orientation is homosexuality should abandon neither Christianity nor this sexual orientation of theirs3.

The decision that these people have taken of practicing homosexuality alongside Christianity has called for various responses from both the church and the other Christians. The responses given by the various people and Churches are quite different; while some are sympathetic, others are hostile, discriminating or even rejecting. In the middle of this negativity, there are still some positive responses. He says, among other things, that homosexuality is not a sound doctrine. In the same letter, Paul says in chapter 1 verses 26 and 27, “…because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. They hold that homosexuality is not in line with God’s plan for human beings. Some even believe that homosexuality could lead to the destruction of the marriage system8. These ones say that all marriages as God made it should be heterosexual and things other than this are not legitimate. On the other hand, liberal Christians believe that the reason homosexuality is not presented in the Bible is that the Bible is culturally limited. They argue that since the Bible was written many years ago, it may not be relevant to today’s culture. According to most Christians, the two cannot coexist and will never coexist favorably.

Most Christians hold that the scriptures are timeless and so what was written at the time the Bible was written applies even today11. This is despite the claims of some liberals that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does not mean that the people were punished because of their homosexuality but because of not showing hospitality to the angels in the house of lot. In conclusion, although there are Christians who believe that one can be both a Christian and homosexual, the greatest number hold that the two cannot coexist and base their claims on the scriptures which are believed to daunt homosexuals at every turn. Those who oppose homosexuality, however, do not say that homosexuals should be chased away from the church.