Sean gets right to the point — a point that Rod and I will explore much more in coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\nNine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to
\nhomosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46
\nand II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution by men and women.<\/p>\n
Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and Leviticus 20:10-16) are part of
\nwhat biblical scholars call the Holiness Code. The code explicitly bans
\nhomosexual acts. But it also prohibits eating raw meat, planting two
\ndifferent kinds of seed in the same field and wearing garments with two
\ndifferent kinds of yarn. Tattoos, adultery and sexual intercourse
\nduring a woman’s menstrual period are similarly outlawed.<\/p>\n
There is no mention of homosexuality in the four Gospels of the New
\nTestament. The moral teachings of Jesus are not concerned with the
\nsubject.<\/p>\n
Three references from St. Paul are frequently cited (Romans
\n1:26-2:1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and I Timothy 1:10). But St. Paul was
\nconcerned with homosexuality only because in Greco-Roman culture it
\nrepresented a secular sensuality that was contrary to his Jewish-
\nChristian spiritual idealism. He was against lust and sensuality in
\nanyone, including heterosexuals. To say that homosexuality is bad
\nbecause homosexuals are tempted to do morally doubtful things is to say
\nthat heterosexuality is bad because heterosexuals are likewise tempted.
\nFor St. Paul, anyone who puts his or her interest ahead of God’s is
\ncondemned, a verdict that falls equally upon everyone.<\/p>\n
And lest we forget Sodom and Gomorrah, recall that the story is not
\nabout sexual perversion and homosexual practice. It is about
\ninhospitality, according to Luke 10:10-13, and failure to care for the
\npoor, according to Ezekiel 16:19\u00b750: “Behold, this was the iniquity of
\nthy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness
\nwas in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of
\nthe poor and needy.” To suggest that Sodom and Gomorrah is about
\nhomosexual sex is an analysis of about as much worth as
\nsuggesting that the story of Jonah and the whale is a treatise on
\nfishing. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He then points us to Peter Gomes’s post on the subject<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sean gets right to the point — a point that Rod and I will explore much more in coming weeks. Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to homosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46 and II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution by men and women. Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment-of-the-day","category-same-sex-marriage-blogalogue"],"yoast_head":"\n
Comment of the Day - The New Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comment of the Day - The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sean gets right to the point — a point that Rod and I will explore much more in coming weeks. Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to homosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46 and II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution by men and women. Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-25T23:37:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Comment of the Day - The New Christians","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Comment of the Day - The New Christians","og_description":"Sean gets right to the point — a point that Rod and I will explore much more in coming weeks. Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to homosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46 and II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution by men and women. Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html","og_site_name":"The New Christians","article_published_time":"2008-11-25T23:37:47+00:00","author":"Tony Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html","name":"Comment of the Day - The New Christians","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-25T23:37:47+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-25T23:37:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/a5d6dffe0f41c25b4bd8136be22c4074"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/11\/comment-of-the-day-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Comment of the Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/","name":"The New Christians","description":"Tony Jones on Christianity and the Emerging Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/a5d6dffe0f41c25b4bd8136be22c4074","name":"Tony Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d50\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d50\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30x96.jpg","caption":"Tony Jones"},"description":"Tony Jones is the author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and several other books on Christianity and prayer.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/author\/tjones"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}