Now, before we get into this, I would like to say that I myself am a Christian, I do believe in Christ. However, I have seen the Bible misinterpreted in some ways, in hateful ways, to be exact.
For example, 1 Corinthians 6:9 , (NIV):
"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men..."
Interesting, you may think. Well, it says it right there: homosexuality is wrong, right? However, note how it's translated "men who have sex with men" . Is that not interesting? Why would Paul just not say "homosexuality"?
Well, some people would say that in Paul's time, in the Roman Empire, men having sex with men was prevalent. However, Greek terminology doesn't map neatly onto the modern concept of sexual orientation. Translating terms such as these as a direct condemnation of homosexuality is putting a much more modern category into an ancient text. But let us think just for a moment, Galatians 5:14 , (NIV):
"For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
How interesting! Doesn't this create apparent tension? Also consider Romans 13:10 ! (NIV):
"Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
So, we have a good definition of Paul's meaning of the "law"; he describes it twice! But let's look deeper: what has Jesus Himself said about the commandments, what to do and not to do?
Well, allow us to refer to Matthew 22:37-40 , (NIV):
"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
This is a direct teaching from Jesus Himself: love others, and love God; everything else will be fulfilled if you do these two things. Now, how is homosexuality not loving others? And I mean in a compassionate type of way, how is homosexuality like other sin? The fundamental ideas that Jesus teaches are to love God and to love your neighbor, what harm or violation of these ideas are created by a consensual, same-sex relationship?
Another verse that is commonly brought up is Romans 1:26-27 , (NIV):
"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."
How interesting! Surely there's no way to counter this, right?
Look later into the chapter:
"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."
A bit more specific, isn't it? Romans 1 presents these actions as part of a much larger progression involving idolatry, and a deeper, broader degradation of human behavior. Therefore, it is important to understand what context Paul was supplying outside of those verses. But what exactly does Paul mean by "shameful lusts" ?
The Greek phrase used here is πάθη ἀτιμίας ( pathē atimias ) , which can be translated as "dishonorable passions" or "shameful passions." Pathē refers to passions or strong feelings, while atimias has the sense of dishonor or disgrace.
This matters because the NIV's phrase "shameful lusts" is an English translation of the Greek, not a direct one-to-one equivalent of the modern English concept of "lust." Therefore, we should be careful about assuming that Paul's terminology corresponds exactly to our modern understanding of sexual desire or sexual orientation.
It is also possible that Paul's language is functioning within his broader aggressive stance against Greco-Roman paganism. Romans 1 explicitly connects the behavior he describes with idolatry, and Paul presents the pagan rejection of God as leading to a broader moral degradation. Later Christian writers also used descriptions of pagan religious and sexual practices rhetorically to contrast Christianity with paganism. This does not prove that Paul was exaggerating the practices he described, but it does give us another reason to consider whether his argument is specifically concerned with pagan religious behavior, rather than treating his words as a straightforward description of every same-sex relationship.
In conclusion, I do not believe the Bible can be fairly reduced to saying, "homosexuality is a sin!" These passages that are usually used to make that claim come from very different cultural and religious contexts than those of today. Paul was writing about behaviors in a world that simply did not have our modern concept of sexual orientation, and Romans 1 is deeply connected to his criticism of pagan society.
I believe it is important to approach these texts with historical and linguistic context rather than using them as simple proof-texts against an entire group of people.
The center of Jesus' teaching is love: love of God and love of our neighbor. Whatever conclusion someone reaches about these passages, Christianity should never be used as an excuse for hatred, cruelty, or dehumanization. Homophobia that turns into hatred and discrimination does not reflect the love that Jesus commanded His followers to show others.
Christianity should never be an excuse to hate people. If anything, the command to love our neighbor should challenge us to treat others with compassion, dignity, and understanding.
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