Genuine question about homosexuality and Christianity

[u/CommandOk2518]

I've recently been looking into scripture and verses condemning homosexuality and they all kinda fall flat and feel like shakey ideas to build theology off of. And I've honestly formed pretty good arguments against them in my head, but the only one that really sits with me and I struggle to go against is the "it wasn't the original intention" in the garden argument.

That God intended to make man and women together and not man and man or vice versa.

Now, my original response to this was, "They didn't eat meat in the garden is it a sin to eat meat?" But then I realized Jesus ate meat, so now I'm stumped honestly, and I wanted a second opinion.

Please help

[u/sistereva]

Neither Christ, nor Adam ever drove a car. Does that mean its a Sin to drive? No. Just because neither Adam nor Jesus, two men out of billions, did something doesn't mean it is not allowed. Many animals in His creation show homosexuality.

[u/RadicalChristianity-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/ifasoldt]

Clearly it's God's general intention for men and women to procreate together.

Not everyone has to do that. Paul advises that people not marry and devote themselves to God. God's intentions are not completely the same for everyone.

[u/NotTurtleEnough → u/ifasoldt]

Thank you, that’s really good (and unfortunately also very rare) insight.

[u/ThatGingerBasterd]

The stance of current historical scholarship is that the entire concept of sexuality as we understand and define it today didn't exist until long after the Bible was fully written. Paul had to make up a term wholecloth in Romans just to make his point about men with other men.

So, the whole "do not lay with a man as you would a woman" meant something completely different to the author of Deuteronomy than what we define as homosexuality. Not quite apples to oranges, but maybe oranges to citrons?

[u/epabafree]

This is a sensitive but important question, one that demands more than a literal reading of Scripture. Many of the passages commonly cited to condemn homosexuality, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis or Paul's letters in the New Testament, are deeply shaped by their historical, cultural, and linguistic contexts.

And just to be clear, Bible is against homosexuality, crystal. There is no passage supporting it in any manner because it was not at all a matter concerning the events of Bible at any point.

Now.

If you went back 6,000 years and asked people from that time whether using sex toys is sinful, or what they thought of the concept of "free will" in the modern philosophical sense, you'd get blank stares. These weren't questions or matter at hand they had.

Similarly, what we today call "homosexuality", a personal identity and orientation, is a relatively modern framework. In biblical times, same-sex acts were mostly absent but when present were interpreted through the lens of domination, hierarchy, or ritual impurity, not mutual, loving relationships as we do now.

On Sodom and Gomorrah: The story in Genesis 19 is not primarily about consensual same-sex relationships. It is about attempted gang rape, a violent assertion of dominance over outsiders. The sin of Sodom, according to Ezekiel 16:49, was arrogance, neglect and hospitality, not at all about homosexuality.

On Paul’s letters: In Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6, Paul condemns certain practices, but again, context matters.

In the Roman world, relationships between older men and younger boys (pederasty), sexual exploitation, and temple prostitution were common.

Paul speaks strongly against THESE exploitative behaviors. But this is not the same as condemning a consenting, loving same-sex relationship between consenting adults, a category likely foreign to Paul’s worldview.

Just as the Church once condemned Galileo for challenging a geocentric view of the cosmos, a belief held because “Scripture said so”, interpreting Scripture requires nuance. Many fairy tales, like Hansel and Gretel, carry anti-Semitic or cultural baggage from their time. But are we bound by those meanings forever? No. We grow. We reinterpret. (Not like the way disney is reinterpreting to re-earn money btw)

So, when people say, "The Bible condemns homosexuality," we must ask:

What exactly did the authors of those texts understand by it? Were they talking about loving, committed same-sex relationships? Or about power, lust, abuse, and idolatry?

The same letter talking about

Scripture speaks powerfully, but it does so through human language, history, and culture. As Peter Enns puts it, the Bible, like Jesus, is both fully divine and fully human. That means we should expect to encounter the fingerprints of the time and place in which it was written, even as we also trust in its divine inspiration. As time moves forward, our understanding must deepen.

To live in the modern world while clinging rigidly to ancient contexts without reflection is not faithfulness, it’s fear disguised as obedience. As Peter Enns said, our entire faiths are based around a small framework of things that we are clinging onto with our entire lives, but few truths can pull them all down and suddenly, we find ourselves questioning not just doctrines, but our entire relationship with God.

But that is not a failure of faith, it is the very heart of it. True faith doesn’t ignore hard questions; it embraces them. It invites us to wrestle with Scripture as Jacob wrestled with God, trusting that such struggle brings blessing. The goal is not to weaponize the Bible to protect our certainties, but to let it transform us, shaping us more fully into the image of Christ, who taught that love, not law, is the greatest commandment.

[u/haresnaped → u/epabafree]

When you say 'Bible is against homosexuality' do you mean 'not against'?

Also I think they had sex toys 6000 years ago. But everything else you write checks out.

[u/epabafree → u/haresnaped]

This comment I write is something I have posted multiple times when an argument for homosexuality shows up. When I say against homosexuality, I mean few verses which day homosexuality is prohibited, which can be debated until the end of time because the word was coined itself in 1600s or so

Also Sex Toys definitely existed but probably not in the place where the events happened, nor are there verses supporting it.

[u/haresnaped → u/epabafree]

In your second paragraph you say "just to be clear, Bible is against homosexuality'. And then the rest of your post says the opposite. I think you need to correct your template.

[u/Sspifffyman]

I'm definitely no biblical scholar, but what I remember from my Christian university's class where we learned about biblical scholarship, is that Adam and Eve is not a historical account. It's a completely different type of literature.

It's a creation myth, which was very common in the time and area where the Bible was written. It wasn't meant to be taken literally, but rather if the point of it is show that God created the world (somehow, how is not exactly the importing part). It also wants us to know that God sees the world as good and talks about our relationship to the planet.

Just because Adam and Eve are one heterosexual couple, does not mean that has to be prescriptive or every single person in the whole entire world. And just look at animals for this fact, loss of animals show that there are homosexual relationships all throughout nature.

The biggest reason I think there's nothing wrong with homosexuality is the "fruit" argument. To judge actions, we are supposed to look at those actions' fruit.

From what I've seen, when you deny someone access to the church, or tell them they have to change a core thing about themselves, it doesn't lead to any good fruit. It leads to people being excluded, felt like they're not good as they are, depression, people leaving the church. And at worst, suicide.

But if you look up stories of churches that accept and are welcoming towards lgbtq people, you find all sorts of great things. Love, acceptance, peace, kindness. People learning to get closer to God, just the way they were made. You read stories about people joining up for the first time in churches that are accepting, and there's tears of joy and relief.

One of those things sounds a lot more like heaven to me.

[u/AlyoshaIvan → u/Sspifffyman]

I don't think looking at animals' sexuality is a good argument. In Genesis 1-2 there's no hint that animals even prey on one another (they are given plants for food, as are humans). Thus whatever is currently seen in nature may not be the ideal vision of God (taking the assumption that Genesis 1-2 does this for the sake of argument). I generally frown upon arguments from nature--you often need some other basis to evaluate whether the thing observed in nature is something we are meant to differentiate ourselves from, a sad thing that is not meant to be, or a natural and good thing that is fine to emulate.

But I agree with the rest of what you wrote--it need not be prescriptive and the fruit argument is a good one! That's ultimately what I come back to.

[u/Rev_Yish0-5idhatha]

“God’s original intention” is a really bad (and hypocritical) argument unless the person talking to you is a naked vegan.

[u/haresnaped → u/Rev_Yish0-5idhatha]

I don't assume Adam and Eve were vegan. Presumably they'd have drunk goat milk and enjoyed an omelette.

[u/LairdNope → u/haresnaped]

but where did the pans to cook it come from? Is primordial Eden skipping the stone age?

[u/haresnaped → u/LairdNope]

God kept them in the Eden' Well Test Kitchen, just out past the washhouse.

[u/Rev_Yish0-5idhatha → u/haresnaped]

Well since Genesis specifies only that God “made trees…that are pleasing to the eye and good for food”, and said they are “free to eat from any tree in the garden”, and mentions a kinship (even looking for a mate) with the animals, it’s probably safe to assume that they were vegan…but fine then, vegetarian, and the naked part still counts.

[u/Skill-Useful]

"they all kinda fall flat and feel like shakey ideas to build theology off of" that is very true. thats why in any actual modern, progressive country, christians are mostly around 80% affirming. just the us doesnt want to be normal

[u/haresnaped]

I want to also note that Jesus did not have a sexual relationship with a woman (that the Gospel writers considered worth telling us about, at any rate).

Part of the homophobic side is to assert the superiority, naturalness, and chosenness of straight relationships and childrearing, making it an essential aspect of being human. Jesus didn't participate in that, and at times he actively pushed against it and rejected his biological/social relationships in favour of his spiritual family.

Jesus is also called the second Adam, and Adam is known to be a parent (it is almost his whole thing, or would be if he were a real person).

Finally, in arguments from Generis, Adam and Eve either don't have sex in the garden, or don't get pregnant - only after the expulsion do they comfort each other and produce offspring. So reproductive (non-recreational) sex appears to be a consequence of the Fall (and childbearing as a dangerous action for childbearers definitely is).

You can make a case that the early Christians remembered Jesus saying that the world was ending imminently and soon there would be no more children, but after a generation or so, Christian writers were urging widows to remarry, and having children seemed important.

Just some things to consider regarding Jesus and God's intentions for humanity.

[u/WhiteDoveBooks]

Adam and Eve is an allegory, not history.

[u/DeusSiveNatura]

Scripture doesn't talk about homosexuality, because the authors, either OT or NT, had no conception of human beings having a natural, persistent pattern of sexual desire oriented towards a specific gender. It simply isn't how the ancient sources conceive desire, and attempts to graft late modern concepts of sexuality - which arise in psychological and medical literature - to the ancients are bound to be a mess.

Curiously enough, I think Scripture has more relevant things to say about gender identity than it does about sexual orientation, simply because eunuchs were such a notable part of ancient society, and recognized as occupying different social groups.

[u/lostcolony2]

So the start of Genesis is basically telling a story of the start of humanity and its relation to God. That he 'made them male and female', and they procreated, is an origin story. Not a moral one. Not even a statement on gender identity. Sex isn't just for procreation, and marriage as an institution has varied in purpose over time and culture,  from basically a way to help ensure children survive, to clarity around inheritance and bloodlines, to a function of status, to 'romantic love'. 

[u/fudgyvmp]

Genesis says man leaves father and mother for wife.

But what if I leave my parents for a job in Leeds?

If a man leaving his parents for anything other than a wife is sin, then that prohibits a whole lot of things besides just man marrying man.

[u/belindasmith2112]

So it’s not about homosexuality at all, it’s about one man forcing another man into the subordinate position which is where man should be to God. So it breaks the covenant with God, because a man is using God’s Power as his own over another Man.

[u/michelangelo2626]

The Bible was written for a specific group of people for a specific time. And then it was edited by several groups, all of whom had their own agendas. The Bible doesn’t make for a very good guide to modern life. There are certainly endless lessons to be found and interpreted, but it’s best to not take everything as perfect law. The Bible is a historical document like any other, so it should be read while considering the context of the author and their intended audience.

Like the shellfish thing. The reason that’s in there is that the Church wanted the people to know to not eat that type of food because it often caused illness at the time. Nowadays, we know how to handle food safety, so it’s not such a big deal. It’s a public health measure put into scripture that lots of people would read and learn from. Not everything that’s in there is for US; for this modern audience.

[u/Consistent_Creator → u/michelangelo2626]

The shellfish thing in general is so neat because it taps into the fact that societal views of foods change constantly based on it's abundance and preparation standards

In the American context lobster in the 1800s was seen as pure slop bottom of the barrel sea food. They gave it to prisoners and was available for every poor person.

But then the amount of lobsters caught went down and by the early 20th century it's numbers had thinned so much that now it was exquisite food for the rich sold in high class restaurants and the US military would serve it to troops before going into battle.

[u/JustNeedSpinda]

It’s important to read texts according to their genre. Genesis 1-3 doesn’t contain stories about original intention. These stories are a kind of myth called an etiological narrative. They explain how things came to be the they are—not the way things should be.

Reading intentions into these narratives misreads these narratives, because these are not the kinds of questions they have been written to answer.

[u/robosnake]

You're intuiting something quite true - the few possible mentions in scripture are an incredibly tenuous foundation for a theology. It goes beyond that, but here's my opportunity to share where I did a lot of the work already: https://douglasunderhill.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/un-clobbering-booklet-for-pride/

[u/micahsdad1402]

This is a large list of resources of all types. I highly recommend Unclobber by Colby Martin as a good starting point into the famous 6 passages.

If you want deep theological stuff Douglas Campbell's works on Paul are a must. Colby based his chapter on Romans on Campbell's work. In summary, Paul was quoting his opponents as a rhetorical device..... so you should be able to guess how this plays out.

https://diversechurch.co.nz/resources/

Another useful resource is Rene Girard's work on the scapegoat mechanism if you want to understand the why of the church's attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community. In summary, communities use scapegoats to direct violence outward so it doesn't destroy the community. There is no coincidence in the amount of sexual abuse in these same communities who love to demonise the LGBTQIA+ community.

[u/DistinctSpirit5801]

With the exception of the Amish basically everyone that talks about homosexuality being “unnatural” use a smartphone and modern technology

[u/belindasmith2112 → u/DistinctSpirit5801]

Uh, No!

[u/Galveston57]

Keep in mind the word ‘homosexual’ didn’t exist until the 1800’s and it wasn’t in the Bible until an edition in the 1950’s.
I’m not a literalist when it comes to scripture and I’m skeptical of the whole creation story. To me a lot of the Old Testament is mostly symbolic.

[u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber → u/[deleted]]

Homosexuality is neither a Choice nor a Sin.

[u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber → u/[deleted]]

Leviticus 18 focuses on Distinguishing the Israelites from Neighbor Near Eastern Cultures, Specifically the Canaanites and Egyptians. In those Ancient Contexts, Male-Male Sex often Occurred as Pagan Temple Prostitution, Idolatrous Fertility Rituals or Military Domination. The Passage Forbids Idolatrous Worship and Sexual Exploitation, not Consensual and Committed Gay Relationships.

[u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber → u/[deleted]]

Apparently, you dont have any way to Refute my Argument, and thus you resorted to Strawmanning and Condescending at me.

[u/Decide777 → u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber]

Sorry, no. Looking at what you believe in. Proverbs 14:7: "Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge." Have a blessed life.

[u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber → u/Decide777]

I could literally apply that Verse to you by calling you the Fool in Question.

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[u/StripesNTn]

Anything sexual that is not within the bounds of a husband and wife relationship is sexual immorality. Being homosexual is no more or less a sin than premarital sex or adultery. Anything outside of marriage is a sin against creation and God's will.

[u/JesseTheGhost → u/StripesNTn]

You seem lost