Given the ongoing debate about same-sex marriage, it is time I looked at the two Testaments to remind myself why belief is so hard for me to embrace. The issue is not just the substance of the rules but the incorrigible resistance of biblical injunctions to change. Centuries may come and go but some of these rules are indelibly etched in the moral framework of some faiths. However, as we shall see, it is true that if you want to move on from ancient prejudice there is some wriggle room in the interpretation of the Bible.
The theology of homosexuality on a literal view of the words is simple – it is ugly. The most notorious sections are the prohibitions in the third book of the bible, Leviticus, which contains the prohibition of a man lying with another as an abomination punishable by death (Leviticus 20:13). Before that, in Genesis, is the story of the destruction of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah from which the term ”sodomy” is derived. There is no mention of lesbianism, which may be presumed by logical extension to be embraced by the same or similar prohibitions.
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For AME’s paper, Marriage equality and religion, click here.