Those Seven References: A Study of "Homosexuality" in the Bible and Its Impact on the Queer Community of Faith

By John F. Dwyer

A thoughtful analysis of the faulty rationale behind Christian anti-gay bias.

There have been enormous strides toward equality for the queer community in recent years. There have also been regressive local legislative actions seeking to limit those national steps toward equality. Many of those who have led these regressive efforts are individuals steeped in purposeful ignorance, bias, tribalism, and a radicalization of faithful beliefs, misleading their congregations and influencing legislators.

Personhood, the intense value of our individuality, cannot be made less by these few passages of scripture: God’s love for our uniqueness is not compromised by oft misinterpreted verses. Having knowledge and words to counter baseless accusations can disarm those who would use these passages as weapons of exclusion and judgement, and can empower the queer community to live confidently in God’s love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
• Release date: Mar 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781640653382

John F. Dwyer

JOHN F. DWYER is an Episcopal priest who has served the church in both seminary and parish settings, and had legal and corporate work experiences prior to being ordained. Throughout his life, he searched for ways to witness to and express the all-inclusive love of God, particularly as a married gay man. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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INTRODUCTION

I firmly believe that the Bible is the living and breathing word of God. God’s self-revelatory word shows God’s yearning to be in relationship with us as evident in our creation and the Incarnation of Jesus. Yet relationships are two-way streets. So the Bible and our study of it are also signs of our yearning to be in relationship and conversation with God. The Bible is one of the ways we get to know God and God gets to know us.

If the Bible is the living and breathing word of God, then as with anything in this world that is alive, thriving, and well, there must be growth or else stagnation sets in and that living thing will die. Our understanding of God’s Word to us grows as we, as human beings, develop and grow. To be the living, breathing words of God, these texts must be made understandable to each succeeding generation that hears them for the first time.

One of the basic tenets of the Anglican tradition, of which The Episcopal Church is a part, is that our faith is understood and distilled through the three-legged stool of scripture, tradition, and reason; each leg of that stool being equal and as important as the other. As with any stool, if one leg becomes out of kilter with any other, the stool will wobble and fall over.

There are many ways of interpreting and understanding the Bible. Some believe that a literal approach is the only lens through which scripture should be read. By looking at the Bible through this singular and literal lens, the meaning of the Bible can be misconstrued, and thereby tilt that three-legged stool. We need multiple lenses through which the Bible can be studied and understood. Looking at these texts from different angles, through different lenses, provides a broader perspective. These different ways of understanding the texts inform a more nuanced and conversant way to engage with scripture.

The Bible as we know it was written over the course of centuries, lovingly passed down from generation to generation with alterations, modifications, additions, and subtractions made to these words of God. Those that take these words of God and try to freeze them in a translational context do a disservice to those engaging with those texts, which can thwart God’s present voice being heard.

A literal lens can also miss the broader point and story that the information around a passage is setting forth: simply stated, taking something out of context and utilizing it for one’s own purposes perverts the message being presented. Therefore, it is important to read, at a minimum, the whole chapter surrounding the verses under study to understand what is being relayed by the authors and editors of the texts. This method assists in not taking things out of context and will provide a deeper interaction with those texts.

The studies of the various passages which follow attempt to look at these passages in context with those that are around them, as well as to demonstrate how they fit into the more global aspect of the canon which has been passed down to us; to understand the language utilized in the original manuscripts; to review the nuances of those words and what they meant to the people at the time they were written, and in some cases rewritten and edited; to review how these passages have been interpreted and understood throughout the generations that have worshipped with them; to review any different translations and understandings of particular words; and to look at how these passages are applicable to our current society and world. This approach is firmly entrenched in the three-legged stool approach to understanding theology and the Bible: basing the understanding of the passage in question on tradition, scripture, and reason.

The starting point for all discussions in this work will be the New Revised Standard Bible translation (NRSV). Other translations will be utilized for comparison purposes and will be specifically identified.

A word of warning: some of the anthropological concepts, societal understandings, and discussions which follow may be difficult to read for some due to the graphic and personal nature of what these passages under review focus on: sex and sexual relations. In order to understand these passages, the sociocultural understanding of sex and sexual relations at the time the passages were written must be understood. Thus, they are explored in the following pages.

This study is meant to add another voice to the ongoing discussion of the place of LGBTQ+ persons in the experience and life of the Church. This work is by no means exhaustive or all-encompassing. My dream is to give voice, hope, understanding, and words to counter bias to those who have been abused by the misuse of scripture, allowing God’s voice to be heard in these passages in ways that have been silenced for many queer people—to be another voice in the continuing conversation about and with God, and to provide in one place the direct biblical references to homosexuality.

CHAPTER ONE

Genesis 19 AND

Judges 19

Part One: Genesis 19

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground.

² He said, Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way. They said, No; we will spend the night in the square. ³ But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; ⁵ and they called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.

⁶ Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, ⁷ and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. ⁹ But they replied, Stand back! And they said, This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them."

Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door. ¹² Then the men said to Lot, Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of the place. ¹³ For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it. ¹⁴ So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, Up, get out of this place; for the LORD is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. ¹⁵ When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city. ¹⁶ But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, they said, Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed. ¹⁸ And Lot said to them, Oh, no, my lords; ¹⁹ your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. ²⁰ Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved! ²¹ He said to him, Very well, I grant you this favor too, and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there. Therefore the city was called Zoar. ²³ The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven; ²⁵ and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. ²⁷ Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace. ²⁹ So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.