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Class Prep
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Battling Over Marriage
- In our last class, we examined scriptural texts about women and how they're being interpreted by contemporary Christians and Muslims. We saw that the texts themselves are not always the source of oppressive readings, but rather the interpretation of them. Even when the scriptures themselves are "texts of terror," we saw how feminists employ a "hermeneutics of suspicion" to expose the power dynamics behind the texts.
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- Today, we will look at the seven texts in the Jewish and Christian scriptures that appear to be about "homosexuality." Since that term is English and was only coined in 1869, we can expect that the terms and contexts that actually appear in the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament may be referencing something other than what we mean by homosexuality. A prime case will be the story of Sodom (Genesis 19; the picture to the right is from a 1908 Bible magazine depicting its destruction). Christian tradition has so identified this passage with sexual sins that the town's name became a word in the English language, "sodomy," which originally meant any "deviant sexual intercourse" but now is generally restricted to anal or oral intercourse (heterosexual or homosexual). The common view one hears is that the town was destroyed, along with Gomorrah, because its men were homosexual. We'll have to see if that interpretation holds up under the hermeneutics of suspicion.
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- You'll need to read all the reading—primary and secondary—before doing your journal. The question today is, how do we translate scriptures from then to now, when "now" is so different? If it helps, consider what your definition of "homosexual" is, and whether that fits the seven biblical passages. Team questions follow:
- Team 2: From the secondary reading, how do biblical interpreters construct LGBTQ people as "other"? Are there any parallels between how women are treated in the scriptural text and in current interpretation and how LGBTQ people are treated? (reflection)
- Team 3: Read the chapter before and after Genesis 19 and determine whether the men of Sodom were gay. Read the surrounding material in the Leviticus chapters to determine where the author "types" men lying with men (what does the priestly author classify this "sin" with). What problems does Martin identify with translating the two terms in 1 Corinthians/1 Timothy? (interpretation of scripture)
- Team 4: LGBTQ activists are currently arguing that, since gay people are "born that way," same-sex behavior is not a choice or sin but rather a natural variation in sexual orientation and LGBTQ people therefore deserve all the rights and protections accorded other Americans. However, queer theorists are uncomfortable with the "born that way" argument, because they don't believe it goes far enough. After all, African Americans are "born that way" too, but this hasn't prevented white Americans from restricting their rights and persecuting them outright. Jakobsen and Pellegrini have traced the way the Bible has historically influenced our secular U.S. courts on same-sex issues. Review the handout of court cases and be able to trace the impact of "Judeo-Christian" assumptions on case law. (historical comparison)
- Team 1: What rights should LGBTQ persons have? What should be the role of the Bible and religious belief in our laws, courts, and society? If the "born that way" argument is not a good one, what is the alternative—how should LGBTQ persons argue for their rights? (ethical evaluation)
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary: Genesis 14; 18–19; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; Jude 1:7
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- Secondary: Swenson, Bible Babel 81-8; Dale B. Martin, "Arsenokoitês and Malakos: Meanings and Consequences," in Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006) 37-50, 201-206; handout outlining Jakobsen and Pellegrini’s argument from Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance (Boston: Beacon, 2004; Camino)
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- Slides from Lecture
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- Religious Studies courses about this topic
- RTC 2
- Religion, Politics and Civil Society (RSOC 49)
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- RTC 3
- Catholic Theology & Human Sexuality (TESP 139)
- Christian Sexual Ethics (TESP 181)
- Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation (SCTR 165R)
- Gender, Body, & Christianity (RSOC 144)
- Homosexuality & Catholic Theology (TESP 170)
- Religious Traditions & Contemporary Moral Issues (RSOC 157)
- Theology of Marriage (TESP 124)
- Theology, Sex & Relationships (TESP 119)
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- Further Reading
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- Cobb, Michael L. God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence, Sexual Cultures. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
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- Farley, Margaret. Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. New York: Continuum, 2008.
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- Gagnon, Robert A. J. and Dan O. Via. Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.
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- Jakobsen, Janet R. and Ann Pellegrini. Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance. Boston: Beacon, 2004.
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- Jordan, Mark D. Authorizing Marriage? Canon, Tradition, and Critique in the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006.
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- --------. The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
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- --------. Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
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- Martin, Dale B. Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.
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- Salzman, Todd A. and Michael G. Lawler. The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology, Moral Traditions. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008.
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- Links
- The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality - Matthew Vines, a gay 22-year old Harvard undergraduate raised in a conservative evangelical church in Kansas, presents a one-hour lecture on YouTube in which he presents the result of his research on the Bible and homosexuality, and Christianity's current debates on this topic. Watch the lecture and write an extra credit paper in which you introduce the speaker, summarize his remarks, tie them to our class, and evaluate the presentation. If it is helpful, here is an op-ed piece by Leonard Pitts, Jr. about the video that was posted in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.com on 3 May 2012.
- Human Rights Campaign: Religion and Faith - resources from the leading civil rights organization for LGBT people in the U.S.
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- Sources
- Photographs:
- Cover of Sunrays 9.3.5 (28 June 1908), Lesson 5; Genesis 19:17: "Escape for thy life;—escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." Reproduced on TheBibleRevival.com, online, accessed 15 November 2011.
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