Editor's note: While not all Clarion authors agree on the subject of same-sex marriage, I've posted Matt Hyam's paper because it is an attempt in good faith to present a serious response for those churches and denominations struggling to move beyond ideologies and biases back into a close and careful reading of Scripture. This seems essential given that some denominations seem to be composing policies with little concern for scholarly engagement.
A Biblically Faithful Response to Same-Sex Marriage
Matt Hyam
Introduction
Twenty years ago, any argument about homosexuality1 was effectively ended with the unequivocal statement that, “the Bible forbids any sex outside marriage,” and the average Christian or church did not need to wrestle with this too deeply; we were content with a vague understanding that the Bible is against it. Today, legalised same-sex marriage has meant that suddenly, churches and individuals cannot ignore this any longer and instead we must delve into the Bible to see what it really says.
Goddard states that “nobody has claimed any biblical text is affirmative about homosexual conduct and so a more positive Christian moral judgment would have to be based on other grounds than scripture,”2 and to attempt this, “requires a…credible critique of the traditional account.”3 Few would disagree with this, and yet here I am, trying to do exactly that. I want to argue that the onus is not on so-called “revisionists” to critique the so-called “traditionalist” view, but on all Christians to give a good exegesis of scripture. I want to assert that much of our interpretation of the five4 passages in scripture, that apparently refer to homosexuality, has passed through a contemporary cultural lens and superimposed our constructs onto ancient texts.
I will look at the modern concept of homosexuality, then at these five passages of scripture, normally cited to argue against it, the creation account and ask questions in the light of current scientific understanding and I will look at what Jesus says that can provide a hermeneutical key to ascertain whether homosexuality is something that is biblically permissible. [cont'd in download]
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Notes
1 I am going to make the assertion from the beginning that if homosexuality is permissible then same-sex marriage is, also, as the only valid environment for its expression.
2 Andrew Goddard, Homosexuality and the Church of England (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2004), 13.
3 Goddard, Homosexuality, 10.
4 I will not deal with the Sodom account in Genesis 19 as “very few Biblical interpreters think this story is about ‘homosexuality,’” David P. Gushee, Changing Our Minds (Canton: Read the Spirit Books, 2017) but rather domination and humiliation, and it does not seem a good use of the limited space to engage with it.
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