Since many ancient peoples practiced homosexuality, what role should the Bible’s negative view about homosexuality have in modern thinking and culture?
Since many ancient peoples practiced homosexuality, what role should the Bible’s negative view about homosexuality have in modern thinking and culture?
The Revisionist Answer
Homosexuality existed in many ancient cultures, including Egypt, Greece, and Rome. We can learn from these ancient cultures how to be tolerant of homosexuality alongside heterosexuality. These cultures should contribute to our culture as much as Jewish-Christian views.
The Biblical Answer
All ancient societies whose laws we have discovered restricted homosexual behavior, even though there usually was a level of acceptance. More to the point is the truism that any culture must be wary of tinkering with its foundational ethical underpinnings by embracing other societies’ standards. Other cultures have influenced modern Western culture, yet the morality of the West has flowed from a biblical ethic. Ancient cultures embraced slavery, recreational drugs and alcohol abuse, abortion, the killing of the young by exposure, idolatry, totalitarianism, repression of women, adultery, bestiality, incest, and a host of other sins and crimes that are historically rejected in Western society
De Young, J. B. (2000). Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (p. 291). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
