Religion and sexuality

[user83921]

In no way is this question meant to offend anyone, it's just something I've always wondered.

How does your faith affect your sexuality if you're gay/lesbian?

As in, if you are a Christian but homosexual, do you find it hard to connect with your faith as in the bible it says it's wrong to be gay?

Like is there a way you justify the teachings from your religion and interpret it your own way?

The Old Testament says a lot of stuff that reflects how they lived then but that's not applicable anymore e.g. slavery & treatment of women. I work on the basis that a, Jesus loved everyone regardless, b, the Bible was written by humans, not by God and c, God created gay people AND gay animals (leastways animals who indulge in same-sex acts). If He created animals to have same-sex fun & commitment then I can't see how He would mind me being gay.

I’m a lesbian and was brought up catholic , confirmed at 14 etc . I’m at a complete loss of what to do about it all and wouldn’t feel at all comfortable asking a priest for advice unfortunately .

I am at the point though where I think you have to view the bible in the time it was written - and the original text has been changed so much from what was originally written , I’m not sure I believe it’s 100% infallible.

I'm a cradle catholic, I'm not gay but a cousin and my best friend are. Many friends have been through IVF. I can't reconcile it.

As in I can't reconcile the church's position - not mine!!

I'm lucky that I've a vicar who's very gay-friendly & generally-accepting - I'm sure plenty aren't and I haven't exactly broadcast my sexuality in church, though I wouldn't be surprised if people have guessed just from my hair & dress sense

Without putting cat amongst pigeons too much...
There are more references to the evils of eating shellfish in the bible than there are to (male) homosexuality. Various passages set a fee for raping virgins; establish the dominion of men over women and the silence of the latter; celebrate victory over your rivals by smashing the heads of their infants against rocks; stipulate murder for the collecting of sticks on the sabbath; ban women from wearing gold; and sets rules for the ownership of married non-hebrew slaves and their children.
Yet, the gay thing is the one that attracts all the attention. Why....follow the money, approval of gay relationships limits procreation (bit of an assumption, but....) and extends the financial benefits of coupling to more people. Now, if your goal as financial governor is to only encourage the plebs to breed the next generation of wage slaves, well....

"The Old Testament says a lot of stuff that reflects how they lived then but that's not applicable anymore e.g. slavery & treatment of women".

So god was wrong when he said those things was he? Jesus stated that he upheld all scripture, so clearly he disagrees with your position on the old testament. Plus the new testament does not condemn slavery. Remember as well that the synoptic gospels are anonymous, we have no idea who wrote them.

So god was wrong when he said those things was he?
Well God didn't actually dictate the Bible did He? It's mankind's interpretation and stories handed down verbally over years and years until finally they started writing it down. And unless Jesus has said that he agrees with every single specific line written in the Bible (which I've not seen in anything I've read so far but I may yet come to it) then I'm guessing that's he's specifically referring to bits like the 10 commandments and so on rather than to every last word in the version of today's Bible.

Well according to the bible it is the inerrant word of god, and Jesus did agree with it all: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Scripture is ‘the commandment of God’ (Matthew 15:3) and the ‘Word of God’ (Mark 7:13). As for accepting all of it, ‘Until Heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law, until all is accomplished’ (Matthew 5:18). I think that is pretty clear. Why would you accept the 10 commandments and not the rest? The fall of man and the garden of Eden etc are fundamental to Christianity.

Why are you asking, op?

I know several gay Christians including clergy, they don't have a problem. They understand that the world has changed and the Old Testament is full of stuff we now ignore like not eating pork!

My ex-flatmate is gay and from a Christian family on the Isle of Lewis (traditional, small community). I am an atheist but we spoke about this quite a lot as he really struggled. His faith meant a lot to him and he felt a lot of shame, even saying that he would be straight if he had the choice. I found it quite sad and I hope he has been able to accept himself since I last saw him a few years ago.

Ps we have a rainbow flag to fly on the church at gay pride, love all!

Not an issue in Christianity anymore (or certainly shouldn't be) thank to the New Testament which supercedes the Old.

Even if you believe in a literal interpretation of the Torah / Bible, what they actually do forbid is contained in one sentence, found in two different places in Leviticus: in Hebrew: “וְאֶת-זָכָר--לֹא תִשְׁכַּב, מִשְׁכְּבֵי אִשָּׁה: תּוֹעֵבָה, הִוא” (v'et zachar lo tishkav mishkevei ishah) – literally, "And at a man you shall not lie the lyings of woman." By this token, Leviticus 18 is only about sexual violence and humiliation. In the misogynistic culture to which the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, and the only section of it which mentions homosexuality) was given ("The Torah speaks in the language of man"), to be sexually penetrated was a form of degradation. Leviticus 18 demands that this degradation never be visited upon another man. This explains the use of the word et and the strange locution 'mishkevei ishah': it refers to doing something humiliating to a man. If the prohibition meant something other than degradation, God would have said im adam - "with" a man, rather than 'et adam', which means, roughly, "to" or "at" a man.

Additionally. reading laterally, Bible does not forbid homosexuality. 'Homosexuality' is a modern term, a pseudo- scientific category created in the West in the eighteenth century. It refers not only to sexual acts, but to a sexual orientation, an identity, and is today used (imprecisely) to describe a range of sexual behaviours, attractions, and ideas about the self. This way of looking at sex acts was unknown to the Bible. Where the Bible does speak of sexual acts, it has no conception that these acts relate to personal identity, or to love. It expresses no belief that such acts are indicative of what we today call sexuality, or that sexual acts have any relation to identity. Paul speaks about Sodomy, which is a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, but says nothing Those who say that the Bible (or Torah, or Talmud, or Halacha) forbids homosexuality are simply wrong. There is no such thing as Biblical homosexuality.

I have very little time for Christians who quote Leviticus without knowing an ounce of the language it was originally written in, or the context of Hebrew legislature

(I’m Reform Jewish, bisexual and really enjoy analysing religious texts, if my credentials are needed!)

It's a shame the authors of religious texts didn't have inspiration nor guidance from anyone able to predict how they would be misinterpreted.