"Homosexuality": The Creative Work of Evangelicals (Part 2)

In part one, I tried to demonstrate that the issue of 'homosexuality' is not a point of discussion in the Bible. It is a contemporary issue tied to the social and political conditions in the United States, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. Moving beyond this argument is the point of this second part.

Instead of arguing that those evangelicals that say 'homosexual practice' is mentioned in the Bible are wrong, I'll take a different tact. When someone says something to the effect: "the Bible says clearly that homosexuality is a sin." The questions that guide this analysis is: What are they doing? And, How are they doing it?

My argument is that many evangelicals continually weave the contemporary word 'homosexuality' and its attendant meanings back onto the Biblical text through the process of story telling. They take a topic that emerged enforce during the 1980s and project it back into history. The effect of this re-reading is to tie the Bible to the present political issue of 'homosexuality' in a way that justifies the speaker's condemnation on Biblical grounds.

As Albert Mohler demonstrates, the story telling happens smoothly. Watch as he creatively weaves 'homosexuality' to the Bible.

Let's get this straight -- God's condemnation of sin is not determined by science, but by God's Word. The Bible could not be more clear -- all forms of homosexual behavior are expressly condemned as sin. In so doing the Bible uses its strongest vocabulary and places this condemnation in the larger context of the Creator's rightful expectation of our stewardship of the sexual gift. All manifestations of homosexuality are thus representations of human sinfulness and rebellion against God's express will. Nothing can alter this fact, and no discovery in science or any other human endeavor can change God's verdict.

This creative weaving powerfully enables Mohler to define 'homosexuality' as 'sin' and 'rebellion against God's express will.' It situates Mohler as the knower of this fact (while not explaining how he knows) and it implies that Mohler is in God's good graces compared to the sinful 'homosexual.' But more importantly, Mohler is acting to define the limits of what constitutes the evangelical viewpoint on the contemporary issue of 'homosexuality.' 'Homosexuality' is beyond the pale and the Bible is used to justify this perspective on the matter.

Usually this creative reading of 'homosexual' is sewn into three places in the Bible:

Leviticus 18:22 which reads "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is
detestable."

Leviticus 20:13 which reads "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Romans 1:26-27 which reads "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

From these versus, it is inferred that the Bible was referring to 'homosexuality.' The explanation for this inferential leap from the empirical evidence to 'homosexuality' is conveinently left out of the discussion. The differences in the contexts in which the Bible was written and our contemporary contexts is absent from the discussion. Instead, a condemning story is told with certainty--'the Bible says clearly that homosexuality is a sin.'

The Bible can be read differently. This is not the only way that these verses can be read. For instance, take Blogging the Bible: What's Really in the Good Book. David Plotz is not an evangelical. He characterizes chapter 20 of Leviticus in these words:

Chapter 20
This is the Law and Order: SVU chapter, where the Lord specifies punishment for sex crimes. The most popular sentence: "They shall be put to death." Execution is the price for sex between: adulterer and adulteress; man and stepmother; man and daughter-in-law; man and man; man and beast; woman and beast. A threesome of man, woman, and her mother is singled out as especially heinous: The punishment is not just death but getting burned to death. God allows a few tender mercies: Marrying a sister is punished only by excommunication. Sex with a menstruating woman—that rates only banishment. And sex with an aunt or sister-in-law merely guarantees the culprits will die childless.

Nowhere does Plotz use the word 'homosexual' to frame any of the discussion of Leviticus. He is reading the same texts (generically, the Bible) as everyone else, yet interpreting it differently than many evangelicals. Plotz's reading stays closer to the empirical text by using 'man and man' language. He does not sew into the Bible text the word 'homosexual' and thus avoids the overt politicization that comes with its use.

Thus, evangelicals are not wrong; or at least that is not my argument.

I'm just saying that to "keep thinking" about this issue seems to be another way of saying: Let's keep talking about and acting out this storyline that ties 'homosexuality' to the Bible. Let's bring this worldview to life. Let's creat it and sustain it.