African Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality
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| Adam and Eve (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The first human inhabitants of the world that God created were a man and a woman (Gen 1:27). This first couple set the paradigm for marriage and sexuality, as the narrator of Genesis clearly states: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). This position is endorsed by Jesus in 19:4–5. The relationship between Adam and Eve was clearly sexual, for the very next verse states that “the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Gen 2:25). The sexual relationship between a man and a woman is again endorsed in Genesis 4:1, which states that “Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth”, where the word “lay” clearly refers to sexual intercourse. One can confidently say that Scripture teaches that heterosexuality is the norm. Homosexuality must thus be a deviation from this norm.
In its presentation of homosexuality, Scripture does not discuss whether this condition is innate or situational. What it does do is focus on legislation regarding homosexual acts and incidents of homosexual behaviour. The following are some of the key biblical passages.
• Genesis 19:1–11. The men of Sodom who wanted to rape Lot’s visitors were homosexuals. Lot told them that such behaviour was wicked, but they refused to listen to him. Their behaviour and their lack of repentance brought divine judgment on their city.
• Leviticus 18:22; 20:13. These two verses form part of what is known as the Holiness Code in Leviticus. They strongly condemn lying “with a man as one lies with a woman”. They describe such behaviour as “detestable” and prescribe the death penalty for male homosexuals.
• Judges 19 tells the story of a Levite who ended up in a similar situation to Lot’s visitors. He was on a journey and had to spend the night in the town of Gibeah. He was offered hospitality by an old man, but that night “some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, ‘bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him’.” They were clearly homosexuals bent on raping the male guest, even though the old man described their actions as “vile” and “disgraceful”.
• Romans 1:26–27. Paul describes male and female homosexuals as idolatrous and wicked, and as acting in a way that is contrary to nature: “Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” He has no doubt that homosexuality is unnatural and a perversion of the heterosexuality that God established at creation.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; 1 Timothy 1:9–10. Paul groups homosexuality with other sins such as murder, adultery and idolatry. He states that all those who practice these vices, including homosexuals, “will not inherit the kingdom of God”.
Clearly, Scripture has a very negative view of homosexual intercourse. It makes it clear that those who engage in such behaviour do not enjoy divine favour and will attract both present and future condemnation and judgment. Any attempt to justify homosexuality and homosexual acts is foreign to the Scripture.
The Christian Response to Homosexuals
Given what Scripture has to say about homosexuality, how should the church and individual Christians respond to homosexuals and to the homosexual agenda?
The first point that must be made is that the church must not abandon the biblical position. Christians must accept that the Scriptures are the final authority in matters of faith and practice and provide the guidelines and qualifications for membership in Christ’s church. For example, one cannot call Jesus Lord and also confess that Buddha is Lord because that contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. In the same way, one cannot approve of same-sex acts when the Bible explicitly condemns them. The Bible must be our yardstick for measuring what is right and wrong.
It follows that we cannot accept same-sex marriage. The scriptural view of marriage is that it is a relationship between a male and a female, and that sex should only take place within marriage. But these days society teaches that sex is purely a biological function, unrelated to marriage, and marriage is assumed to be based solely on love. Thus it is assumed that as long as two people love and care for each other, it does not matter whether they are both the same sex. We need to work to correct this shallow understanding of marriage.
But while we should refuse to condone homosexuality and same-sex marriage, we must be compassionate in our dealings with homosexuals. We do not have to agree with their behaviour or with their argument that it must be accepted, but we should listen to them compassionately and respectfully. Listening does not mean compromising our position.
We must also remember that homosexuality is not the only heinous sin in our world. Besides homosexuality, Paul’s list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 includes sexual immorality, adultery, greed, drunkenness, slander and fraud. These sins are equally wicked and evil. Yet those who have committed these sins have been accepted into our churches if they turn to Christ and turn away from their evil practices. We should do no less for homosexuals. The church must be willing to extend warm acceptance to those who have changed their ways.
Conclusion
The current debate on homosexuality is complex and troubling. As shown in the discussion above, the issues involved include “the meaning of human sexuality, the interpretation of Scripture, the use of empirical data, and the criteria for evaluation of moral action”.
One’s position on whether some people are homosexual by nature or choice will affect one’s response to the psychological, social and biological arguments regarding homosexuality. So will one’s view of science, particularly when it comes to the weight that should be given to empirical data when making judgments about human conduct. Those who have a relativistic view of ethics will tend to view homosexuality as a purely subjective and personal matter.
Christians need to give due weight to empirical and scientific arguments, but should never compromise their basic submission to the teaching of Scriptures. From a biblical point of view, homosexuality is a manifestation of our sinful nature and is contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture. As Helmut Thielicke puts it,
Homosexuality cannot be put on the same level with the normal created order of the sexes; rather it is a habitual or actual distortion or depravation of it. It follows from this that the homosexual is called upon not to affirm his status or a priori to idealize it—any more than any other pathological disorder can be affirmed a priori—but rather regard and recognize his condition as something that is questionable.
In other words, homosexuality may indeed sometimes be innate, but that may merely reflect the fact that the fall has corrupted our human natures in many ways. We should not naively derive an “ought” from an “is”, and so we cannot say that the fact that homosexuality exists means that it ought to be accepted.
Questions
1. Is the view of homosexuality changing in your ministry context? If so, how and why?
2. How ought the African church to respond to international pressure to accept homosexuality, such as the recent actions of the Episcopal Church in America?
3. In what ways is the biblical teaching on homosexuality being twisted and misrepresented by those who claim that it is not a sin?
4. Evaluate your own attitudes and the attitudes of those to whom you minister. Which of the biblical teachings regarding the Christian and the homosexual do you need to develop further? What obstacles keep you (and others) from embracing these teachings?
5. In what ways can you minister effectively regarding homosexuality, both in terms of addressing the act and the person?
Kunhiyop, S. W. (2008). African Christian Ethics (pp. 306–310). Grand Rapids, MI: Hippo Books.
