No, the Bible doesn’t say that “being gay” is a sin. But it’s also important to realize that
The Bible doesn’t directly answer every question we may ask. We may be asking a question that will require more work to answer than simply quoting a passage of Scripture.
While there are a handful of scripture passages that appear to address the topic of “homosexuality,” the ancient conceptions of sexuality that the biblical authors use are not the same as our understanding today. For example, many passages in the Bible present women as sexual objects, since women in the ancient world were ascribed value and rights only in connection to men (usually their father or husband). Many passages in the Bible present men having multiple wives as a norm, and intermarrying among relatives was a common practice.
What are the “Clobber Passages”?
Although the Bible does not mention sexual orientation, there are a few passages where a biblical author mentions sex between people of the same gender. These texts are often termed the “clobber passages” due to the way they have been wielded against queer people. When we engage these texts, we must consider the historical context, the literary context and textual features of the passage, the rhetorical or intended function of the text, and finally our own personal lens of reading scripture - what expectations we bring with us as readers. Christians who affirm the lives and partnerships of queer people (themselves or others) haven’t thrown the Bible out. Rather, we have wrestled with these texts and done the hard work of discerning how they apply to today.
Genesis 19:1-38
This Old Testament text is the story of the destruction of Sodom as a result of the men of the city seeking to gang rape two male angelic visitors. This text is often cited as God punishing the city due to men having sex with other men. A close reading of the story reveals instead that God is against non-consensual sex, the rape that occurs in the story. In the ancient world, rape was a violent form of inhospitality, a grotesque abuse of a visitor to assert dominance and humiliate. The story in Genesis 19 is a warning against oppressing the most vulnerable in society and a call to show hospitality instead. Our English word “sodomy” comes from readers who missed this focus in the text and fixated instead on the fact that men were having sex with men. We should realize that same sex relationships are not the focus of the sin of Sodom.
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13
These passages condemn “men lying with men as with a woman.” There are a couple of things to note here. First, notice that this passage is rooted in an ancient mindset that women are passive sexual agents, and for a man to take on the passive role of a women would be humiliating and denigrating to the man. Perhaps even more interesting, these laws are focused on ensuring that the Israelites increase in population as they try to transition from being a wandering group of people to a nation inhabiting a land. The injunction against men having sex with men sits alongside other laws that do not lead to procreation (like a man having sex with a woman who is menstruating, or a man “pulling out” while having sex with a woman). Ancient thinking taught that semen held all that was needed for fertility, and so they thought that any expression of semen was a potential life for their growing nation. The admonition against men lying with men is based on the need in this particular time for sex to increase the population and the misguided belief that any time semen was spilled in another way, it was a potential Israelite lost. Additionally, Christians give weight to contextual considerations for many other Levitical laws making it problematic to pick this law out as timeless.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
This clobber passage includes “male prostitutes” and “sodomites” in a list of people who will not enter the Kingdom of God alongside thieves, greedy people, idolaters, and adulterers. The context of the Corinthian society is particularly important as the list is largely aimed at those who take advantage of the vulnerable in many ways. Within the ancient world of Corinth same sex intercourse was often linked to oppressive power structures (where older men had sex with young boys) and idol worship (where men had sex with male sex workers in the temple). Paul, the author of this letter, is seeking to condemn sexually exploitative practices of his day, and we can distinguish them from sex between consenting adults as practiced in our culture today.
1 Timothy 1:9-11
In Timothy we find a similar “vice list” to the one in 1 Corinthians. Here the term “sodomites” is used, which we know already is problematic term. Sodomites are listed alongside those with other “vices,” but this time with an emphasis on the threat of false teaching and the need for order and control. Just like in the letter to the Corinthians the context is crucial to understand why certain types of behaviors are being singled out. In a culture where men who had sex with men often did so in ways that were oppressive or taking advantage of the vulnerable, it makes sense that such behavior would be considered a vice, behavior not associated with the Kingdom of God. It is important to consider not just the particular behavior, but the reason the behavior was condemned. Looking at the larger Biblical witness, we can agree that any behavior (sexual, economic, or otherwise) that takes advantage of vulnerable people is not in line with the Kingdom of God. If a same-sex relationship today is equitable and involves consent, it cannot be condemned on the same terms that 1 Timothy condemns “sodomites.”
Romans 1:18-32
This passage has what seems like the strongest language against same-sex relationships and is notably the only place where the Bible mentions women having sex with women. As with any Biblical passage, it is important here to ask what the text is trying to address. The big picture move Paul is trying to achieve in Romans is to help Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians see they are one people, equally flawed and in need of grace. At the beginning of this letter, Paul is talking specifically to the church members who are Jewish, and he chooses same-sex relationships as his topic because culturally, almost all Jewish people at the time would have associated such behavior with Gentiles and disapproved of it, in part because it was often linked to idol worship. Paul uses the image to grab the attention of his Jewish readers. In a bait-and-switch, he then calls out their quick judgment of their Gentile siblings. For how often people quote Romans 1, why do they not continue into chapter 2? “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.” Notice that Paul’s point is to demonstrate that no one is better than another and to promote unity in the church. Given that same sex relationships today are not rooted in exploitation nor linked to idol worship we can remove Paul’s larger message about the universal need for grace from his context-based sexuality argument. Ironically, Paul’s point here might be more appropriately applied to those Christians who would judge others based on their sexual orientation.