Some Christian groups and LGBTQ+ people have been at each other’s throats for some time now. And when you look at the history of the church and queer people, it’s no wonder as to why. Sodomy laws, the lavender scare, and even attempts to ban gender affirming care today have been results of religion getting into politics. Queer kids getting kicked out of Christian households and churches have been a sad but common occurrence. But… What does the bible actually say about all of this? What does God have to say?
When most Christians say that same-sex loving people are an abomination under Christ, they are most likely referring to Leviticus 18:22, where it states “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination.” (KJV) This by itself seems like it’s pretty clear in its messaging, right? When God is talking to Moses, he’s speaking to a guy about not sleeping with other guys. So, is our question answered? Are gay people just not accepted?
Well, as like most things in the Bible, it’s not that simple.
The book of Leviticus is God giving instructions to Moses on how to live in a Holy way. Moses will then go to Israel and bring this message to the people there. In Leviticus 18, the main focus is on unhealthy relationships, which include rape, incest, step-family incest, pedophilia, cheating in a marriage, and zoophilia. God says that if any of his followers were to commit any of these abominations, they are to be cut off from him and his earthly followers. Now, with that context, we can assume that when God brought up gay relationships, he didn’t mean all gay relationships- he meant the ones that include harmful and unhealthy practices.
We also have to consider translations of the Bible before homosexuality was even something to be defined in the English language. Before the term “homosexual” was even described in 1933, many publications of the Bible used the term “arsenokoitai” which briefly translates to “Boy molester.” It was in 1946 when most English translations began to use Homosexual, and in the 1980s, many international translations followed suit. In fact, many German publications of the bible used the term “knabenschander” until 1983, when American publishers changed the word. If “homosexual” were really the word to be used, Germans would have changed it first, given that the German word for homosexual (Shwul) was coined in 1868. Nowadays, most bibles don’t directly say Homosexual, but they give the same message. Given that many pastors in the past were molesting little boys, it’s barely a wonder as to why they changed it. My information on this mistranslation came from the United Methodist insight page at this link
Okay, so we’ve debunked the sexuality side of the spectrum, now what about the T in LGBTQ+? Are they accepted? Why, of course! In Genesis 1:27, the Bible says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (KJV). Knowing what we know now about the brains of transgender people and how they more closely align with the brains of their actual gender rather than the gender they were born as according to the Cleveland Clinic at this link , we know that being transgender is no choice. This also applies for people who are intersex at birth. While God specifically said male and female, in previous verses, he was speaking of the animals of the land. Imagine if God had instructed Moses to write down every animal he had ever created! Just because God didn’t specifically say intersex and non-binary and all the other genders out there, doesn’t mean that they’re not included in his love.
Society needs to learn to love their neighbors, just as Jesus did.
