J as an openly gay man | Michael Re | The Guardian

Contents:

• J AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN
• WAS J GAY? PROBABLY
• 5 THGS J SAYS TO THE GAY COMMUNY
• 39 BIBLE VERS ABOUT BEG GAY
• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

J AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN

In a 2012 article for Slate onle, Will Orem asked a provotive qutn: Was J a homophobe? The article was ocsned by a story about a gay teenager Oh who was sug his high school after school officials prohibed him om wearg a T-shirt that said, “J Is Not a Homophobe.

Orem suggts that J’s views on homosexualy were more clive than Pl’s. While ’s reasonable to assume that J and his fellow Jews first-century Palte would have disapproved of gay sex, there is no rerd of his ever havg mentned homosexualy, let alone exprsed particular revulsn about .... Never the Bible do J himself offer an explic prohibn of homosexualy.

WAS J GAY? PROBABLY

Orem seems to suggt that sce J never explicly mentned homosexualy, he mt not have been very ncerned about . Get a ee py of the ebook ‘What Do the Bible Really Teach about Homosexualy?

It is credible to suggt that the words om J have no bearg on the qutn of homosexualy. So Orem has misnsted the relevance of J’s teachg to the homosexual qutn.

Even if J viewed homosexualy as a s, he had a penchant for reachg out to sners rather than shunng them.... In Romans 1, Pl nounced gay sex as unnatural—an egreg example of pagan nce—and said would brg the wrath of God. On the one si is J: peace-lovg, enemy-fivg, egalarian, and clive wh regard to homosexuals.

5 THGS J SAYS TO THE GAY COMMUNY

On the other si is Pl: war-lovg, ath penalty–supportg, patriarchal, and exclnary wh regard to homosexuals. Dpe the hang-ups of people like Pl, J was not a homophobe.

Wh clary and passn, this book sets forth the Bible’s teachg on sexualy om a plementarian perspective, alg wh ntroversial issu such as homosexualy and polygamy. Will Orem, “Wa, Was J a Homophobe? The most astoundg fdg om the newly disvered lead dic is that J Christ was unambiguoly and openly gay.

39 BIBLE VERS ABOUT BEG GAY

It seems clear now that this is ls a negative repudiatn of fay and more a posive exhortatn to jo affirmatn of a gay liftyle and is at least one new parable, that of the two young men. Before, one might have thought that, given Mary's virgy, Joseph's attu was reflectg the ambigui of his stat the fay; but now seems more probable that we have here a classic example of the Frdian triangle: over-posssive mother, hostile father, gay have we known so ltle about all of this before? The classilly ted Pl, who was himself gay, saw that same-sex activy was imil to the succs of Christiany the highly homophobic societi which he lived.

Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexualy. Persons wh homosexual tennci are children of God.

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

Crimalisg people wh homosexual tennci is an jtice. This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a progrsive lear when to, among other thgs, gay Catholics. As a biblil scholar, I would suggt that church lears who e their cultur and theology to exclu homosexuals don’t read Scripture refully.

Those who would exclu homosexuals om God’s kgdom choose to ignore J, turng stead to the Old Ttament – most particularly to Genis 19, the stctn of the ci of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their terpretatn of the story is that is about homosexualy.

Levic 18:22 and 20:13, for example, are not about “homosexualy” as we now unrstand – as the rg, lovg and sexual relatnship between people of the same sex. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Pl and extend to the heterosexual-homosexual distctn. I felt I uld not pe the sufferg of gay and lbian people at the hands of the church, over many that divisive issue a subject for Good Friday?