My series on the Bible and homosexuality had been interrupted by my decision to resign from the board of ChristenUnie Amsterdam. In my relative peace now, I will continue the series. The last post was about Paul’s letter to the Romans and the reference to homosexuality and lesbian sex. I argued that, the text is not necessarily applicable to homosexuality here and now, because in Paul’s days the understanding of the natural and the cultural were distinctly different. Moreover, the reference in Romans seems to specifically apply to people who exchange their natural inclination - being either hetero- or homosexual - for opposite and other inclinations.In the introductory post to my discussion of Romans I also referred to textual and rhetorical limitations to the application of the text to homosexuality as we know it. I would like to discuss this further today.
In my thoughts on this aspect of Romans 1 am indebted to Daniel Helminiak, whose ‘What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality’ has been a source of inspiration and reflection to me.
Paul’s letter to the Romans starts with praising the Roman church for their faith, that was known throughout the world, moreover he wished grace and peace to all (Ro. 1:1-7). However, the tone of Paul’s letter changes quite radically after verse 18. Paul starts to condemn those who exchange their natural, sexual inclinations for unnatural sex (Ro. 1:26-27. Notably, Paul does not explicitly refer to homosexuals engaging in homosexual activity! Paul doesn’t only condemn ‘unnatural’ sexual behaviour, he also condemns ‘every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity … envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. … [those who are] gossipers, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful … they [who] disobey disobey their parents’ (Ro. 1:28-30).
In chapter 2, Paul radically changes his tone again, no longer does he speak in the third person, he turns to the Romans (2:1): ‘you … have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.’ Of course, not everyone in the Rome Church engages in homosexual activities, yet Paul say: you do the same thing. Paul is not referring to homosexual activity (or more precisely: the exchange of natural inclinations) specifically, but to a general state of depravedness of humanity. He warns that everyone is subject to this depravedness and every one needs God’s grace. It is not by belonging to a certain tradition (for instance Judaism) or undergoing some ritual (circumcision) that people are saved, but a change of heart (2:27-28). The argument culminates in the exaltation of Christ in chapter 3 (v. 23-24): for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.
Rhetorically, Paul seems to win the goodwill of the (Jewish) Church congregation in Rome, by ‘talking like the Jews do’, and interesting ancient application of ‘when in Rome do as the Romans do’. Paul adopts the language against acts that Jewish at the time found ‘unclean’, maybe even disgusting (see my earlier post on cleanliness in Leviticus). That way Paul wins over the sympathy of his readers, before he turns the argument around, by saying: you’re really not that different! In fact, those (heterosexuals?) that so ‘disgustingly’ engage homosexual acts are condemned no more than you ‘brave Roman Jewish citizens’ are. We are all in need of God’s grace.
In sum, there are different and opposite interpretations on the text about homosexual acts in Romans. Of course it’s difficult to determine almost 2000 years later what the ‘right’ interpretation would be. However, the very fact that there are different, plausible, interpretations should give some food for thought. A few interpretations led to the harsh condemnation of homosexual Christians, their expulsion from churches and even violence and persecution. I presented only three alternative readings of the (in)famous verses of Romans 1 on homosexuality. I challenge you to consider them and other alternatives. Again, on these particular texts I found Daniel Herminiak’s ‘What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality’ very insightful.
homosexuality,gay,Christianity,Church,Romans
