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Follow-up question: do many holy books condemn homosexuality?

The only one holy book I know with some confidence is the Bible, and it seems to me that there's not consensus on to what extent it does condemn homosexuality.

First of all, the Bible is not a single book with uniform doctrine. It's a collection of many books written by hundreds of people of different persuasion, in different times, aggregating different sources. There's all kinds of different and even contradictory ideas in different parts of the Bible.

In the Old Testament there's only one book where there's unequivocal condemnation of sexual intercourse between males (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13). Nowhere in the Old Testament there is explicit condemnation of romantic attachment between males, only the sexual act itself. Also female homosexuality is never mentioned.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often read as a condemnation of homosexuality, but it is actually a condemnation of violating hospitality. The problem is not homosexuality, the problem is that the people want to rape Lot's guests. This is the interpretation the Bible itself gives in Ezekiel 16:49-50, and it's also the interpretation given in Talmudic literature.

The New Testament does have some passages that can be interpreted as condemnation of homosexuality but their translations and interpretation are far from settled. In particular the correct translation of the term malakoi, which is often translated as "effeminate", is very disputed. It might mean something not related to homosexuality at all.

Some of this interpretation debate can be found in the book Homosexually and Civilization (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674022331).

So it seems to me that there's no consensus on the evidence of a blanket and consistent condemnation of homosexuality from the whole Bible.

Hi, friends,

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