Christian and an Ally | Why Being Gay is Okay ✓

What Does Paul Have to Say About This?

It is always at this point in my argument that anti-gay Christians flip to the New Testament and ask me how to explain Romans 1:26-27. So, let's take a look at what Paul has to say.

First, a bit of background on our friend Paul. Paul is an apostle, which means "one who is sent" or "one who is commissioned" to spread the Gospel. He had initially persecuted Christians as Jewish heretics, but then he experienced a vision of Christ and became the leader of the mission effort to bring Gentiles (non-Jews) to Christianity. Bible scholars agree that Paul wrote at least seven books of the New Testament, while seven more are attributed to him. In all, that is fourteen books, which is over half the New Testament. As a result, Paul's teachings are an essential part of the Bible. If Paul argued something about homosexuality, then it must be important, right?

Well, let's see. In Romans 1:26-27, the passage in question, Paul says, ". . . Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved."

When you look at this quote on its own, it seems as though anti-gay Christians are on to something. But once again, we must turn to the passages around this quote and ask ourselves what is going on in this chapter.

In Romans 1, Paul starts out by greeting the Romans. Then he jumps right in by talking about how God is angered by those who "suppress the truth by their wickedness." But is this wickedness homosexuality? No, not at all. Paul says what the sin is in his very next paragraph: ". . . they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles." The sin that Paul is talking about is idolatry, i.e. the worship of idols, and not homosexuality. He is calling out the non-Jewish Romans, who worshiped pagan gods instead of the God of Israel.

Right after Paul says this, he explains, "So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself. . . . That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way. . ." Then of course, you read above how that quote ends.

So does that mean that Paul believes that being gay comes from idolatry and other more serious sins? No, not quite. Remember, Paul is talking about practicing pagans. When Paul talks about men and women abandoning their "natural" desires and burning with lust for each other, he is not talking about homosexuality as we know it. The word "homosexuality" only came into use in the late nineteenth century, and even then, it did not have the connotation it has today. Paul was most likely talking about the Roman and Greek religious prostitutes who engaged in same-sex orgies in the pagan temples. Paul is not denouncing homosexuality, but he is denouncing religious prostitution and same-sex orgies, which were a result of the Romans worshiping pagan gods instead of the God of Israel.

Now, you could argue that I am making assumptions about what kind of homosexual acts Paul is talking about, and you'd be right. But the people who argue that Paul is denouncing being gay as a whole are also making assumptions. The truth is that there is no way of knowing exactly what Paul meant. However, the bottom line is that Paul is arguing against idolatry in this chapter, not against being gay. After all, Paul would have no clue what we were talking about if we asked him his view on homosexuality, much less the rest of the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

There is one more point I would like to make before wrapping up this chapter. Paul, and the rest of the men who wrote the Bible, come from a very different era, culture, and viewpoint than we do in the twenty-first century. In Paul's culture, which was even more patriarchal than ours, the Jewish Israelites had a very rigid view of gender and gender roles. Men were always more powerful than women, who were expected to subordinate themselves to their fathers, husbands, and other male family members. Especially in the act of sex, the man was expected to take the dominant, more powerful role. Homosexuality turned these rigid gender roles on their heads, which was extremely taboo. After all, when two men had sex, didn't one of them have to "stoop down" to the level of a woman and allow himself to be dominated? And if two women had sex, didn't one of them suddenly gain power over the other?

Of course, we know today that this isn't necessarily the case, but in their culture, the idea of a man "weakening" himself to be the submissive partner in a sexual act was forbidden, as was a woman acting "like a man" by being the dominant partner. When Paul talks about same-sex relations being "unnatural," he is coming from a patriarchal point of view where the only "natural" sexual act that existed was a man exerting power over a woman.