Homosexuality is sin and abhorrent
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| English: Symbol for lesbians and female homosexuality. Česky: Symbol leseb a ženské homosexuality vzniklý propojením dvou ženských genderových symbolů. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It seems that wherever pagan values reign, as in the Greco-Roman culture, there one finds widespread homosexuality. For instance, homosexuality was common among numerous American Indian tribes. Walter L. Williams, in a book that focuses on homosexuality among American Indians, sympathetically notes that the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia, the Crows, the Klamaths, the Hopi, the Sioux, the Navajo, the Zuni, the Yokuts, and other tribes in the United States all practiced homosexuality before contact with Westerners. Sometimes homosexual acts were intertwined with the religious ceremonies performed by shamans. Williams not only conveys a great deal of empathy for the homosexual customs of the American Indians but also throws frequent punches at Christianity for having influenced most American Indians to believe that homosexual behavior is morally bad.
The biblical condemnation and rejection of homosexuality was not a novel idea introduced by St. Paul. Jude, the writer of the New Testament book that bears his name, told his readers that sexual immorality led God to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7). And it may be that Jesus also had this sin in mind when he referred to God annihilating these two ancient cities (Matthew 11:23).
Had Christ never been born, and had his followers not been transformed by his spirit, the homosexual behavior of the ancient Romans would likely never have been outlawed in the Western world. In addition to laws prohibiting homosexual acts for individuals underage, there also are still laws against adult homosexual sex. For instance, in 1999 more than twenty of the fifty American states still had statutes on their law books outlawing homosexual behavior. This fact is not widely known because the mass media give the impression that homosexuality is a free and legal option (an “alternative lifestyle”) and that there are no longer any laws against homosexual practices. It is also worth noting that these state laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). In other words, when many in the mass media, as well as others, advocate that homosexual behavior should be tolerated, and even accepted, they often are really abetting criminal behavior.
LESBIANISM
In addition to some women sodomizing young boys, Roman women also engaged in homosexual activities with other women. The Roman poet Juvenal talks about women taking turns in riding each other (Satire 6). As with male homosexual sex, there was no guilt, shame, or inhibition. Homosexual graphics, similar to the heterosexual depictions, were openly portrayed on household items such as frescos, lamps, bowls, and cups. Commenting on this Roman way of life, Clarke says, “Imagine drinking from an elegant sliver cup with scenes of male-to-male intercourse on it … or visiting someone’s house and seeing fresco paintings depicting sexual activity on the walls of the best room.”36
Extrapolating from twentieth-century research studies of homosexuality, which commonly indicate that female homosexuality is significantly less prevalent than among men, we can assume that this difference was also true of the Romans. That, however, did not make this behavior any less depraved in the eyes of the early Christians. To the Christians in Rome, both male and female homosexual acts were a clear violation of the natural/moral law as well as an affront to God’s divine law set forth by Moses some fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. Leviticus 20:13 warned: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.” And in the New Testament, as noted earlier, St. Paul unequivocally condemned both male and female homosexuality.
