CAN GAYS AND LESBIANS
BE TRUE CHRISTIANS?
BE TRUE CHRISTIANS?
This site is for everyone.
And it should especially help gay men and lesbians who feel a
conflict between their sexuality and their Christian beliefs.
God loves you and has given you an attraction to others of
the same sex (or people of the opposite sex, if you are
straight).
This site shows that a person can be both a true
Christian and a loving, sexually-active gay man or
lesbian.
It is totally okay to be romantically or sexually attracted to
someone of the same sex as yourself and to act on those
attractions in a non-harmful way.
The site also shows that the Bible’s condemnation of
homosexual activity (sex between men and sex
between women) does not apply today.
Why does it not apply today? Because it applied only to
people in the ancient Israelite and Greek-Roman cultures of
Bible times.
So man-man sex and woman-woman sex is okay if no
one is harmed.
Why is it important what the Bible says about
homosexual acts? Because God, who created us, has given
us directions and principles in the Bible about things we should
or should not do in our lives.
The main ideas of this site are:
SAME-SEX ATTRACTION
 | The Bible accepts same-sex attraction and | |
| might refer to same-sex orientation. |
SEX BETWEEN MEN
| The Bible is silent on sex between men | |
| except for full sex, which it prohibits. This prohibition does not apply today because it applied only to the Bible cultures. |
| All sex between men (including full sex) is | |
| okay if no one is harmed. |
SEX BETWEEN WOMEN
| The Bible criticizes sex between women but | |
| does not prohibit it. As the criticism is culturally based, it does not apply today. |
| Sex between women is okay if no one is | |
| harmed. |
LOVE
| A long-term relationship between two men | |
| or two women has love, affection and caring as well as sex. |
This site shows that:
The Bible talks about same-sex acts but not
homosexuals, gay men or lesbians.
The Bible treats same-sex acts as illegal sex acts committed
by ordinary people. Therefore any use of homosexual,
homosexuality or sodomites in a Bible version is a
misleading translation error. So there is no criticism or
condemnation in the Bible of homosexuality as a sexual
orientation or of gay men or lesbians as types of people.
The Bible accepts same-sex attraction.
The Bible has positive stories of same-sex emotional or
romantic attraction and deep friendship. Also, the Bible might
indirectly refer to same-sex (homosexual) orientation.
More details of same-sex attraction
The Bible nowhere says that all sex outside
marriage is wrong.
The Bible simply says that certain kinds of sex, e.g. incest and
adultery and prostitution, are wrong. More details of sex
outside marriage
The Bible's criticism of sex between women
does not apply today.
The Bible has only one criticism of sex between women
(lesbian, straight or bisexual) but does not say don’t do it. The
criticism seems to be based on how women's sex roles were
seen in the Roman and Jewish cultures of Biblical times
(women should be passive, not active, in sex). As the criticism
is culturally based, it does not apply today. More details of sex
between women
The Bible is okay with non-penetrative sex
between men
The Bible does not criticize or prohibit any form of sex
between men (including oral sex, deep kissing, fondling and
mutual masturbation) except for men fully penetrating men.
Therefore all these non-penetrative forms of sex between men
are totally okay (provided no harm is done).
The Bible's prohibition of full penetrative sex
between men does not apply today.
The Bible criticizes and prohibits only men fully penetrating
men. As in other societies of biblical times, the criticisms and
prohibition were aimed at the man being penetrated.
This Biblical prohibition seems to be mainly based on the
ancient cultural view that the penetrated man was acting like a
woman (instead of like a man) in sexual intercourse. This was
a shameful and degrading thing for a man to do. The male
penetrator was condemned for helping the penetrated man to
act like a woman.
Other possible cultural reasons for the prohibition were:
* Men penetrating men also occurred when strong men (such
as soldiers) sometimes humiliated weaker men by raping
them;
* Men penetrating men could also occur in pagan religious
ceremonies;
* Men penetrating men was wasting semen instead of it being
used to create children (future workers and warriors).
As the prohibition was culturally based, it does not apply
today. More details of sex between men
For those who disagree that a Biblical criticism
or prohibition does not apply today when it is
culturally based.
Some Christians say that it does not matter whether a Biblical
criticism or prohibition is culturally based; it is still the Word of
God and must be obeyed. This view faces difficulties when
slavery is looked at. The Bible approves of people owning
other people as slaves.
But despite the Bible’s approval, we don’t say that people can
own other people as slaves today. One therefore cannot say
that something is approved (slavery) or prohibited (men having
full sex with men) just because the Bible says so. We need
something more; and this is provided by the biblical “no-harm”
test. More no-harm test details
Results of the “no-harm” test.
Men having any form of sex with men (including full sex) pass
the “no-harm” test if each man acts with caring love and does
not harm himself, the other man or any third party (e.g., a
partner), physically, emotionally, mentally or relationally, directly
or indirectly. This also applies to sex between women when no
harm is caused. Find out more about the no-harm test
Relationships.
We can observe that a long-term relationship between two
men or two women involves much more than sex. It usually
includes mutual love and affection, caring and companionship
and is similar to a long-term married relationship between a
man and a woman.
For lots of optimistic and positive things see here
Why does the Web address of this site contain
the words “gays and slaves”?
Because the types of arguments that many Christians now use
against gay persons are very similar to the types of arguments
used in the past to justify slavery.
Questions and Answers on topics of this site.
Using this site:
You can easily see the main ideas of this site on the detailed
summary above.
You can also see the main points by clicking on each topic in
the left-hand panel near the top of the page. When a page
gives a Summary of the topic, you can get more information
by clicking on More Details on that page.
Alternatively, check the site's pages on the Sitemap at the end
of the Links page.
Biblical arguments
The arguments used in this site are based on the Bible, which
is treated as being accurate.
Contact me
Some positive comments about this site:
Thank you for your website. Lynn (Texas)
Let me just say this; THANK YOU for posting all this vital
information!! Tyler (California)
I totally agree with you! thank you soooo much ! :-) Katie
(England)
I found some useful stuff I could relate to on your site. Thank
you for putting it together to help people like me. Simon (UK)
You are free to copy, adapt, distribute and transmit the
information on this site provided that you credit the author
(Colin Smith) and that the information is not used for
commercial purposes. This site is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Feel free to link to this site.
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