CAN GAYS AND LESBIANS
BE TRUE CHRISTIANS?
    Some persons say that the Bible condemns
    homosexuality and that a gay man or a lesbian
    can't be a true Christian.

    THE FACTS –

The Bible accepts same-sex attraction.

The Bible does not condemn any form of sex
between men except for full sex between men.

However such sex is okay if no one is harmed.

The Bible does not condemn sex between
women.



    Brief Summary

This site agrees with those people who say that the Bible prohibits full
sex between men (homosexual activity).  But this prohibition does not
apply to men today when the sexual activity causes no harm.  Also,
the prohibition does not apply to men today because it applied only to
the ancient Israelite and Greek-Roman cultures.



    Full Summary

    This site shows that:

There is no actual reference in the Bible to
homosexuality, gay men or lesbians.

Any use of homosexuality or sodomites in a Bible version is a
translation error.  Consequently 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.  More details


The Bible accepts same-sex attraction.

The Bible has stories showing same-sex emotional attraction and
deep friendship.  But the stories do not show sexual attraction, which
is an essential part of same-sex orientation.  The Bible does not refer
to same-sex (homosexual) orientation at all, either positively or
negatively.  More details


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


The Bible doesn’t prohibit sex between women.

The Bible has 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


The Bible prohibits full (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 penetrating men.  As in other societies of Biblical
times, the prohibition is aimed at the man being penetrated.  This
Biblical prohibition seems to be mainly based on the cultural view that
the penetrated man is acting like a woman (instead of like a man) in
sexual intercourse.  The male penetrator is condemned for helping
the penetrated man to act like a woman.  As the prohibition is
culturally based, it does not apply today.   More details


For those who disagree that a Biblical criticism or
prohibition does not apply today when it is culturally
based.

Some people 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 can’t 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 details


The “no-harm” test.

Men having full sex with men passes 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.  More details




For Questions and Answers on topics of this site click here.


This site is for everyone.  It should especially help those
people who feel a conflict between their sexuality and their
Christian beliefs.


Using this site:

You can easily see the main points of this site on the detailed Full
Summary above.

Also you can click on any topic in the left-hand panel.  If the page
that appears only gives a Summary of the topic, you can get more
information by clicking on More Details on that page.


Biblical arguments

The arguments used in this site are based on the Bible, which is
treated as being accurate.


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.