A Gay Christian's Approach to the Bible

Many Christians today believe that homosexuality is a sin and some even believe that it is the worst sin imaginable. I believe that homosexuality is in fact not a sin and the following is an explanation and evidence to support this belief.

The most important concept to keep in mind is that we should not base an entire doctrine nor an entire statement of faith off of a few unclear passages. This would not be wise because one can make the Bible say anything. The Bible can be used to state anything and that is why we must keep in mind the Spirit of the Bible in our interpretations. And before I go into specific verses I would like to ask you this question: Why should God make homosexuality a sin?

First, we will look at the Old Testament passages. When discussing sexuality in the ancient world we must keep in mind the ancient mindset of sexuality. The most important credo in the ancient world was that one not have sexual relations with a social equal (West online). A primary cause of the distaste of homosexuality in the ancient world is that more often than not the two men would be of the same social class (the class of men) and therefore would violate the sociosexual credo. Homosexual sex was often used in the ancient world to show dominance over another person (West online). Let me also note another type of homosexual love that existed exclusively in the warrior class: a homosexual love between warriors was often viewed as heroic and poetic in the ancient middle east and was often praised (Horner 20).

Now we will discuss the first of the "hellfire" verses: the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Hebrew states that the men of Sodom wanted "to know" (Hebrew: yadah, to become acquainted with or to have sexual intercourse with) the angels that came to meet Lot. A more likely interpretation is that the men of Sodom wanted to rape the angels in order to show their dominance and superiority and thusly the sin of Sodom is more so a sin of pride against the messengers of God rather than a "sin of homosexuality" (West Online).