Homosexuality: Sources for Both Sides of the Argument

I got challenged on Facebook for not being thorough enough. As I stated before, the position and the arguments I’m addressing have been thoroughly argued by much more competent people than myself over and over again. I have about 50 visitors to this blog, tops. That said, my purpose here isn’t to go into so great detail that I lose the attention of 95% of the people reading this. My point is simply to address every passage of Scripture that deals with the topic of homosexuality. That’s it. I’m not going to give a huge 5000 word dissertation-style discussion on every singe passage with full citations etc. My point is just to address each passage, hit the major point, prove the opposition is wrong, and move to the next passage. If you want more, there are PLENTY of scholarly works on this issue. Here are a few.

Homosexual Position

There are mainly three resources that you really need to look at for this position. Unbeknownst to most people, the whole of the homosexual position is really based on three authors, John Boswell, Robin Scroggs, and D. Sherwin Bailey. All the positions that are being argued against the “traditional” interpretation rest on these three authors’ interpretations. And they’ve been refuted many times. Here are the main sources:

Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition by D.S. Bailey

Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality by John Boswell

The New Testament and Homosexuality by Robin Scroggs

A third source, which is very recent, is the speech given by Matthew Vines, which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQjNJUSraY

Vines hits pretty much all the main arguments. You don’t even need to read Boswell, Bailey, or Scroggs, just listen to this. Vines’ argument is a summation of every pro-homosexual argument that is given in modern times. If you listen to this single one-hour-long presentation, you’ll have a good understanding of the various arguments given from the homosexual position.

Traditional scholars

Me. Just read me. Keep reading and I’ll never steer you wrong.

…Just kidding.

These are some are random papers I’ve collected and many are articles in theological journals on the issue. Journals often require a subscription fee, so they’re available at a price. I have access to the whole history of every major journal in America through Accordance Bible Software, which is a bit of a plus. [Edit-I bumped into some links to a few of these after writing this… you’re welcome- Mike]

“Homosexuality and the Old Testament” by P. Michael Ukleja, Bibliotheca Sacra Jul 1983

“The Bible and Homosexuality: Homosexuality in the New Testament” by P. Michael Ukleja, Bibliotheca Sacra Oct 1983

The Condemnation of Homosexuality in 1 Cor 6:9 by David E. Malick, Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct 1983, found here: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/homosexuality_corinthians6.pdf

"The Condemnation of Homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27," by David E. Malick, Bibliotheca Sacra, July 1993, found here: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/romans_malick.pdf

The Source and Meaning of Arsenokoitai, With Implications for Christian Ethics and Ministry by James DeYoung, found here: http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj3h.pdf

The Meaning of “Nature” in Romans 1 and its Implications for Biblical Proscriptions of Homosexual behavior by James DeYoung, found here: http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/31/31-4/31-4-pp429-441_JETS.pdf

Here are some YouTube debates.

Michael Brown v Harry Knox- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCTTq8DMQ8E&feature=plcp

Follow the links, there is more than one part.

James White v. Michael Schutz

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF60DCC0073B8996&feature=plcp

This last one is a big one. Above you read about Matthew Vines’ lecture, well, this is the response. Vines’ presentation is one hour, James White’s response is 5.5 hours. More than thorough. And totally worth listening to, as he goes through many scholarly sources that I simply don’t have access to, as well as the fact that he is well versed in the original languages and textual variants. Lots of great information in here.

http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=5086

Consider yourself well armed. The material isn’t altogether difficult, but it is very scholarly and not easy reading/listening. The debates are extremely helpful, and packed with information. You can’t go wrong devoting some time to listening to Dr. White’s rebuttal of Matthew Vines. He goes over so much material in the original languages, church history, Jewish history, Greek and Roman history, and theology that you really could benefit from the super long 5.5 hours runtime. This is pretty much a summary of the material I'm using to write these blog articles, plus a few odd commentaries for usage of original languages. Hope this does you some good.

Grace and Peace,

Mike