JESUS ACCEPTED GAYS - AS CHRISTIANS WE MUST ALSO!

By Peter Wong

 

Introduction

Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been culturally conditioned not to accept gays into full membership in the body of Christ. Recent biblical scholarship has uncovered that in Jesus' teachings about accepting eunuchs - the term "eunuch" in Jesus' time included gays. Also, many Christians reject gays relying on the purity codes of the Mosaic Law, which manifest the Old Testament Covenant between God and Israel. These purity codes do not apply to those who are under the New Covenant between God and Christians mediated by Jesus. As a consequence of these miss-translations and misunderstandings, gays have not been permitted full participation in the life of the Church and have been denied rights under the law.

Jesus Accepted Gays

Jesus accepted eunuchs just as they are, explaining to his disciples, "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive this." (Matthew 19:12, RSV, emphasis added.)

Jesus deals with three categories of eunuchs - those who were born eunuchs, those who were castrated, and those who were celibate by choice - and asks his disciples to accept them!

The Norwegian theologian, Raghnild Schanke, examines a massive array of ancient references (including Roman, Talmudic, Greek, and astrological texts) to conclude that in the ancient world and in Jesus' time the term "eunuchs," as used by Jesus, included homosexuals and persons whose sexual practices deviated from the norm. (Ragnhild Schanke, "Rituals and same-sex unions," in Same-sex couples, same-sex partnerships, and homosexual marriages: A Focus on cross-national differences (edited by Marie Digoix and Patrick Festy), pp. 273-292, Proceedings from the Stockholm Conference 25-26 September 2003, International Research Project On Same-Sex Unions In Europe, online at http://www-same-sex.ined.fr/WWW/04Doc124Ragnhild.pdf, hereinafter, referred to as "Schanke.")

Hence, Jesus' acceptance of eunuchs included accepting those who were gay. Schanke concludes her analysis: "Any gender variant person, who accepts the [Christian] New Covenant, rather than the old Mosaic Law, should be accepted into the Christian Sanctuary, welcomed to the altar, and included in the rituals." (Schanke, p. 292.)

As Jesus' Disciples - We Must Also Accept Gays

Jesus' teachings must be our supreme moral guide. Because whether we are conservative, moderate, or progressive Christians we all acknowledge Jesus as Lord - and, as our Lord, we must faithfully follow his teachings and commandments.

Jesus told his disciples on numerous occasions that he expects them to live by his teachings and keep his commandments. Examples follow: (1) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15, RSV.), (2) "He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." (John 14:24, RSV.), (3) "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." (John 15:10, RSV.), and (4) "Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46, RSV.)

Jesus asserts his authority over the Mosaic Law by stating: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment...." (Matthew 5:21-22, RSV, emphasis added.) If there is an unresolved conflict between Jesus' teachings and other Scriptural texts, Jesus' teachings have supremacy.

Jesus brings us the truth underlying the interpretation of the Mosaic Law by declaring: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17, RSV, emphasis added.) Therefore, Jesus' teachings must inform our interpretation of other Scriptural texts.

For all the above reasons, Jesus' teachings must be our supreme moral guide. If Jesus' accepted gays, then we must also!

Accepting Gays Is Consistent With Jesus' Life And Ministry

Jesus' acceptance of gays is consistent with his life and ministry to the outcasts of his day - those who were considered unclean according to the ritual purity codes of the Mosaic Law.

The Pharisees and Scribes often criticized Jesus for associating with the outcasts of society: "‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?' ... Jesus answered them...‘I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'" (Luke 5:30-32, RSV.) Later, the Pharisees and Scribes again complained about Jesus' associations: "This man receives sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15: 2, RSV.)

In ancient times, lepers were considered unclean and untouchable. Because it was believed their open sores were contagious, they had to live apart from society, physically cast out from society and shunned. They were the extreme outcasts! In a shocking association and friendship, Jesus accepted the hospitality of a leper, stayed in his home, and ate at his table: "And while he [Jesus] was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment ... and poured it over his head." (Mark 14:3, RSV, emphasis added.) Jesus teaches us by example not to be afraid of associating with the so-called "lepers" of society.

Because Jesus accepted and socialized with the outcasts of society, it is entirely consistent that he would accept gays.

The Bible Has Been Made Heterosexual - 48 Gay Men Are Made Invisible

Why aren't their more references to "eunuchs" in the Bible? Schanke found 48 instances in the Bible where the term "eunuch" was miss-translated, and where eunuchs were made invisible by using terms such as "officers" instead. (Schanke, p. 281.) Hence, 48 gay men were made to disappear from the Bible! Schanke argues that, "First the Bible was made heterosexual, then heterosexuality was made Biblical." (Schanke, p. 280.)

Shanke opines that the early Church fathers had difficulty in dealing with deviations from the sexual norm and made the issue invisible by substituting terms such as "officers" for "eunuchs," except where it would not make sense in context to do so. (Shanke, p. 281.)

Why The Intense Angry Intolerance Towards Same-Sex Marriage?

What is it about same-sex marriage that elicits such irrational angry intolerant reactions by many Christians? We attempt to answer this question by following the line of arguments suggested by Schanke. (See, Shanke, pp. 273-274.)

A synopsis of the arguments - without the clutter of supporting authority and background facts - are as follows. (1) The purity codes of the Mosaic Law declare that sexual practices deviant from the norm are impure. (2) Because deviant sexual practices are impure, any repressed anxieties about deviant sexual practices engender shame. (3) Shame often expresses itself as aggression and anger towards others.

(1) Purity Codes. The purity codes of the Mosaic Law declare that sexual practices deviant from the norm are impure. ----- Jack Rodgers, Professor of Theology Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary, explains that the purity codes, which he refers to as Holiness Codes, were instituted shortly after the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt. The underlying theme was that the Israelites "must be separate, different from the Egyptians from whom they had escaped and unmixed with the Canaanites into whose land they had now come." They would achieve this by maintaining holy purity by following the Holiness Codes in Leviticus. (Jack Rodgers, "Jesus The Bible And Homosexuality," Westminster John Knox Press, 2006, p. 72.) Rodgers contends that the prohibition against homosexuality found in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 was to maintain male gender superiority over women, namely, a male was not to be penetrated like a woman. Homosexuality was prohibited because it undermined male gender superiority. (Ibid., p. 72.) Relying on Matthew 15:10-20, where Jesus taught it is what comes from the heart that defiles a person, Rodgers argues that Jesus is concerned with the purity of the heart, and not with meticulously following the purity codes of Mosaic Law. (Ibid., p. 73.) Rodgers asserts, "When these texts in Leviticus are taken out of their historical and cultural context and applied to faithful, God-worshipping Christians who are homosexual, it does violence to them. They are being condemned for failing to conform to an ancient culturally conditioned code that is not applicable to them or their circumstances." (Ibid., p. 73.)

(2) Shame. Because deviant sexual practices are impure, any repressed anxieties about deviant sexual practices engender shame. ----- Schanke conjectures: "The biblical texts about sexual deviance from a context of cultic purity [is] connected to shame. The biblical term is ‘abomination.'" (Shanke, pp. 273-274, emphasis added.)

(3) Aggression and Anger. Shame often expresses itself as aggression and anger towards others. ----- Thomas J. Scheff, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, argues that "males are particularly socialized to cover over feelings of shame: the sense of being weak, powerless, helpless, impotent, or incompetent. Rather than experience these painful feelings, men usually go blank or get enraged." (Shanke, p. 273, citing Thomas J. Scheff, "Male Emotions and Violence," Journal of Mundane Behavior, September 2001.)

Concluding Remarks

Do we as Christians have the courage to follow Jesus' example - accepting gays into full participation in the body of Christ, including ordination and marriage?

 

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Copyright 2008 by Peter Wong. Peter Wong is a concerned Christian and an attorney with a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Law School and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is one of the founders of MicahsCall, a social networking website (located at www.micahscall.org) that brings people together to fulfill the Old Testament prophet Micah's call to: "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8.) He is the author of the book Let's Dialogue With The Christian Right, published by lulu.com, 2008.

 

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