DENOMINATIONAL DOCTRINES: “IT’S AN ABOMINATION!”
“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13)
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22)
I obviously don’t have all the answers to every question about the Levitical system, nor does anyone else. No one today is under that law. But homophobic Evangelicals and others love to talk about how “homosexuality” is an “abomination” based on those two passages. They ignore just about every other Old Testament “abomination,” but focus on this one.
Because of the blood of Jesus, we are no longer under the Law of Moses, or any law of that kind (Matthew 26:28; Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24-26). The law of love is what we are guided by today (Romans 13:8; Galatians 5:14). That’s why it does not matter if you work on Saturday now, or wear garments with different kinds of fabric, or borrow money if interest is charged—all abominations under the Law of Moses (that Evangelicals ignore anyway). If you love Jesus and love your neighbor as yourself, that is the law of Christ.
When it comes to “sexual sins” which those in man-made denominations are so obsessed with, they point out the “abomination” of “homosexuality,” but I’ve never heard them preach this one found just a few verses before their favorite hate text: “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness” (Leviticus 18:19). Why aren’t preachers telling husbands not to have sex with their wives while they are having their period? I’ve never heard a sermon against this in my life from any Evangelical group. But that is an “abomination,” just like “lying with a male as with a female.” It is no wonder that the gay and lesbian community sees Evangelicals as the hypocrites that they are.
Sexual orientation is not addressed in the Bible and is irrelevant. What God hates is hurting people. Using people for sex (or anything else). “Sleeping around.” Whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual, those things are sinful. All of the “sexual sins” in the Bible have to do with lust and hurting others. Monogamous, same-sex relationships between consenting adults are not condemned in God’s word.
Again, I am not under the Levitical law, so I don’t understand all of its prohibitions. I don’t understand why God would not let them eat catfish or wear garments with different kinds of threads in them. But in Leviticus 18 when it says it is a sin for a man to “lie with a man as with a woman,” I believe he is talking about heterosexual men who “experiment,” among other things. Nothing could fit the category of using people for sex or a sexual relationship based on lust more than a heterosexual man who participates in homosexual sex for “new thrills.” And many heterosexual men (and women) have done that.
If the passages are to be taken without any context, then lesbians would be excluded automatically. He only mentions males. The Levitical assault on homosexuals needs to be abandoned. No one is under that law today (yes, I’ve already said it, but people don’t listen). Plus, it was never valid to begin with, because the passage never taught what the man-made religious groups say it does.
Only a heterosexual male could lie with another male “as with a woman.” Homosexual men don’t generally lie with men “as with women” because they don’t lie with women at all. And no one seems to want to consider that Israel had just come out of Egypt where they had been exposed to all sorts of pagan and immoral practices. Men having sex with men just for sexual thrills was very common in ancient Egypt, as it has been in every civilization known to man.
The same context applies to Leviticus 20:13. There he uses two different Hebrew words for male, and so it is accurately translated “if a man lies with a male.” Why would he use two different words if he is just talking about “males with males?” He is not. He’s talking about men lying with boys. Pedophilia in other words.
Ask a preacher or teacher in the man-made, organized religious groups where the Bible condemns pedophilia and he or she will answer, “It doesn’t directly. But it does in principle.” So here is what they are asking us to believe: that in a context where God condemned sex with animals, sex with corpses, and incest, he “tosses in” a consenting-adult, monogamous, same-sex couple in a loving relationship. But he does not, in that list of horrible sexual sins, talk about the worst kind of all: abuse of a child. That is so stupid it is hard to believe anyone could fall for it.
So the “abomination” has to do with using people for sex, experimenting, abuse—hurting people, in other words. That interpretation makes biblical and logical sense. The “homosexuals across the board” view does not. It has nothing to do with two consenting adults in a relationship of love. Not even in Leviticus.
This article does not answer all the questions or touch on all the issues. Nor was it intended to. We will do so and already have through our other mediums. But any honest Bible student should be encouraged to take on open-minded reflection and study based on what is revealed rather than listening to “Evangelicals” who are wrong about far more issues than they are right about.
Dewayne Dunaway
