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The Bible, Christianity, & Homosexuality
There are many commendable books on the Bible and homosexuality which span anywhere from a hundred to several hundred pages in length. For the curious, such books can sometimes be inaccessible or more than they really want to read. "The Bible, Christianity, & Homosexuality" is a concise yet profound analysis of the Bible verses often misused to condemn gay and lesbian Christians. This study was written to be accessible to all, indeed, something family members and friends of gay and lesbian Christians might actually take the time to read. The Los Angeles Times describes this work as "an illuminating...analysis that argues the Bible doesn't condemn faithful gay relationships." (McGough, 7/18/05).
50 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2008
39 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Justin R. Cannon
3 books3 followersRev. Justin R. Cannon received his Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College and his Master of Divinity from Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, CA. He is the founder of Inclusive Orthodoxy, a published author/editor, and is currently serving as Priest-in-Charge at St. Giles' Episcopal Church in Moraga, California. Rev. Justin was ordained in the Episcopal Church as a deacon on June 4, 2011 and a priest on December 3, 2011.
In 2005, Rev. Justin founded this ministry under the name "Truth Sets Free" and was shortly thereafter featured as a "Future Gay Hero" in the prominent gay news-magazine The Advocate. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and in 2006 Cannon was recognized as one of OUT Magazine's Top 100 most influential gay people of the year. In November 2007, he was honored as one of Instinct's 2007 Leading Men of the Year.
He is also the founder and director of a ministry in California called Holy Hikes and has a strong interest in ecotheology and environmental ministries.
In 2005, Rev. Justin founded this ministry under the name "Truth Sets Free" and was shortly thereafter featured as a "Future Gay Hero" in the prominent gay news-magazine The Advocate. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and in 2006 Cannon was recognized as one of OUT Magazine's Top 100 most influential gay people of the year. In November 2007, he was honored as one of Instinct's 2007 Leading Men of the Year.
He is also the founder and director of a ministry in California called Holy Hikes and has a strong interest in ecotheology and environmental ministries.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 10, 2022
I stumbled across this book while reading articles about the Bible vs. Christianity vs. sexuality vs. gender as a whole. What I find most interesting in all my reading and research is how much of the Christian church claims marriage is only for those who can procreate, but exclude intersex people and infertile people from the conversation.
Knowing what I know about language and translation, I started to wonder if perhaps 1) Bible translations could be biased, based on personal prejudice and societal culture; and 2) things could have been lost in translation. Translators and interpreters (for sign language) seldom take into account not to necessarily make assumptions about gender when translating, regardless of how gender-neutral many languages are. Spanish, for example, uses masculine articles for general plural statements. Without knowing context, the translation of Spanish to English via masculine articles could include all males—only males—or "them", being masculine and feminine. There are words for "them" and "they", of course—but, like we do with English, slang and laziness exists, so sometimes other words (e.g. ellos) are used in place. This is how I got into the case of the Bible vs. Christianity vs. sexuality vs. gender.
But going back to what I mentioned in the first paragraph: intersex, natural infertility, "eunuchs". Marriage is not solely procreation—if it was, then I imagine the Church would require all couples to be tested to determine whether they're fertile! So it makes no sense to me to just assume that that is all marriage is about—procreation—and that only the fertile can be married, when there are many married Christian couples out there who have been unable to produce children biologically, regardless of whatever means they have tried. I took God's "go and be fruitful"/"multiply" statements as the knowing of how 1) new life comes to form and 2) the spreading of His word. Because what is the point of all of this—life, the trials, procreating—if no one does it for Him? If no one loves God? I feel like he would've given up a long time ago.
Moreover, who are these people supposed to love? Obviously, gender is not binary. There is so much we don't know about it—and I don't believe "it's getting worse", but rather instead that we are more connected, so research is being shared and contributed to better—and more stories are being shared. We're connecting with each other more because of technology, so this information is more accessible to others in the world. Instead of going at everything alone, we're finding our community and people who understand what we're going through!
I used to have a lot of internal homophobia. I've been inside many homophobic conversations. There is no love in loving the sinner, but hating the sin—not in regards to homophobia. Or, really, homomisia. Because homophobia is a fear, and it's not a fear we're talking about when we discuss the Church and homosexuality (or any sexuality/gender identification). It is pure disgust coming into play, which breeds and encourages hate. It is opinion-based, personal prejudice that comes into play in regards to disgust. If there was love, shouldn't it be similar to that of Christian couples divorcing each other?
While shopping with one of my cousins, a couple of two men walked past us, holding hands. They were friendly. I smiled at them. She, on the other hand, turned up her nose and made gagging noises. "I don't know why people have to be so disgusting," she said. "That's just so gross." Gross. What's gross is going under a trailer home between that awkward autumn/winter transition to rescue stray kittens before the snow falls, only to come out with your body covered in dead bugs and mud, and your lips containing something soft—not fur: spider webs. And some of the mud is animal droppings. But someone can totally come along and tell me that that isn't as gross as swimming in a new, muddy lake as a kid or having to pull a tiny shard of glass out of their foot.
From my experience of being on the homomisia side of the conversation, I surmise it's less about what the Bible says and more about the 1) sexualizing of everyone and everything in the Church and 2) imagining, as a heterosexual person, how homosexual people have sex. Because, at the end of the day, that's it: homomisics can't bear to think about "butt sex", as they call it. "I just find it unnatural," they say. But for people whose identity is not heterosexual, sex between a man and a woman could feel unnatural to them—wrong, even, as if they're forcing themselves to be assaulted/raped just to avoid persecution.
I don't read between the lines. I'm autistic. I stopped with my homophobia and homomisia some months after I lost a gay friend of mine to suicide—because he was bullied for being gay. I grew up [somehow] always running into, and thus watching, movies about how dangerously hateful homomisia and transmisia are—almost as if a patient God was carefully crafting a recipe for this understanding of mine. I feel weird saying that, because I feel like an armchair psychologist is going to diagnose me with Special Snowflake Syndrome, but based on where I come from, I should have grown up to be a hateful, spiteful, abusive person—and I didn't. I don't know precisely, or even understand, how I didn't, but...I didn't. I don't think my understanding is only available to me, either—it's one that seems so widely available, if only we stopped for a moment to acknowledge the possibility. Because anything is possible with God.
The hateful paradox of the Church is what drove me away from it—and thus my faith—but I'm back, working on it and working to understand myself and the life around me. But I don't follow the Church—I follow Jesus. I'm so disgusted by the hate of humanity all over the world. I've seen too many people die at the hands of the Christian religion because hating "the sin" overpowered that of loving the person. At the end of the day, it feels more like the Church has created a box with a checklist that only certain people are allowed to get into—as if you can't love God with all your being and feel like being with men is the most unnatural, rapey thing in the world. The box feels more like a witch hunt than an act of love.
I rated this 4/5, because while it appeared to have been edited, there were multiple punctuation typos.
Knowing what I know about language and translation, I started to wonder if perhaps 1) Bible translations could be biased, based on personal prejudice and societal culture; and 2) things could have been lost in translation. Translators and interpreters (for sign language) seldom take into account not to necessarily make assumptions about gender when translating, regardless of how gender-neutral many languages are. Spanish, for example, uses masculine articles for general plural statements. Without knowing context, the translation of Spanish to English via masculine articles could include all males—only males—or "them", being masculine and feminine. There are words for "them" and "they", of course—but, like we do with English, slang and laziness exists, so sometimes other words (e.g. ellos) are used in place. This is how I got into the case of the Bible vs. Christianity vs. sexuality vs. gender.
But going back to what I mentioned in the first paragraph: intersex, natural infertility, "eunuchs". Marriage is not solely procreation—if it was, then I imagine the Church would require all couples to be tested to determine whether they're fertile! So it makes no sense to me to just assume that that is all marriage is about—procreation—and that only the fertile can be married, when there are many married Christian couples out there who have been unable to produce children biologically, regardless of whatever means they have tried. I took God's "go and be fruitful"/"multiply" statements as the knowing of how 1) new life comes to form and 2) the spreading of His word. Because what is the point of all of this—life, the trials, procreating—if no one does it for Him? If no one loves God? I feel like he would've given up a long time ago.
Moreover, who are these people supposed to love? Obviously, gender is not binary. There is so much we don't know about it—and I don't believe "it's getting worse", but rather instead that we are more connected, so research is being shared and contributed to better—and more stories are being shared. We're connecting with each other more because of technology, so this information is more accessible to others in the world. Instead of going at everything alone, we're finding our community and people who understand what we're going through!
I used to have a lot of internal homophobia. I've been inside many homophobic conversations. There is no love in loving the sinner, but hating the sin—not in regards to homophobia. Or, really, homomisia. Because homophobia is a fear, and it's not a fear we're talking about when we discuss the Church and homosexuality (or any sexuality/gender identification). It is pure disgust coming into play, which breeds and encourages hate. It is opinion-based, personal prejudice that comes into play in regards to disgust. If there was love, shouldn't it be similar to that of Christian couples divorcing each other?
While shopping with one of my cousins, a couple of two men walked past us, holding hands. They were friendly. I smiled at them. She, on the other hand, turned up her nose and made gagging noises. "I don't know why people have to be so disgusting," she said. "That's just so gross." Gross. What's gross is going under a trailer home between that awkward autumn/winter transition to rescue stray kittens before the snow falls, only to come out with your body covered in dead bugs and mud, and your lips containing something soft—not fur: spider webs. And some of the mud is animal droppings. But someone can totally come along and tell me that that isn't as gross as swimming in a new, muddy lake as a kid or having to pull a tiny shard of glass out of their foot.
From my experience of being on the homomisia side of the conversation, I surmise it's less about what the Bible says and more about the 1) sexualizing of everyone and everything in the Church and 2) imagining, as a heterosexual person, how homosexual people have sex. Because, at the end of the day, that's it: homomisics can't bear to think about "butt sex", as they call it. "I just find it unnatural," they say. But for people whose identity is not heterosexual, sex between a man and a woman could feel unnatural to them—wrong, even, as if they're forcing themselves to be assaulted/raped just to avoid persecution.
I don't read between the lines. I'm autistic. I stopped with my homophobia and homomisia some months after I lost a gay friend of mine to suicide—because he was bullied for being gay. I grew up [somehow] always running into, and thus watching, movies about how dangerously hateful homomisia and transmisia are—almost as if a patient God was carefully crafting a recipe for this understanding of mine. I feel weird saying that, because I feel like an armchair psychologist is going to diagnose me with Special Snowflake Syndrome, but based on where I come from, I should have grown up to be a hateful, spiteful, abusive person—and I didn't. I don't know precisely, or even understand, how I didn't, but...I didn't. I don't think my understanding is only available to me, either—it's one that seems so widely available, if only we stopped for a moment to acknowledge the possibility. Because anything is possible with God.
The hateful paradox of the Church is what drove me away from it—and thus my faith—but I'm back, working on it and working to understand myself and the life around me. But I don't follow the Church—I follow Jesus. I'm so disgusted by the hate of humanity all over the world. I've seen too many people die at the hands of the Christian religion because hating "the sin" overpowered that of loving the person. At the end of the day, it feels more like the Church has created a box with a checklist that only certain people are allowed to get into—as if you can't love God with all your being and feel like being with men is the most unnatural, rapey thing in the world. The box feels more like a witch hunt than an act of love.
I rated this 4/5, because while it appeared to have been edited, there were multiple punctuation typos.
June 29, 2012
This is an excellent, albeit very short, synopsis on how legalistic thought has misintrepreted the Bible verses that deal with homosexuality. Thank you, Mr. Cannon, for your well thought out exegesis and I hope to someday find out that you have published a more indepth study into this very important topic.
December 29, 2011
Shorter than I'd thought it would be, but definitely worth the quick read for anyone who uses religion as a kneejerk justification for homophobia or anyone looking for a pro-gay marriage argument couchec in religious terms.
October 22, 2015
Poor scholarship...more of a surface reading of scripture and opinion book.
February 3, 2023
The Bible says what I want it to say?
The ultimate plea here is essentially that it’s mean for God to ask us to change, to adhere to His law. It’s easy to say, “I know what the author said, but this is what he really meant.” It’s hard to accept that sometimes, we fall short of the glory of God and need to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Come as you are, yes, but don’t stay as you are. And certainly do not twist the Word of the Lord to deceive yourself and countless others.
The ultimate plea here is essentially that it’s mean for God to ask us to change, to adhere to His law. It’s easy to say, “I know what the author said, but this is what he really meant.” It’s hard to accept that sometimes, we fall short of the glory of God and need to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Come as you are, yes, but don’t stay as you are. And certainly do not twist the Word of the Lord to deceive yourself and countless others.
May 11, 2020
Very well done
Easy read. Excellent job at looking at the context and culture of the Bible passages that are pulled out and used as fodder for the anti-gay faction in discriminating gay people in church’s. That’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Context and culture of the Bible in all readings is essential in really understanding the message. I commend the author for this book.
Easy read. Excellent job at looking at the context and culture of the Bible passages that are pulled out and used as fodder for the anti-gay faction in discriminating gay people in church’s. That’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Context and culture of the Bible in all readings is essential in really understanding the message. I commend the author for this book.
May 27, 2019
Just Ok...
Interesting but a bit of a stretch to promote the issue of same sex marriage as being biblically founded or at least unaddressed, therefore, accepted.
Interesting but a bit of a stretch to promote the issue of same sex marriage as being biblically founded or at least unaddressed, therefore, accepted.
September 24, 2012
I got this book off Amazon not long after it first came out and well, being a Christ follower who has been bisexually-attracted for half my life, several years after being born-again and in ministry, this book was not only eye-opening, but life-changing, along with a fantastic series called "My Secret" at my old church. I'd always felt such shame about who I had become not of my own choosing or making - we do not choose our attractions. After confessing all I am openly and in raw honesty to the Lord and to another close Christian friend/mentor (James 5:16) plus on their accompanying confessional web site, God's Holy Spirit lifted me from that shame.
This book helped VALIDATE that deliverance. The arguments were very strong, although to agree with another reader's review here, Romans was the weakest, however, it was still a B+ argument. I highly suggest this book as well as an Interlinear Hebrew-English/Greek-English Bible to use for comparison study of the few texts that so many so-called Christians are using to persecute and judge others. I had no idea that the word homosexual did not exist in any biblical print until 1946 with the release of the Revised Standard Version. Ironically, I own an RSV I was given at age 6 as a Southern Baptist - plus I have my dad's copy he was given at his Methodist confirmation at age 13 in 1946 - the exact same year the (new) RSV was released!
I also had no idea about Pederasty being written in the original Greek and Hebrew texts. I learned a lot about Leviticus and the Old Code (of hygiene) as well from this book which is more of a study guide, in my opinion. I used this book as a starting point of my journey to the truth of God's word, not what certain groups want us to believe, but what God, His son and His prophets said. I learned a lot about how context makes all the difference when interpreting or quoting scripture... or in many cases, misquoting it. This book not only inspired me to ponder and question God's word (as God WANTS us to do), but rather truly study it with a much more open mind allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me, not overbearing, bombastic, loud, well-intentioned evangelistic people say what God says.
Do the research yourself after you read or reread this book. It is a great guide, albeit not nearly as detailed as one might hope, but hey, I like that... it allows me to do my own in-depth research and not merely regurgitate the same old talking points from either side of this argument. Overall, factually, very well written - and for anyone who wants to find out what the Bible really says about 'homosexuality' this is a very good starting point. Highly recommend- 4.5 stars.
This book helped VALIDATE that deliverance. The arguments were very strong, although to agree with another reader's review here, Romans was the weakest, however, it was still a B+ argument. I highly suggest this book as well as an Interlinear Hebrew-English/Greek-English Bible to use for comparison study of the few texts that so many so-called Christians are using to persecute and judge others. I had no idea that the word homosexual did not exist in any biblical print until 1946 with the release of the Revised Standard Version. Ironically, I own an RSV I was given at age 6 as a Southern Baptist - plus I have my dad's copy he was given at his Methodist confirmation at age 13 in 1946 - the exact same year the (new) RSV was released!
I also had no idea about Pederasty being written in the original Greek and Hebrew texts. I learned a lot about Leviticus and the Old Code (of hygiene) as well from this book which is more of a study guide, in my opinion. I used this book as a starting point of my journey to the truth of God's word, not what certain groups want us to believe, but what God, His son and His prophets said. I learned a lot about how context makes all the difference when interpreting or quoting scripture... or in many cases, misquoting it. This book not only inspired me to ponder and question God's word (as God WANTS us to do), but rather truly study it with a much more open mind allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me, not overbearing, bombastic, loud, well-intentioned evangelistic people say what God says.
Do the research yourself after you read or reread this book. It is a great guide, albeit not nearly as detailed as one might hope, but hey, I like that... it allows me to do my own in-depth research and not merely regurgitate the same old talking points from either side of this argument. Overall, factually, very well written - and for anyone who wants to find out what the Bible really says about 'homosexuality' this is a very good starting point. Highly recommend- 4.5 stars.
June 15, 2015
Sadly, this book is filled with flawed logic from the start & uses the same flawed logic to build further concepts that are unsupported. I was hoping the author would have shown a clearer commitment to exegesis of the biblical texts, but he did not.
October 18, 2012
For what it is, this is a good book. Very interesting. It is very short, and I'd like to read some of the sources he lists in the back.
March 22, 2013
This is a great short reading of the major issues involved in translation and interpretation of the scripture used to condemn homosexuality.
June 10, 2014
Concise and to-the-point. A great introductory book to decoding cobbler texts
November 18, 2014
Interesting
I found this book very enlightening. I thoroughly enjoyed it . Definitely will recommend to my Gay friends. Be Blessed Justin R. Cannon. May God bless you.
I found this book very enlightening. I thoroughly enjoyed it . Definitely will recommend to my Gay friends. Be Blessed Justin R. Cannon. May God bless you.
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April 14, 2018A good intro to non-traditional thinking on the subject.
See also http://www.gaymarriageandthebible.com/ for development of the same kind of rationale.
See also http://www.gaymarriageandthebible.com/ for development of the same kind of rationale.
Read
May 1, 2019Homosexuals are an abomination to mankind and not Yehwehs people they are not to be amongst his flock even Christ said remember the Laws of Moses
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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