What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? — A Compassionate and Honest Answer

Few topics in contemporary Christianity generate more heat and less light than this one. Churches have split over it. Families have fractured. People have been wounded on every side — by Christians who handled it without compassion, by cultural voices who handled it without truth, and by the silence of people who were too afraid to engage it at all.

This article will not satisfy everyone. Honest engagement with this topic never does. But it will try to do what too few voices are doing: handle the Scripture honestly, treat every person involved with genuine dignity, and refuse both the cruelty of cold condemnation and the false kindness of telling people what they want to hear rather than what is true.

## What the Bible Actually Says

The biblical passages that address same-sex sexual behavior directly are not many, but they are clear. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 prohibit male same-sex intercourse in the context of Israel's covenant law. Romans 1:26-27 describes both male and female same-sex sexual activity as contrary to nature — a departure from the created order. 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 include same-sex sexual behavior in lists of conduct that is incompatible with the kingdom of God.

Attempts to reinterpret these passages to affirm same-sex sexual relationships — arguing that Paul was addressing pederasty rather than all same-sex behavior, or that "nature" in Romans 1 refers to cultural convention — require more from the text than the text will give. The scholarly weight of the evidence, including among scholars who are personally sympathetic to a revisionist reading, is that the traditional interpretation is correct. The Bible consistently presents sexual union as something designed for a man and a woman within the covenant of marriage.

This is also the unanimous witness of Christian tradition for two thousand years across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant branches of the church — until a minority position emerged in Western Christianity in the late twentieth century under direct pressure from the surrounding culture.

We hold the traditional view. We hold it because we believe the Bible is the Word of God and not subject to revision based on cultural pressure. And we hold it with a clear awareness of everything that holding it costs real people, and of the church's own terrible record of handling this topic with cruelty rather than grace.

## What the Bible Does Not Say

The Bible does not say that same-sex attraction is itself a sin. The experience of attraction — including attraction that is unwanted and distressing — is a temptation, not a transgression. Every human being deals with temptations they did not choose and would not have designed for themselves. The presence of temptation is not evidence of a failed or defective faith. Jesus Himself was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

The Bible does not say that gay or lesbian people are uniquely sinful or specially condemned. Every sin mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 — including greed, slander, and drunkenness — is treated as equally disqualifying, and equally forgivable through Christ. There is no hierarchy of sin that places homosexuality at the top of the list. Christians who treat LGBTQ people as though their particular struggle is uniquely shameful are not being biblical — they are being selective in a way that conveniently focuses on the sins they do not struggle with.

The Bible does not say that people with same-sex attraction cannot live full, rich, deeply meaningful Christian lives. The New Testament does not present marriage as the only path to human flourishing. Jesus Himself was celibate. Paul was celibate and explicitly described singleness as a gift (1 Corinthians 7:7). The church's impoverished theology of singleness has done enormous damage to Christians who are trying to faithfully follow Christ within a traditional sexual ethic — making them feel as though they are missing the point of life rather than living a different expression of it.

## What This Means for the Church

First Baptist Church of Fenton holds a traditional biblical sexual ethic. We believe that God designed sexual union for one man and one woman within the covenant of marriage. We will not change this position to accommodate cultural pressure, and we will not pretend ambiguity exists where we believe the Scripture is clear.

We also believe — and mean this without qualification — that every person who walks through our doors is made in the image of God, is loved by Christ, and is welcome to hear the Gospel and find community here.

Welcome does not mean agreement. We do not require people to agree with our theology before they can attend a service, ask questions, or be treated with genuine warmth. What it means is that every person — regardless of sexual orientation, relationship status, or anything else in their past or present — will be treated as a human being of full dignity and worth.

We have people in our community that battle with same sex attraction. Some are navigating celibacy with extraordinary faithfulness and courage. Some are asking questions they are not ready to share publicly. All of them are welcome. We will not pretend that the questions are easy or that faithfulness in this area is not costly. We will try to be the kind of community where those costs are genuinely shared rather than loaded entirely onto the people who bear them.

## A Word to LGBTQ People Specifically

If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender and you are reading this — perhaps looking for a church or perhaps trying to understand what Christianity actually teaches — we want you to hear this directly:

You are not a problem to be managed. You are not uniquely broken in a way that puts you beyond the reach of the grace available to everyone else. The Jesus of the New Testament spent His time with the people that religious culture had decided were unworthy — and He reserved His harshest words not for them but for the religious people who treated them that way.

We do not know where you are in your journey or what you believe. We know that we want to be a community where you can come and find honest engagement with the hard questions, genuine compassion for the struggles involved, and the same Gospel that is the hope of every broken person in every room on Sunday morning.

You are welcome here.

## A Final Word on Disagreement

People who read this will disagree with us — some for being too conservative, some for being too soft. That is the nature of trying to hold truth and love together in a culture that has decided they are incompatible.

We believe they are not. We believe the God who designed human sexuality is also the God who went to the cross for every person who has ever fallen short of it. Both the design and the grace are true at the same time. That is the only framework we know of that is honest about the cost and generous about the hope.

**Scriptures:** Genesis 1:27 · Genesis 2:24 · Romans 1:26-27 · 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 · 1 Corinthians 7:7 · Hebrews 4:15 · John 3:16