Surely this time God forbids homosexuality?

So we have now hit the second of the “proof texts” that show us homosexuality is outlawed by God in the Bible.

Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 18:22

On the face of it, this verse and the one that follows in chapter 20 –

If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. Leviticus 20:13

are pretty cut and dried. If a man lies with a man, put them to death. Easy to see why people see this as proof that God does not tolerate homosexuality. But the case is less clear cut when you consider the context.

Firstly, there is no cultural evidence of what we witness as stable, monogamous, loving same-sex relationships. It would seem the nomadic, tribal culture could not support it at the time. You needed offspring to survive in that society. And then the cultural divisions between men and women’s work would have made it impossible for two men to live together and survive. There were many crucial tasks that men could not do including getting water!

So if same sex relationships were virtually unknown, why does the writer of Leviticus mention it twice? There are many more common issues he only mentions once – so why mention this twice if it was virtually unheard of? Clearly the context is not as we see it. It was clearly about something other than what we understand.

And this leads to the second point. The context of these chapters is about keeping pure from the pagan religious festivals that dominated the culture of the polytheistic peoples who lived around the Promised Land.

You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. Leviticus 18:3

This verse shows this is clearly about not following the practices of the peoples around them and if we weren’t clear that this was about religious practices, Molek – a local god – is mentioned four times in the first five verses of chapter 20.

This is about religious worship. This is about religious practice. This is about all manner of things that happened in the context of the worship of Molek. There is no evidence that the context is wider.

So rather than beating the Lesbian and Gay communities up with out of context texts about why we should not worship Molek, I believe it is time to focus on love and how love wins. If God is love, then how could God condemn the long term, monogamous same sex relationship? We may not be comfortable with it, but that is so much more about our culture and upbringing than it is about God.