one of the statements that i have made that has been the most controversial since i’ve started this account has been my belief that homosexuality isn’t a sin. shocker, right? well, today, i’m going to share this handy project debunking all of the verses that people usually bring out to justify their hatred, because i’m tired of having this conversation individually. so, stick around if you’re a fellow Christian lgbtq+ supporter, or if you don’t agree with me right now but are willing to challenge your views and learn! this is the second part in a series of projects that i’m making, each one focusing on debunking ‘Christian’ homophobia. you can find the others here: Genesis 19:1-14 and 24-26 - Romans 1:18-27 -
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 the most important thing to think about when referring to Leviticus is the context in which it was written. this particular book of the Bible focuses on setting out purity laws for the israelites, to set them apart from their pagan neighbours, the egyptians and the caananites; the biggest point here is that the israelites are told not to do what the egyptians and caananites did. Biblical historians tell us that the canaanite religions often included fertility rites consisting of s rituals in their temples. s with temple p, family members, and homosexual s was performed at the canaanite temples and thought to bring good luck to help crop and livestock production, thus indicating that the issue here is not exclusively one of homosexuality, but with the want to set themselves apart from their pagan neighbours. in addition, context suggests the growth in the number of people within the israelite community was crucial to the survival of israel; this was likely one of the chief reasons for these rules about sexuality. as the israelites were a small population, the survival of their nation was at stake if they did not produce enough children to inherit the land. the male-centric mentality of the time would have led people to want to control women’s rights, as well as avoiding men ‘wasting’ their time on those who could not reproduce, i.e. other men. this may have been why the authors of Leviticus supported the d3 penalty attached to this law, as not reproducing in the appropriate amounts would have led to the death of the nation itself. though the word “abomination” is used to describe “[lying] with a male as with a woman”, the ancient hebrew word that was translated to this simply meant taboo or forbidden, rather than the disgust or evil that we now associate it with. many things in Leviticus are referred to as an abomination, including other things that make no sense to a modern reader, such as sowing a field with two different kinds of seed, weaving cloth of two different fibres or eating a whole host of foods such as pork, crab, shrimp, rabbit, and various varieties of bird. these teachings are all ones of ritual purity and the need for the israelites to set themselves apart, rather than any lasting advice to Christians; unless you don’t eat pork, crab, shrimp, rabbit or bird, and all of your clothes are woven from the same fibre, you don’t get to use Leviticus to justify your homophobia.
