On Homosexuality as “Sin” and something “Unnatural” and on the Bible as Inerrant
The “liberal” churches must according to the Fundamentalists (…Inerrantists??) understand how real and opinionated and demanding Jesus was – accept everything about Him and know that everything about Him requires our belief, and yet they won’t accept that He - Jesus - said nothing anywhere about homosexuality. It didn’t merit His attention, let alone His disapproval. Nor is there a commandment against it – AS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO THE SIN OF ADULTERY about which Jesus had plenty to say. The "conservative" Churches don’t want the “liberal” churches to pick and choose what they heed about Jesus, even as they, the conservatives, pick and choose what they heed about Jesus AND St. Paul AND SIN.
As for why there has always been homosexual behavior given that we are all beings created by God, the Fundamentalist explanation is that Creation is “broken” because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Somehow this brokenness absolves God, the Creator, of responsibility for the existence of homosexual behavior AMONG ALL GENDERED POPULATIONS in almost exactly the same proportion (humans; animals, INSECTS) – populations most of which can’t choose anything about their preferences so we probably ought to assume the same for all creatures, and, as these beings aren’t reproducing, they cannot possibly be visiting their "sins" upon their children. Imagine a loving God endlessly creating beings and then damning them for being true to their created, God-given nature. This doesn’t even begin to cover the subject either – what about masturbation, males learning the sex act with each other, bisexuality (ask King David - the proto-Messiah), bestiality, pedophilia, polygamy, concubinage, and sexual violence - OUT OF WEDLOCK sexual violence - which was AOK in that inerrant Old Testament so long as it was directed at females, even family members.
And as for “broken" Creation, the sin of Adam and Eve was inevitable and therefore is certainly also God’s responsibility. How can one be "disobedient" without knowing the difference between good and evil? They could not possibly have avoided “the fall.” They were perfectly naïve, defenseless creatures – no basis whatsoever for understanding either sin or consequences: NO KNOWLEDGE OF EVIL BEFORE THEY BIT THE APPLE; no possible understanding of what it meant “to die” since there was NO DEATH IN EDEN: and no experience or understanding of untruth …of lying – no protection against a Tempter - who “was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the LORD GOD had made" and who LIED TO THEM ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN? And how exactly do/did the animals and insects disobey? So, to define this massive being "led into temptation" as disobedience worthy of the breaking of Creation and to have God create beings that God then condemns to living half-lives is arguably evil and sounds nothing like a just, loving, and faithful God. And, finally, if Creation is the defining story, then why wasn't Jesus' atonement more than sufficient to "unbreak" Creation? Hasn't all been made aright?
If the Bible is inerrant – i.e., is directly God’s word then:
*** Why all those mentions of OTHER GODS??? ...OTHER??? GODS??? - in the Bible???
*** A High Priest King who was perfect and who never died ... Melchizedek??
*** Why the contradictions in the Bible, for example... all those disagreed lists, notably: of Jesus' Disciples and the tribes of Israel??
*** Why would God show Himself changing His mind? Why would he ever need to change His mind?
*** Why does God cause people to sin and then get off on the blame/punishment side? Pharoah's heart? Ordering the slaughter of whole communities (even children...)? Homosexuals? Adam and Eve? Judas' betrayal of Jesus?
*** Why different versions of the same events (e.g., Creation; Noah; the Last Supper)?
*** How could there be seven days of creation when the means to have days didn’t exist until after the fourth “day?” Oh, and didn't it say somewhere that a "day to God is like a thousand years"? So why not a billion, since they didn't know "billions" then?
*** How about biblical love not being between a man and A WOMAN but any number of wives/women for one man? HUH? Didn't that wise guy Solomon have ...oh... 500 wives?
*** How did God not know that the Earth was round and did not have "four corners"?
*** Why did God use different names for Himself?
*** How were some supposedly human beings in the Bible able to live 500 - 900 plus years?
*** As a sign of real faith we can safely, virtuously pick up snakes and drink poison...??? Why is this good?
*** Why opposite heroes/villains for the same events (Moses vs. Aaron)?
*** How two of every animal on Earth on an Ark ... many of whom could never have existed in that part of the World and all of whom wouldn't fit in that region, let alone on any ship ever built??? Or maybe there were fewer animals then, and they have evolved and spread around the World... since Noah's day - (?6,000 years ago)?
*** Why the translation discrepancies? ...the Bible book-order variances?
*** How could any copies ever have been lost if they were God’s?
Do the inerrantists truly mean that though God dictated the original/originals … would that be the whole thing at once or the different books at different times and, if so, why like that?… - and only to humans who could write and had the necessary materials who then NEVER ANYWHERE mentioned that God had done this and instead - IF THEY CLAIMED ANYTHING - claimed apostolic authorship, and who felt the need for councils in order to choose what to include? Was God absent when the originals/copies/copies of copies were lost; being included; being excluded; stored, hidden; found, etc.; when mistakes in copying were made; and was God likewise there or away for all those translations; and does God favor some languages over others? And if God did all this by Himself and never told anyone, then for what did He need scribes anyway? Why would He not have written the perfect Bible completely just once (He knows everything) and in everyone’s heart – EVERYONE? Why are there people who do not have any knowledge of the Bible? Can’t read? And what does “in the fullness of time” mean if we aren’t learning more as we go along? ...Why otherwise have we been given the power of reason and such a long history in which to use it and to increase in our understanding?
But, above all else, doesn't the Bible's being written by humans inspired by the God of history, make it far more miraculous and important than if it really were inerrant, and we had to believe and make sense of all of it all the time? Imagine the faith that was required of those who wrote it down and who preserved it and who kept in the other writings that they didn't understand in their time or with which they didn't agree BECAUSE they believed that everyone who was writing believed themselves to have been inspired by God. Isn't it better to be finding the truth we require and can in our own time understand in the Bible, being inspired by it of our own faith-led accord? Isn't that IN FACT "justification by faith?" We know the truth is there - however humanly produced it was, and we will find the truth we need if we have and practice our faith.
For example, I believe with all of my being that the Creation stories were inspired by God. No humans could possibly have, by themselves so long ago, conceived of things so differently from all other peoples – especially not the waves of creation in the 7 “days” part with its human-history-changing Sabbath and its requirement that all humans are equal in the requirement to observe it, and those "days" whose sequence is so eerily like the scientific understanding we now have from our God-given ability to understand, and which conception changed everything for all of human understanding. So instead of believing as did ALL other peoples back then that life was a cycle and that there were many gods, most of whom were amoral, we now understood that life exists in time; and ours is limited on Earth; we must honor Creation and the Creator and honor our families and all peoples in the Sabbath, and God expects every one of us to love each other and behave according to laws - that we are responsible for our actions and must believe in only one God. Nor was the Adam and Eve story anything but inspired and crucial to our faith. What the story-myth-wisdom of the Adam and Eve tale gives us is the ability to understand and accept our humanness. Even though we are made in God's image, we are not God, and we cannot be human and have free will without falling nor life without suffering and death.
The miracle Truth is that we have been and are always being called, led, nurtured and inspired by God and then in the fullness of time saw God on Earth, suffering far more than any of us ever did, loving us beyond anything anyone had ever before imagined. We can, therefore, love God back, get back to God. God calls us back endlessly, freely, equally - no one is less special, and getting ourselves into relationship with God is the job to which we are all called, which includes ever ongoing Bible study and reflecting theologically on all aspects of our lives, and taking care of each other and of all creation. What we are NOT called to do - NOT ALLOWED TO DO - is to judge each other (to "weed the garden").
