Let's Talk about Homophobia and Transphobia in the Church: Part 3

Discussing Affirming vs. Non-Affirming Theology in the Church

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Trigger warning

This post, which is an excerpt from a sermon I preached in 2022, contains information of a sensitive nature pertaining to the abuse and mistreatment of many within the LGBTQ+ community. If you or someone you know has been hurt by the church due to queer identity, please proceed with care and caution.

For those who are not part of the LGBTQ+ community, especially for anyone who is skeptical about or even opposed to LGBTQ+ inclusion within the church, I ask that you try to read the following with a compassionate heart and an open mind. It may make you uncomfortable or even angry, but that is a risk worth taking if even one queer person comes away feeling that they are abundantly loved and infinitely treasured by the God who created them, and that they are equally welcomed to fully participate and express their gifts within the Church.

No matter how you feel, please know that unkind comments will not be tolerated on this forum (something we take very seriously). We welcome civil dialogue and questions asked in good faith. If you have a question that you would rather not ask publicly, feel free to message me directly.

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This is the final installment of a three part series about Homophobia and Transphobia in the church. If you are new to the series, check out Part 1 and Part 2 before proceeding.

Part 3

I’m going to wrap this series up by addressing the main objection to full inclusion of sexual and gender minorities within the church. Namely, the six verses— three in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament— that seem to prohibit homosexual behavior.

Walking through each of those verses could be its own sermon, so I’m going to summarize the two major viewpoints then tell you what I believe.

My goal is not to make you think like I think, on this issue or really on any other issue. I’m a flawed human being with my own biases just like all of you. However, I have spent the last 15 years studying this and reading everything I could get my hands on about it from people all over the theological spectrum. I simply want to share what I’ve learned and be open about what I have come to believe.

There are two major viewpoints when interpreting these six verses: non-affirming theology and affirming theology.

Non-affirming theology: The belief that Scripture forbids homosexual behavior in all cases.

It’s important to note that even many non-affirming people don’t use the three Old Testament verses to forbid homosexuality. Why? Because one is about Sodom and Gomorrah—a really bizarre story about a group of men forcing themselves on angels, which (according to Ezekiel 16:49-50) has nothing to do with homosexuality— and the other two are in the Levitical Law which Christians don’t abide by and includes commands like don’t eat pork, don’t cut your sideburns, and don’t mix your fabrics.

But non-affirming people interpret the three New Testament verses at face value. The most popular of these verses is in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Non-affirming theology looks at a verse like that and says, “This is a list of bad things we aren’t supposed to do. Homosexuality is on this list. Homosexuality must be a bad thing we aren’t supposed to do.”

At face value, this interpretation makes sense, and this is the way these passages have traditionally been interpreted. It’s also worth pointing out that some LGBTQ+ people hold to non-affirming theology and choose to practice celibacy because they believe homosexual behavior is sinful.

As you can probably guess, the opposite of non-affirming theology is:

Affirming theology: The belief that Scripture does not forbid homosexual behavior in all cases.

The foundational belief of affirming theology is that the “homosexuality” forbidden in Scripture is not the same thing as the loving and equitable same-sex relationships we see today.

Instead, the homosexuality Paul was talking about refers to abuse, domination, and unrestrained lust. In the patriarchal culture of the first century, men possessed all of the power. They could have sex with their wives, male and female prostitutes, or even male and female slaves without ramifications.

There were also pagan temples, like the Temple of Aphrodite in the city of Corinth where Paul sent his letter, that were famous for encouraging sex as a form of worship. These temples often kept both adults and children as sex slaves.

Affirming theology claims that those actions, which were all types of abuse, are what Scripture is actually condemning in these verses. It argues that monogamous same-sex relationships did not exist in the biblical world, which is historically accurate. Even most non-affirming scholars concede this point, but they argue that homosexuality of any type is still forbidden.

Affirming theology also points to the fact that the word “homosexuality” did not appear in any English Bible translation until 1946. That year, for the first time in history, the committee translating for the Revised Standard Edition made the decision to combine two Greek words into the English word “homosexuality” in the passage from First Corinthians above. Previously it had been translated as “abusers of themselves with mankind” or “effeminate.”

Not long after the Bible was published, a letter was sent to the RSV committee disputing their translation. Dr. Luther Weigle, the head of the committee, wrote a letter back acknowledging their mistake and committing to correct the error. But “homosexuality” wasn’t officially changed to the more accurate “sexual perversions” until the next revision was published in 1971.

After twenty-five years, the damage was done. “Homosexuality” had been picked up by other translations and applied to other New Testament verses, too.

If you want to learn more about this, I highly recommend 1946, a documentary by my friend Rocky Roggio, that tells the story of this tragic mistranslation. Kathy Baldock, the author of Walking the Bridgeless Canyon, helped with the research. Check them both out for a deeper dive into the history of this decision which has harmed countless individuals over the past eighty years.

So that’s a quick overview of both affirming and non-affirming theology.

There was a time in my life when I found the non-affirming arguments to be convincing, but that is no longer the case. To be very honest with you, I’m not exactly sure when it happened. It wasn’t like a switch that flipped; it was more like a dam that slowly developed cracks until the whole thing finally gave way.

The cracks started forming when I met LGBTQ+ folks who deeply loved and pursued God.

The cracks got bigger when I met queer Christians who had suffered through the horrors of conversion therapy, but still faithfully followed Jesus.

They got even bigger when I met people who had been kicked out of churches because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and yet they still wanted to be a part of a church family.

When I began to dig deeply into Scripture, the dam burst. I began to apply the same exegetical and interpretive approach to the six passages about homosexuality that I do with everything else in Scripture. I began asking questions about context, culture, and language.

And when I did, I came to the conclusion that the “homosexuality” being forbidden in the Bible bears no resemblance to the loving, monogamous, Spirit-filled same-sex relationships of my LGBTQ+ siblings.

I do not believe that same-sex relationships are inherently sinful. They can be, but in the same way a heterosexual relationship is—when there isn’t respect, equality, and Christ-centered love in the middle of it. I believe God desires for all relationships, heterosexual or homosexual, to be covenantal and monogamous.

Let me add a quick but important side note: I don’t believe heterosexual or homosexual marriage is a necessary part of life. Singleness is good and beautiful. Single people are not incomplete. They do not reflect any less of God’s image or fulfill any less of God’s mission without a spouse or partner. The evangelical church has idolized marriage, specifically heterosexual marriage, in ways that scripture simply does not support.

Okay, back to sexual and gender minorities. I really like the way

David P. Gushee

discusses the subject in his book Changing Our Mind:

If what we are talking about is blessing an anything-goes ethic in a morally libertine culture, I stand utterly opposed, as I have throughout my career. But if what we are talking about is carving out space for serious committed Christians who happen to be gay or lesbian, to participate in society as equals, in church as kin, and in the blessings and demands of covenant on the same terms as everyone else, I now think that has nothing to do with cultural, ecclesial and moral decline, and everything to do with treating people the way Christ did.

David Gushee

I don’t believe this in spite of Jesus and Scripture, I believe it because of them.

I believe it because of the rotten fruit I’ve seen come out of marginalizing and excluding the queer community.

And I believe it because of the Christlike fruit I’ve seen come from empowering LGBTQ+ folks follow Jesus with their whole selves.

Again, I’m not trying to make you come to the same conclusions I have. You can interpret Scripture in a more traditional or non-affirming way and still reject homophobia and transphobia. We actually do it all the time with other things. The best example is divorce.

The Bible talks a lot about divorce, including the very direct words from Jesus we read earlier, but Christians are far from unified on when it is okay and when it isn’t.

In fact, I bet if you asked anyone about their perspective on divorce, you would get as many opinions as there are people. And yet, we do not feel the need to force our opinion on others; we certainly don’t feel the need to exclude or marginalize someone who has been divorced.

In the same way, interpreting the Bible in a way that leads to non-affirming theology is not inherently homophobic or transphobic, but forcing LGBTQ+ people to adhere to non-affirming theology in order to fully participate in the life of the church is.

And that’s why I am fully committed to full inclusion. At Restore, we join with God and the first church in the rejection of discrimination against sexual and gender minorities and the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ folks in God’s family and our church family.

I’m going to close with a text message I previously received from a gay member at Restore. It’s a beautiful example of the Christlike fruit that comes when we fully embrace our LGBTQ+ siblings:

My mind seriously couldn’t comprehend a world where I could be gay and part of a religious community. I had shut myself off from even entertaining it as a possibility.

God’s love always finds a way though and I was able to find my way back to him through your demonstration of his Love. I’ve found he never left and was simply patiently waiting for me the whole time.

The love I received at Restore is why I am able to share that same love with others. Your love is baffling. God’s love is baffling. And my motto lately is that I want to love in a way that baffles.

Stories like this are why we are so committed to this hard but important work, and I believe it’s how Jesus has confirmed again and again that we are doing what he has asked us to do.

Jesus says that we will know believers by their fruits. If our theology leads us to more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, we are on the right track. Conversely, if our theology leads us to exclusion, marginalization, and harm, we need to reconsider.

No matter our beliefs, we must see others as Jesus sees them: worthy of love and just as welcome in God’s family as we are. This is the basis of Jesus’s invitation and the foundation of our faith. There is no hierarchy in God’s kingdom. All are welcome. There is no other way.

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