Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarai]

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY

Conservative and liberal Christians interpret the Bible in very different ways. This leads to two distinct and contradictory sets of beliefs within Christianity on just about every topic. Homosexuality is no exception.

Conservative Christian theologians generally: Believe that the Bible was written by authors who were directly inspired by God. Thus their writings are seen as inerrant -- completely free of error as originally written.
The Bible is regarded as the actual Word of God. Thus whenever the Bible and science disagree, the former must be right.
When they study the Bible for guidance on homosexuality, they generally look for proof texts -- passages that clearly and directly deal with the topic.


Liberal Christian theologians tend to: Interpret the Bible as having been written by authors who were intent on promoting their own religious and spiritual beliefs. The writers lived in a pre-scientific age, which treated slavery, genocide, mass murder, and the oppression of women as acceptable.
Since the scientific study of sexual orientation did not exist in Biblical times, the authors had no awareness of the topic. When the Bible and science disagree, we have to give greater weight to the recent findings of human sexuality researchers.
When theologians study the Bible for guidance on homosexuality, they generally look for applicable biblical themes, like those advocating justice, love, monogamy, caring, etc.


Since the two groups approach the Bible with different assumptions, and look for different content, one can expect that their conclusions will be very different. They are.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm

But, as always, the Right is "right" because the Word is "literal" and "perfect", and so forth. And who are we to argue because you either believe the Bible is true, or you believe it is a hoax. Or something like that....You know the argument.....