Imagine growing up in an evangelical Christian household, and imagine how it might feel to realize you’re gay. For many teenagers, that realization is terrifying. They fear they will be rejected by their families and communities. The sad truth is that many homosexuals are rejected by their families because of their sexual orientation.
Matthew Vines was 19 when he realized he was gay. He was a sophomore attending Harvard and decided to take a break from school so that he could find a way to reconcile his sexual orientation with what the Bible says about homosexuality.
He didn’t want to lose his family or his faith. So, for the next four years, Vines studied Scripture – specifically what the Bible says about same-sex sexuality and the result was a book titled, God and the Gay Christian.
Vine calls his book “an open letter to modern Christians” about why they should support same-sex relationships and what the Bible really says about homosexuality. He explains in the video (below) that after collecting the information, he was able to change his father’s mind about same-sex relationships. He calls his book a blueprint for helping other Christians help affirm gay marriage while also affirming their commitment to the full authority of the Bible.
For quick reference, here are the 6 Biblical Scriptures he covers:
The Story of Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 19)
Genesis 19 is the most popular scripture used to condemn homosexuality by Christian extremists. Vines explains its relevance to the debate regarding homosexuality, stating: “God sends two angels disguised as men into the City of Sodom where the men of Sodom threatened to rape them. The angels blind the men, and God destroys the city. For centuries, this story was interpreted as God’s judgment on same-sex relations, but the only form of same-sex behavior described is a threatened gang rape. “
Clearly the passage relates to gang-rape and not to homosexuality itself.
Using the recap of the story of Sodom & Gomorrah found in Ezekial 16:49, Vines explains what he believes is the real point of the story: “Now, this was the sin of your sister, Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, they did not help the poor and needy.” So according to Vines, people are not only wrong to use Sodom and Gomorrah against homosexuals, it seems they are missing the point of the story entirely.
God calls homosexuality an abomination (Leviticus 18:22) (Leviticus 20:13)
True story, that’s exactly what the Bible says. However, as Vine explains, there are also restrictions on charging interest on loans, eating pork and shellfish….. But Christian extremists overlook (or ignore) the fact that Romans 10:4 says that “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.” Get it? That means the law of the Old Testament is over, which explains why Christians eat meat, use credit cards and a host of other things today.
Shameful Unnatural Acts (Romans 1:26-27)
Romans 1 states: “26For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”
Vines explains this passage in terms of the historic cultural context of Biblical times, telling that homosexual behavior at that time was accompanied by other sins as it was primarily viewed as happening between adult men and adolescent boys, by married men, and through prostitution. However, the Bible is devoid of any mention of the loving committed relationships the Supreme Court recently ruled as a fundamental right guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Use of the Greek works “Malakoi” and “Arsenokoitai” in the Bible (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) (1 Timothy 1:10)
While those words are included in New Testament list of people who will not “inherit” the Kingdom of God, there is debate regarding the original meaning of those words and, to put things in context, the term homosexual did not even exist until the late Nineteenth Century.
There is a great article about Malokoi and Arsenokoitai, which states in part:
“Malokoi” was a fairly common word (a plural adjective used as a noun) and it seems to have at least 3 possible meanings. The first meaning was “soft”, “fine” or “expensive” as used in Luke 7:25 and Matthew 11:8 when talking about a rich man’s clothes. The second was “effeminate” or “woman like”, but not necessarily in the “limp wrist (gay)” implication we give to those words today but with the idea of someone being “undisciplined”, “self-indulgent”, “decadent”, “lazy”, “easily influenced”, “without courage or stability” or “gentle in nature-like a woman”. The third being a young male prostitute or call-boy, a youth who consciously imitated feminine styles and ways and took on the passive role of a woman during sex for money. It appears that the third would be the most likely meaning as Robin Scroggs in The New Testament and Homosexuality points out on page 106, especially likely when found together with the word “arsenokoitai” and because it was found within a list of the worst possible sins. The practice of boy prostitution would have been known to Paul and it was universally detested in the Jewish community.
Now “arsenokoitai” is a word even more difficult to explain because this use in the Bible is the first recorded use of the word combined with the fact that it is found so rarely in other literature of the time and only in lists of vices. It only occurs in the Bible in this verse and in 1Timothy 1:10. The word is a compound of two parts, the first part meaning “male”, the second part “bed” or “beds”. But trying to put them together to come up with a meaning as many experts do is not necessarily reliable because language is not always logical. For example the word “lady-killer” in English means neither a lady who kills nor a person who kills ladies but a man who knows how to charm women.
Vines explains it more simply, stating:
Many modern translators have rendered these terms as sweeping statements about gay people, but the concept of sexual orientation didn’t even exist in the ancient world. Yes, Paul did not take a positive view of same-sex relations (nor did he support women speaking in church…), but the context he was writing in is worlds apart from gay people in committed, monogamous relationships. The Bible never addresses the issues of sexual orientation or same-sex marriage, so there’s no reason why faithful Christians can’t support their gay brothers and sisters.
You can watch the clip, below, and for those interested, Vines recommends you sign up for The Reformation Project, a Bible-based, Christian non-profit organization that seeks to reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity: http://www.reformationproject.org and be sure to register for their next big event, a regional training conference in Altanta from June 11-13, 2015: http://www.reformationproject.org/atl15.
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