Saturday, July 16, 2005

What does homosexuality mean?

The Church would say that the Bible says homosexuality is a sin. I'm wondering - what does homosexuality mean? In the context of which those verses were written - the references in Leviticus, Romans, and where ever it addresses the issue - is it referring to what we assume it means? Some people have said that it's talking about any type of same sex sexual interaction. Others say that it's talking about deviant sexual behavior between the same sex - rape, indulgence, molestation, etc... Yet others say that it was a sin only for that time and culture.

I believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. No doubt. However, I'm exploring our interpretation of it. It is common doctrine that homosexuality is a sin. But when we say homosexuality - and the Bible refers to homosexuality - are we talking about the same thing? We already know that there are several forms of the word "love" in the greek. There are separate words for different kinds of love - unconditional love, romantic/sexual love, brotherly love. When we read "love" in the Bible, we may interpret it with our own baggage or lens. Could we be doing the same thing when we read the word "homosexual" in the Bible?

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