LGBTQTA Research

1. Secular State systems a hmang mi US nih Equal Right hi a au pi tikah LBGT zong hi equal right chungah a pom lawlaw ding asi ko tiah nan ruat maw?

2. Khrihfa biaknak phungin Khrifa a si mi le hruaitu R party lila nih LBGT a pom lonak le a dohmi cungah zeitindah nan hmuh?Hi kong hi phundang deuh in amah le lam te a um ko tiah nan ruat maw? Zeitindah nan ruah ve?

3. Trump nih American first a ti mi nih zeitluk indah America ram a lianngan ter or a fater deuh? Biaknak lei thazaang a pek mi le a tlen mi cungah zeitin nan hmuh? Zumtu le American caah tih a nunnak a um in nan hmu maw?

4. Tu lio dirhmun in Biden hi President ah a tling thai ko lai tiah nan zum maw?Cun D party nih a hruai ahcun US hi a tlu deuh lai tiah teh nan zum maw?

5. Vawlei hruainak nih tlukruannak (equal right) in a sermi phung le aser duh mi cungah Bible nih (Rom 12:2- hi vawlei kalning in kal ve hlah uh) a kan ti tikah zeitindah then thiam in hi Bible bia hi apply kan tuah awk asi? Or Khrihfa nih hi bible cacang ningin vawlei hruainak zongah I tlak in doh hrim ding asi ko tiah nan ruat maw?

I. General Background
LGBTQIA
a) Lesbian: Nu le Pu (Gay)
b) Gay: Pa le Pa
c) Bisexual: Both
d) Transsexual: Organ tlen duhmi (Hormone)
e) Queer: (LGBT i khoika set a a fiang lomi) Questioning

Defining LGBTQ


f) Intersex: Chuah lioah nu le pa a fiang lomi: nu zong zong a s ii pa zong a si mi. Sibawi nih bomh haumi
g) Asexual: a person who has no sexual feelings or desires, or who is not sexually attracted to anyone.
A 2017 Gallup poll concluded that 4.5% of adult Americans identified as LGBT with 5.1% of women identifying as LGBT, compared with 3.9% of men. A different survey in 2016, from the Williams Institute, estimated that 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender. (Wikipedia)
Problems: Bullying, Distancing, Outcast, Unaccepted, finally suicide
The “kill the gays bill” in Uganda was the first time in my recollection that the LGBT community in America got exercised over something going on outside America. That is all to the good. It is going to take activism on our part to change life for LGBT people in the rest of the world.
Two years ago I met a young woman in Africa. When she came out to her parents, they took her to the local police station where all the policemen gang-raped her to cure her of her lesbianism. That’s what is going on in some countries. It’s my great hope that we will make enough progress on our own issues to be able to expand our concern to include people around the world.
The other expansion I want to see in our community is a greater understanding of the connections between heterosexism, which oppresses us, and racism, sexism, ableism—all of the isms. While the specifics may be different, the dynamics are the same. The way one group oppresses another works out the same. And yet we have been rather siloed in our concerns.
I am horrified to hear someone in the gay community speak about women in a sexist way, or be racist. I sometimes grab these people by the shoulder and say, “Haven’t you learned anything from your own experience?” But people don’t always make those connections.
When I talk to young LGBT people they talk about these intersections. Intersectionality is the new buzzword in the younger gay community, and I think that is exactly right. I would like to see us becoming activists in antiracism and antisexism. I would like to see us learn from our own experience, and use it as a tiny window into what it is like to be a person living in a wheelchair or a person who is female or a person of color.
One of the great gifts that comes from being gay is you get the experience of being on the receiving end of oppression. We don’t have to compete with one another as to whose oppression is worse. A way for the oppressor to get away with murder is to keep us fighting with each other rather than fighting the oppressor. In the future, I would like to see us expand our vision of what it means to work for justice—for all people, not just ourselves.
A sidebar to that: I think the reason Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was seen as dangerous is because he began to think in broad terms. He began to put together race and poverty and militarism. He started talking about the Vietnam War and who was being used as cannon fodder—partly because they were black and poor. When he started doing that, he became hugely dangerous to the status quo. I hope the gay community can become courageous enough to begin to put things together and call the world to become a more just place.

II. Biblical Understanding
Paul nih chim: Rome 1: 25ff (Sualnak a phunphun lakah pakhat)
Leveticus 20:13
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2357) concludes that sacred Scripture “presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity” and that “under no circumstances can they be approved.”
The fact that Jesus himself did not directly address the specific question of homosexual acts carries little weight. His intent was not to publish a compendium of moral theology; rarely does Christ address particular moral issues but focuses instead on the broader goals of love of God and love of neighbor.
Crux: rev-kenneth-doyle
What does the Bible say about homosexuality, same-sex attraction, & being Transgender?
This collection of scripture was compiled by several members of our congregation whose LGBTQ family members have experienced hurt and rejection from people who told them that God condemned them because of who they were. Our goal is to highlight some of the many messages of love and inclusion that are in the Bible, and to help people consider the original meaning of the passages that have been used to condemn LGBTQ people (sometimes called the “clobber verses”).
God loves LGBTQ people

The over-arching themes of the Christian Bible are that God loves everyone and has forgiven everyone through Jesus Christ; this includes LGBTQ individuals. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) “The world” means everyone, including LGBTQ people. This is not to say that being LGBTQ is a sin, but if it were, it would certainly be forgiven.

All humans have sinned, and all need forgiveness, which is given to all through Jesus Christ. This is true of straight and cis-gender people, as well as LGBTQ individuals. No one is good enough on their own to be saved without God’s forgiveness, and no sin is so bad that it would prevent a person from being saved.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Rom 8:38) This message is for all people, including LGBTQ individuals.

God did not make a mistake in creating LGBTQ people. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:113-14) Sexual identity and gender identity are components of a person’s personality, and as such are part of who God made each of us to be.

On Inclusion

God welcomes people of all genders and sexual identities. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Also “…God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28) Jesus gladly socialized with people that the religious establishment disapproved of. (Matt 9:11)

The Church needs its LGBTQ members. “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

The early church welcomed non-gender-conforming people. One of the first recorded baptisms by the apostles was of an Ethiopian eunuch. (Acts 8:27)

On Relationships

Love is a gift from God: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

God made us to be in relationship with Him and with each other: “it is bad for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) It would be inconsistent with God’s loving nature to create people who were gay and then condemn them to a life of loneliness. Heterosexual marriage is presented as an example (rather than a definition) of how God puts people in relationships; in Genesis 2:24: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The clause “that is why” points back to 2:18.

God creates community and families, uniting people together: “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Matthew 19:5). God can and does create unions with all types of people, including LGBTQ individuals.

Celibacy is good if one is called to it, but it is not for everyone (Mt. 19:11-12); marriage is good, too (“better to be married than to burn with passion,” 1 Corinthians 7:9).

Examples of love between people of the same gender in the Bible:

David and Jonathan. “After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.” (1 Samuel 18:1) David says of Jonathan: “Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” (2 Samuel 1:26).

The Centurion and his servant (Matt 8:5-10). The word used for “servant” here, “pais”, was commonly used to describe a servant who was a romantic partner of the master. [6]

On Gender

All people, including LGBTQ individuals, were created in God’s image: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27, NSRV) The use of the two primary genders in this passage is likely a “merism”, a figure of speech by which a single thing (in this case, humanity) is referred to by a phrase that lists several of its parts, but does not list all components. (Similarly, in Genesis 1:1, the universe is referred to as “the heavens and the earth”.) This also indicates that God is not limited to a single gender.

There are several characters in the Bible who were non-gender-conforming, meaning that they did not behave according to traditional gender roles, or that they were not physically typical of men or women. [4]

Jacob preferred to be with his mother at home, enjoyed cooking and was smooth-skinned, in contrast to his brother, who was hairy and preferred to hunt and be outdoors. (Genesis 25)

Joseph, Jacob’s son, was given an “ornate robe” by his father (Genesis 37:3); the Hebrew word used here for the robe (ketonet passim) is used elsewhere to mean “the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore” (2 Samuel 13:18).

Deborah (Judges 4-5) was a judge of Israel, acting as a prophet and military leader at a time when women were treated like property and valued by the number of children they could bear.

Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the palace women in the story of Esther, helped Esther to become queen. Ebed-Melech also was a eunuch, who saved the life of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38).

The man carrying a water jar, whom Jesus indicated would take the disciples to the room for his last supper, was doing work that was normally done by women, and yet was given this part to play in Jesus’ ministry.

The Bible contains feminine images of God, in addition to the masculine metaphors of “Father” and “King”. [7]

God’s wisdom in Proverbs is personified as female (Proverbs 1:20, 8:1, 9:1), and Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

Many references to God describe actions associated with women: nurturing life in the womb (Psalm 139:13), giving birth (John 3:5-6), and protecting children (Matthew 23:37).

Bible verses that have been used to condemn LGBTQ people

When seeking to understand any Bible verse, it is important to know the context of the verse, as well as how the verse has been translated from the original language. The following are points to consider when thinking about the verses that have been used to justify prohibitions on same-sex marriage and full participation in church community for LGBTQ people. Nowhere in the Bible, taken in its original language and context, is there a prohibition against loving, consensual same-sex relationships, nor against people living as their authentic genders.

Genesis 19:1-13 The Sodom & Gomorrah story is preceded by examples of Abraham and Lot being very welcoming to strangers. The lack of hospitality and the desire to do violence to the visitors were considered grave transgressions, regardless of the gender of the visitors. The reference in Jude 1:7 to “strange flesh” likely refers to the fact that the angels they wanted to assault were not human. “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49)

Leviticus 18:22 The NIV translation of this verse reads: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” The literal translation of the original Hebrew, however, is “And with male you shall not lie lyings woman.” The word translated as “lyings” is found elsewhere only in Genesis 49:4, where it refers to incest. In Leviticus, this verse comes in a list of prohibitions against having sex with family members, so it is reasonable to conclude that it is a prohibition against incest.[2]

Romans 1:26-27 Here, Paul is condemning the sinful and harmful acts he perceives in Roman culture at the time. Since same-gender and non-heterosexual attractions are natural, this condemnation is not directed at LGBTQ people. In Romans 2:1, Paul condemns those who misuse God’s teachings to judge others

1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:9-11 The NIV translations of these verses read, respectively: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men . . .“ and “We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, . . .”

The word translated as “homosexuals” and “men who have sex with men” is the Greek word arsenokoitai, which more accurately translates to “men who sleep with male prostitutes”. [3] The word “homosexual” is not found in the Bible in translations written prior to 1948, implying that it was likely added as a result of the translators’ own prejudices. [5]

Matthew 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’?” In the same section, in verse 12, Jesus says, “For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” It is evident that Jesus was aware that gender variance existed, and he does not condemn it. [1]

Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” The word translated as “clothing” here, keli, is translated elsewhere as “armor”, and the word translated as “man”, geber, actually means “warrior”. This implies a prohibition against intent to deceive by pretending to be a warrior, or for a warrior to deceive by disguising himself as a woman. [1]

Criteria by which God will evaluate our lives

For those who might feel it is “better to be safe than sorry” in sticking with the “traditional” teaching on LGBTQ issues, consider that the Bible does not tell us to judge or make life difficult for other people. There are seven passages that have been used to justify bias against LGBTQ people, but there are over a hundred about love – so it may be safest to focus on love! Scripture has been used to justify slavery, to exclude divorced people from full participation in the sacraments, to exclude women from ministry, and to persecute left-handed people; if the church has been wrong in its treatment of LGBTQ issues, this would not be unprecedented.

Jesus says nothing indicating that being gay or trans is a sin.

John 8:7 “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Throughout the Bible, God warns against casting judgments upon others.

Matthew 25: 34-36 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Matthew 18:6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Consider this in the context of LGBTQ people who lost their faith because their church told them God did not love them.

John 6:39 “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me. . .” God would not want LGBTQ people to be driven away from the church or lose their faith.

References

All Bible quotations are from the NIV translation.

[1] Linda Tatro Herzer. (2016). The Bible and the Transgender Experience; How Scripture Supports Gender Variance. Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press.

[2] K. Renato Lings. “The ‘Lyings’ of a Woman: Male-Male Incest in Leviticus 18.22?.” Theology & Sexuality 15, no. 2 (May 2009).

[3] Rev. Justin Cannon. “The Bible, Christianity and Homosexuality” https://www.gaychurch.org/homosexuality-and-the-Bible/the-Bible-christianity-and-homosexuality/

[4] Peterson Toscano (producer), Samuel Neff (director). (2017) Transfigurations – Transgressing Gender in the Bible. (Video) U.S.: Peterson Toscano.

[5] Kathy Baldock. (March 2019). “How the Bible Became Anti-Gay: Forging a Sacred Weapon.” http://canyonwalkerconnections.com/forging-a-sacred-weapon-how-the-bible-became-anti-gay/

See also “My Quest to Find the Word Homosexual in the Bible”, by Ed Oxford, Bible News Network, Aug 10, 2020. https://baptistnews.com/article/my-quest-to-find-the-word-homosexual-in-the-bible/#.X6BLltBKi9I

[6] Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connolly. “Jesus affirmed a gay couple”. http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/gay_couple.html

[7] Elizabeth A. Johnson. 2000. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York, NY; The Crossroad Publishing Company.

https://www.sthugh.net/lgbtq-affirming-scripture
St. Hugh of Lincoln Episcopal Church

Most biblical scholarship of the last 50 years has been about the culture in which biblical texts were written and the surrounding cultures to which they were an answer. The ancient Hebrews—in what we would call the Old Testament—were surrounded by hostile pagan cultures that wanted to get rid of the Jews. A can lioah, ho caah a tial timi theih lo bu in Bible i lak cu chim loin um ah tha deuh (Bishop Gene Robinson, Jeff Krehely, and Sally Steenland December 8, 2010, 9:00 am)The Washington Post.

1. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah
– It is not about homosexual rape, but about not welcoming the visitors
– Jesus also talked about it. Ezekiel did too
Mark 6:11 “Shake the dust off your feet and go on into the next town. It will be worse for those folks who did not receive you, welcome you, offer you hospitality than for the people of Sodom.”
Ezekiel 16: 49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

2. Fundamental le other Christians
S: One of the things you write about is that God continues to talk to us and reveal truths. You say that God didn’t just close the book and say, “Now you are on your own.” God still wants to be in a relationship with us, and the evidence is that truths that seem obvious now, people struggled with a long time ago.
G: You know, this may be one of the great divides between fundamentalist Christians and other Christians. I think that most of our brothers and sisters in the religious right would say that God said everything that God needed to say by the end of the first century when the canon of scripture—the books that were put together and called the Bible—was closed.
But I don’t believe that God finished talking to us at the end of the first century. I believe God continues to interact with us and reveal God’s self to us on an ongoing basis. My scriptural text for this is an amazing passage in John’s gospel, much of which is the dialogue at the Last Supper. Jesus says to his disciples, “There is much that I would teach you, but you cannot bear it right now. So I will send the Holy Spirit that will lead you into all truth.”
It is a remarkable window into Jesus’s revelation of God. I think he was saying: For a bunch of uneducated fishermen you haven’t done too badly. There were some days I didn’t think you were the sharpest knives in the drawer, but you have done a pretty good job. And you will go on to do amazing things, but don’t for a minute think that God is done with you. God has much more to teach you. But honestly, given your historical and cultural context, you can’t handle it right now. So I will send the Holy Spirit who will lead you over time into a greater fullness of your understanding of God.
Closer to our own time, our understanding of people of color and their full inclusion in the reign of God and in our culture, society, and government is a great example of changed understanding. We used scripture for 18 and a half centuries following Jesus’s death to justify slavery. Now we look back and think, “My god, what were we thinking?” A year after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Episcopal Bishop of Vermont wrote a whole book justifying slavery using scripture.
Similarly, women were kept in a secondary role and status using scripture. Many women remember wearing hats to church because St. Paul said that a woman’s place in church is with her head covered and her mouth shut. There are denominations today that still exclude women from leadership positions because of that scripture. Yet many of us think, “What were we thinking?”
1 Cor 11:2-16
This is a very exciting time because we are now asking that question about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Could this be yet another time when the church got it wrong about what God’s will is? Could this be a time when we admit that we got it wrong—not that God got it wrong but that we got God wrong? And that God, through the Holy Spirit, is leading us to the truth about God’s gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender children? I think so
?????
Southern Baptists, Mormons, and Roman Catholics—at least in terms of the official teachings of the church—are pretty rigid in sticking to original understandings.

Answer: God loves you as the way you are (Youtube: It Gets Better)

Categories: Artical

Leave a Reply