homophobia, conscious and unconscious

It won't, of course, be surprising to gay people,

but I've had to realise that some of the issues are not really about the Bible at all.

Most of us get it that for some people their natural instincts and desires are homosexual:

it’s not a matter of choice.

However, the idea that it’s a ‘lifestyle choice’ still seems to be quite widespread.

Some think that children can be ‘protected’ from gay tendencies through moral teaching,

or that gays can be turned straight through conversion therapies

which actually only cause harm.

Education cannot ‘correct’ homosexuality, but it can correct homophobia.

I came into this discussion through studying the Bible and learning what it really said.

For me, the only difficulty was that I'd been taught to interpret the Bible a certain way.

The conservative reading of scripture is a real problem for many from that background.

My thinking was that, if we could understand those verses in a better way, there would be no more problem. That should be the case, but is it misunderstanding scripture that leads to homophobia, or is it homophobia that leads to misunderstanding scripture?

There was a debate in parliament some years ago about a change in legislation which, if I remember rightly, was intended to clarify the law about homophobic discrimination. Some conservative Christians felt that it might result in restrictions on what could be preached in their churches and organised a protest. I actually had some sympathy with their views in those days, but I was shocked by the harsh and judgemental language being used. It certainly didn’t seem to be ‘preaching the truth in love’! This bothered me and led me to question the whole attitude.

If someone has a banner saying, ‘Homosexuality is an abomination,’ we all know they think they’re quoting Leviticus, but how is this presenting the Gospel or the love of God? What if they stood with such a banner on the other side of the road as a Gay Pride March was passing? They could be charged with homophobic abuse and might say, ‘Look, I’m being arrested just for quoting the Bible!’ However, that’s not true: it’s about how the Bible is used. It’s blatantly obvious that this quote, in that context and without qualification, is deliberately confrontational and homophobic.

These kind of legalistic statements are always made in angry, indignant tones.

Can this possibly be from the Lord?

Moral indignation is a very loud voice: it drowns out any kind of sympathetic attitude,

and prevents people from listening to reasonable arguments or being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

It also hinders understanding of God’s word.

Many Christians just accept whatever they’ve heard taught or is generally believed in the church they attend. The question is whether that’s what the Holy Spirit is saying and whether it really is the plain teaching of the Bible.

I was never happy about the way Romans 1:26,27 was interpreted. That’s why I did this study, and the section on Romans was the first thing I published on this website.

The other sections on gay relationships are teaching that's actually very well known among Bible scholars. That raises  the question as to why those passages are still being interpreted and preached in a way that is so negative and condemning. It's not about the plain meaning of the Bible: deeper study soon shows that the conservative view is not the best interpretation.