Christianity and sexual orientation

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Christian denominations have a variety of beliefs about

clergy, depending on the denomination. As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse, few Christian denominations discuss it.[1][2] Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the four variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and pansexuality
.

Beliefs and mythology

Main articles: Christianity and homosexuality and Christianity and transgender people
Further information: History of Christianity and homosexuality

The

sinful.[7][15]

Biblical

Main article: The Bible and homosexuality
The destruction of Sodom as illustrated by Sebastian Münster (1564)

Following the lead of Yale scholar

Naomi, Daniel and the court official Ashpenaz, and, most famously, David and King Saul's son Jonathan.[17]

The story of

Book of Samuel, as part of the story of David's ascent to power. The mainstream view found in modern biblical exegesis argues that the relationship between the two is merely a close platonic friendship.[19][20] However, a few have interpreted the love between David and Jonathan as romantic or sexual.[21][22][23][24]
Although David was married (to many women), he articulates a distinction between his relationship with Jonathan and the bonds he shares with women.

Another biblical hero,

Canaan was cursed with banishment and possibly slavery. In Jewish tradition, it is also suggested that Ham had anal sex with Noah or castrated him.[25]

Saints

Saint Sebastian, considered by some to be the world's first LGBT icon

While highly controversial, attempts have been made to hold up certain Christian saints as positive examples of homosexuality in Church history:

Eunuchs

The extent and even the existence of religious castration among Christians, with members of the early church castrating themselves for religious purposes,[33] is subject to debate.[34] The early theologian Origen found scriptural justification for the practice in Matthew 19:12,.[35] where Jesus says, "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (NRSV)

In describing Jesus as a spado and Paul of Tarsus as a castratus in his book De Monogamia, Tertullian, a 2nd-century Church Father, used Latin words that denoted eunuchs[36] to refer to virginity and continence.[37][38]

The significance of the selection of the Ethiopian eunuch as being the first gentile convert has been discussed as representative of inclusion of a sexual minority in the context of the time.[39]

Specific sexual orientations

Homosexuality

Main article: Christianity and homosexuality

Christianity has traditionally regarded male homosexual behavior to be an immoral practice, or sinful, and most major Christian movements continue to hold this view.[40][41]

Some Christian movements have only denominations that have a

Eastern Orthodox churches, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, and the Seventh-day Adventist churches, although some of these movements have networks of LGBT people.[43][44]

Some Christian movements have denominations that have liberal or conservative views, like the Anglican churches, Lutheran churches, Presbyterian churches, Methodist churches, Quaker churches, Mennonite churches, Baptist churches, and Pentecostal churches.[45][46][47]

The Metropolitan Community Church has been founded specifically to serve the Christian LGBT community. Its founder, Troy Perry, was the first minister to conduct a same-sex marriage in public, as well as filing the first lawsuit for legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the United States.[48]

Male homosexuality

Studies in the US show more LGBT individuals identify as Protestant than Catholic.[49][50][51]

Lesbianism

Lesbians face different social and cultural preconceptions than gay men. Their experience in Christianity is sometimes dissimilar to that of gay men, although lesbianism has also traditionally been considered a sin within the religion.[52]

In 1982, lesbian members of DignityUSA founded the Conference for Catholic Lesbians out of concern that DignityUSA was too oriented toward males.[53]

In 1986 the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus (EEWC), then known as the Evangelical Women's Caucus International, passed a resolution stating: "Whereas homosexual people are children of God, and because of the biblical mandate of Jesus Christ that we are all created equal in God's sight, and in recognition of the presence of the lesbian minority in EWCI, EWCI takes a firm stand in favor of civil rights protection for homosexual persons."[54]

A survey of self-identified lesbian women found a "dissonance" between their religious and sexual identities. This dissonance correlated with being an evangelical Christian before coming out.[52]

Bisexuality

Very few churches have released statements about bisexuality, and research into the bisexual Christian community has been affected by the fact that bisexual Christians are often considered the same as lesbian and gay Christians.

The Advocate in 1972.[57][58][59] Today Quakers have varying opinions on LGBT people and rights, with some Quaker groups more accepting than others.[60]

Asexuality

Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the four variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality.[61][62][63]

As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse, few Christian denominations discuss it and the Bible does not clearly state a view on it.

Reformed Christian website GotQuestions.org also accepts asexuals, and states that a lack of sexual desire “most definitely is not wrong.”[66]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Smith, SE (21 August 2012). "Asexuality always existed, you just didn't notice it". The Guardian. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "Ace Week". Ace Week.
  3. ^
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  4. ^
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  7. ^
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  8. ^ Gilbert, Kathleen (September 29, 2008). "Bishop Soto tells NACDLGM: 'Homosexuality is Sinful'". Catholic Online. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008.
  9. ^ Robinson, Gene; Krehely, Jeff; Steenland, Sally (December 8, 2010). "What are Religious Texts Really Saying about Gay and Transgender Rights?". Center for American Progress. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Modisane, Cameron (November 15, 2014). "The Story of Sodom and Gomorrah was NOT About Homosexuality". News24. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
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  12. S2CID 152944605
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  13. ^ Frost, Natasha (2018-03-02). "A Modern Controversy Over Ancient Homosexuality". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  14. ^ McClain, Lisa. "A thousand years ago, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexuality". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  15. ISBN 9780521889520
    . the overwhelming majority of Christian churches have maintained their positions that homosexual behavior is sinful
  16. ISBN 9780006863267
    . Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  17. ^ "Same-Sex Relationships in the Bible: Conservative and Liberal Viewpoints". www.religioustolerance.org.
  18. ^ Haggerty, p.380
  19. ^ DeYoung, p. 290
  20. ^ Martti Nissinen, Kirsi Stjerna, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, p. 56
  21. ^ Boswell, John. Same-sex Unions in Premodern Europe. New York: Vintage, 1994. (pp. 135-137)
  22. ^ Halperin, David M. One Hundred Years of Homosexuality. New York: Routledge, 1990. (p. 83)
  23. ^ When Heroes Love:. The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David (New York & Chichester, Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. 165-231
  24. ^ Homosexuality and Liminality in the Gilgamesh and Samuel (Amsterdam, Hakkert, 2007), pp. 28-63
  25. ^ Conner & Sparks p. 250, "Noah"
  26. ^ a b Boswell, p. 154
  27. ISBN 978-0-226-41041-8
    . on the nature of "brotherly love", p.174
  28. synaxarion
    , Orthodox Church in America
  29. ^ troparia, All; saints, kontakia · All lives of. "Lives of the Saints". www.oca.org.
  30. ^ a b "Subjects of the Visual Arts: St. Sebastian". glbtq.com. 2002. Archived from the original on 2007-09-01. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  31. ISBN 978-0-203-29128-3
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  32. ^ "Arrows of desire: How did St Sebastian become an enduring, homo-erotic icon? - Features, Art". The Independent. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  33. JSTOR 1583869
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  34. S2CID 145724743
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  35. Frend, W. H. C., The Rise of Christianity, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1984, p. 374, which in footnote 45 cites Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica
    VI.8.2
  36. ^ "Words". Archives.nd.edu. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
  37. ISBN 978-0-664-22310-6
    . Especially in De Monogamia it seems clear that Tertullian takes spado to mean a "virgin", but by using the word spado he employed a term that was in common use to refer to castrated men
  38. ^ Accordingly, Tertullian's text, "ipso domino spadonibus aperiente regna caelorum ut et ipso spadone, quem spectans et apostolus, propterea et ipse castratus, continentiam mavult" (De monogamia, 3) has been translated as "seeing that the Lord Himself opens 'the kingdoms of the heavens' to 'eunuchs', as being Himself, withal, a virgin; to whom looking, the apostle also--himself too for this reason abstinent--gives the preference to continence" (Roberts-Donaldson translation).
  39. ISBN 9781611640502
    – via Google Books.
  40. ^ John C. Dwyer, Human Sexuality: A Christian View, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 1987, p. 62
  41. ^ David Jeffers, Understanding Evangelicals, Xulon Press, USA, 2006, p. 54
  42. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2357 and Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation for Persons with Homosexual Tendencies Archived February 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  43. ^ Jeanne H. Ballantine, Keith A. Roberts, Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology, 3rd Media Edition, SAGE, USA, 2011, p. 427
  44. ^ Adrian Thatcher, The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender, Oxford University Press, UK, 2015, p. 363
  45. ^ Jeffrey S. Siker, Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, USA, 2007, p. 112
  46. ^ William Henard, Adam Greenway, Evangelicals Engaging Emergent, B&H Publishing Group, USA, 2009, p. 20
  47. ^ Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 4, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2005, p. 937
  48. ^ "History of MCC – Metropolitan Community Churches". www.mccchurch.org. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  49. ^ "LGBT Identification, by Religious Affiliation". PRRI American Values Atlas 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  50. ^ "Religious Composition by Self-Reported Sexual Identity". PEW Research Center. 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  51. ^ "Religious Affiliation". PEW Research Center. 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
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  56. ^ "June 1972: The Ithaca Statement - BiMedia". 10 February 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015.
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  58. ^ Highleyman, Liz (2003-07-11). "PAST Out: What is the history of the bisexual movement?". LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth. Vol. 13, no. 8. Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  59. ^ Martin, Robert (1972-08-02). "Quakers 'come out' at conference". The Advocate (91): 8.
  60. ^ Campaign, Human Rights. "Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Religious Society of Friends - Human Rights Campaign".
  61. S2CID 41057104
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  62. ISSN 1094-5725. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2006-02-11. Retrieved 20 November 2011 – via American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists.
  63. ISBN 978-0-7614-7906-2
    . Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  64. ^ "Eight myths about religious life - VISION Vocation Network for Catholic Religious Life & Priesthood - English". Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  65. ^ Petriello, Lisa (December 15, 2020). "Why We Christians Should Accept Asexuals".
  66. ^ "What does the Bible say about asexuality?". GotQuestions.org. Retrieved 2023-12-12.

Sources

  • Wilcox, Melissa M. (2003). Coming out in Christianity: religion, identity, and community. Indiana University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-253-21619-9
    .
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