Blog Post 11

For many Christians Romans 1 clearly condemns the gayorientation and gay relationships, but does it? Let’s take a look.

Romans 1:26-27

This passage refers to those whom “God gave over to shameful lusts” and to women and men who “exchanged natural relations for unnatural.”  It speaks of men who “committed indecent acts with other men.” Some people read this passage as saying that all gay relationships are shameful, unnatural, and indecent. Is that really what it is saying?

No.  Take a careful look at the passage.  It clearly does not say that all same-sex sexual relationships are lust-filled, shameful, unnatural, and indecent.  Rather, it uses these adjectives to describe (as an illustration of a larger point) certain people who engaged in same-sex sexual relationships.  Who were these people?

Let’s look at the context and the passage itself.  Romans 1 and 2 teach that we all sin and need to be restored into relationship with God, and this leads in Romans 3 to Paul’s declaration that God has provided this needed restoration in Christ. 

As part of this larger theological point, Romans 1 talks about Gentiles who have completely turned away from God.  It then says that God “gave them up” to various extreme behaviors.  These behaviors sound like a description of people going wild in their rebellion against God and against any healthy boundaries.  But what about good Christian people who have not turned against God—people who realize they are gay in orientation and want to marry someone of the same sex?  For that matter, what about any gay people who choose to channel their sexual desires within the bounds of faithful, loving marriages?

Also consider the description of the people under consideration.  The passage says they “exchanged natural relations for unnatural.”  Does this sound like a description of what we today call gay people?  Not at all!  It sounds more like a description of people we would call heterosexual acting out in homosexual ways. 

Note also that the passage refers to relationships characterized by lust.  But what about gay relationships based in love?  The passage simply does not talk about these.

In fact, scholars have found numerous historical documents that refer to people in the ancient Roman world whose behavior fits Paul’s description, including high-profile figures such as the Roman emperor Caligula.  The behavior of these people was characterized by excessive lust, multiple sexual encounters, and sexual exploitation of boys, slaves, and men in positions of less power.  Those are the sort of same-sex sexual relations Paul would have heard about, and so those are the relationships he would have been referring to in Romans 1. 

But what about the mutual, loving, faithful marriage relationships of adults who happen to be gay in orientation?  The passage simply does not refer to such relationships.  In Romans 1 the Apostle Paul is referring to a situation quite different from that of gay people as we know them today.  And so we may not legitimately use this passage to say anything about the loving, faithful marriages of gay couples.  It simply does not apply.

Ah, but what about the New Testament passage that say gay people will not inherit the kingdom of God?  We will take a look at that in our next post.