Christianity and homosexuality
Denominations espouse a range of views on the relationship between Christianity and homosexuality.
Quotes
[edit]- God tells us men fucking men is a terrible thing, but a father offering his two daughters, vestal virgins no less, to a horde of horny buggers is heroic. Now that's straight. … God destroys the faggots with fire and brimstone. He turns a disobedient wife into salt. But he asks us to idolize drunks who sleep with their daughters or offer them to a horny, unruly mob.
- Rabih Alameddine on the biblical narrative of Lot and his family confronting the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, as quoted by Wail S. Hassan in Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab American and Arab British Literature (2011), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-979206-1, page 207.
- [W]hile the Supreme Court may have created rights for LBGT couples to marry, that does not mean I am under any mandate to celebrate it. I will not be bullied into compromising on my beliefs about the whole issue of sexual sin or any other kind of sin for that matter. Sin not only break's God's laws, it breaks His heart. As a spiritual leader of my home, I need to communicate how sin not only grieves God, but it grieves me as well because it hurts all involved.
- William G. Boykin, Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World (2020), p. 160
- This reluctance on the part of so many, to say an out and out yes to God and no to sin and its accompanying evil, has brought our present generation to its sorry state. We are not opposing an individual's right to be treated with equality and fairness, but we did rise in opposition to the misleading demand of so-called civil rights for homosexuals who are not a legitimate oppressed minority with the same claims and rights as, say, Chicanos and blacks.
- Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (1977), p. 34
- The attempt by homosexuals to label this as a civil-rights issue was nothing but camouflage. If we as a nation eventually came to the place where this is sanctioned as a legitimate civil-rights issue, then what is to stop the adulterer from claiming "adulterer rights," the murderer from shouting "murderer rights," the thief to claim "extortioner rights," and a rebellious young person to insist on "rebellious-child rights"?
- Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (1977), p. 35
- Homosexuals do not suffer discrimination when they keep their perversions in the privacy of their homes. They can hold any job, transact any business, join any organization—so long as they do not flaunt their homosexuality and try to establish role models for the impressionable young people—our children. I will continue to fight the attempts of Metro, and the attempts of a few Congressmen who on February 2 presented a similar type of bill in the Congress of the United States to legitimize homosexuality. Homosexuals cannot reproduce—so they must recruit. And to freshen their ranks, they must recruit the youth of America. I shall continue to fight against that recruitment. Those who do not share my conviction may continue to blacklist my talent— but with God's help, they can never blacken my name.
- Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (1977), p. 62
- Catholics and other Christians are against abortions and they're against homosexuals. Well who has less abortions than homosexuals? Leave these fucking people alone for Christ's sake! Here is an entire class of people guaranteed never to have an abortion and the Catholics and the Christians are just tossing them aside. You'd think they'd make natural allies! Don't look for consistency in religion.
- George Carlin, Back in Town (1996), "Abortion"
- God is happy that you are gay. God made you fucking gay cuz he thinks it is awesome.
- The present status of gay activism makes it imperative that thinking Christians really understand the situation on the national scene... Evangelical Christians need to be alert to the implications of this gay force in their communities, their churches, and their nation. But most of all, they need to understand the underlying biblical and theological assumptions which have always made the church of Jesus Christ, though not always in an intelligent and loving way, clearly and unequivocally condemn homosexuality. The response of the real Christian on the issue of homosexuality should not be an emotional trauma toward the repulsion and stigma attached to the movement and its adherents. It should be a rather clear exposition of what the Bible has to say on the subject, with redemptive goals which have clear ramifications in society and the church.
- Kenneth O. Gangel, President of Miami Christian College (1974-1982), in Communicare magazine published by the College. As quoted by Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (1977), p. 33
- Shouldn’t Christians treat all people with respect, regardless of their sexual orientation?
Absolutely. The Bible says: “Honor men of all sorts” or, as Today’s English Version renders it, “Respect everyone.” (1 Peter 2:17) Therefore, Christians are not homophobic. They show kindness to all people, including those who are gay. (Matthew 7:12).
- Bryant's performance displays ... many features of churchly condemnation of homosexuality. She quotes scriptures and rehearses what are supposed to be arguments. She lends her considerable stage presence to the repertoire of inherited topics. But more importantly she performs a rhetoric of compassion and cursing that claims the vulnerability of the young as justification for waging war on homosexuals. The Bryant campaign deploys the professedly, aggressively "Christian" rhetoric that still surrounds us, that still works in us and on us.
- Mark D. Jordan, Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk About Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), p. 136
- It was when I was twelve years old that I encountered a homosexual for the first time. I had no idea what was going on. I was in a movie theater in Seattle and the fellow in the next seat put his hand on my knee. I waited a moment, assuming it was an accident and that he would remove it. Surprisingly, he didn't. Finally, I grabbed his hand with all my strength and literally threw it back at him. My adrenaline was pumping full steam. I bolted out of my seat, stalked back up the aisle several rows, and sat down. I stared at the back of that guy's head during much of the movie. Then, when I was older, I was in a car with a young man who put his arm around my shoulder. I think I was more frightened than anything else because he was in control of the car. It was a legitimate fear of the unknown that made me shout, "Stop this car! I'm getting out of here!"
- Jerry Kirk, The Homosexual Crisis In the Mainline Church (1978). Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers, p. 127
- Many young people have left our churches and wandered off into the "gay" lifestyle. They abandon their faith or somehow justify their choices by claiming they were born that way. Why would a loving God create them in a way that is contrary to the Scriptures? They are left struggling through the rest of their life, often falling deeper and deeper into a godless lifestyle and further and further away from their faith. Unfortunately, the Christian world has taken two opposite extremes, both of which leave the "gay" individual without any honest answers. Some have decided that homosexuality is not a sin. They expect Christians that believe it is a sin to accept these individuals' lifestyle rather than help them escape from their behavior. The other extreme is to deem them hopelessly condemned and to release them into the world with no way back.
- David J. Nixon, Born That Way After All (2016). David J. Nixon with R.G. Hamm, p. 1
- It was nearing midnight. We had been talking, praying, and reading the Scriptures for nearly two hours. I carefully shared the idea with Sam that maybe he had indeed been born that way, not as a "homosexual," but as a "eunuch." I explained what eunuchs were, and I assured Sam that they were made uniquely by God for a special purpose. ... Sam began to weep. I could see something different in his eyes. He read Matthew 19:12 over and over again, and then he began to shiver. He looked up at me and then turned to his mother and, through his tears, Sam said, "Mom, I'm not gay." His mom and grandmother began to weep. All of us were crying. He said, "I'm a eunuch. I guess God did make me special."
- David J. Nixon, Born That Way After All (2016). David J. Nixon with R.G. Hamm, p. 12
The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
[edit]- Reported in: Mark Water, ed. The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (2000), p. 491
- God loves homosexuals as much as anyone else. I think homosexuality is a sin, but no greater than idolatry and adultery. In my judgment, it's not that big.
- It is striking that every time homosexual practice is mentioned in the scriptures, it is condemned. There are only two ways one can neutralize the biblical witness against homosexual behavior: by gross misinterpretation or by moving away from a high view of Scripture.
- Stanton L. Jones
- Whether these matters are to be regarded as sport, or as earnest, we must not forget that this pleasure is held to have been granted by nature to male and female when conjoined for the work of procreation; the crime of male with male, or female with female, is an outrage on nature and a capital surrender to lust of pleasure.
- Plato, Laws, I, 635 (tr. A. E. Taylor)
- Concerning Homosexuality: This once brought hell out of heaven on Sodom.
