Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
The ethical status of homosexual behavior continues to be one of the most controversial theological issues in the Western Church. Some denominations adopt an “affirming” position and give their blessing on same-sex marriages, other denominations hold firmly to the traditional position, and other denominations divide and split over the issue. I have already discussed the … Read more
Before examining what Jesus and the apostles have to say about the topic of homosexuality, we should first examine the teachings of the Old Testament on the topic, since this provides the background for understanding what the New Testament authors have to say about it. There are two Old Testament texts which explicitly forbid homosexual … Read more
Transgenderism is the phenomenon of people choosing to identify as a gender other than their biological sex. Various controversies about how to respond to this phenomenon have caused transgenderism to become a hot button political, social, and moral issue in contemporary American culture. For example, if a person identifies as transgender, should they be allowed … Read more
In the last three entries in this series, I examined what Scripture has to say about homosexual behavior, and concluded that: 1) the Old Testament forbids all homosexual behavior among God’s people, 2) we have no reason at all to think that Jesus would have been in favor of modifying this Old Testament teaching, and … Read more
The majority of Christians who believe that the Church should approve of homosexual behavior acknowledge that the apostle Paul teaches the homosexual behavior is wrong; they argue that, for other biblical and theological reasons, the Church should now approve of homosexual behavior in spite of this.[1]See, for example “Homosexuality and the Bible” by William Loader, … Read more
In recent years, the ethical status of homosexuality has become one of the most controversial theological issues in the Western Church. In spite of the Church’s longstanding traditional teaching that homosexual behavior[1]Some advocates of traditional Christian sexual ethics prefer to use the terminology of saying that “homogenital acts” are sinful. This is because “sexuality” encompasses … Read more