The Supreme Court did not rule on how Christians must view homosexuality.

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered an historic decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry in the United States.  Their decision reflects a shift in U.S. public opinion concerning same-sex relationships.  Prior to the Supreme Court decision, nearly two-thirds of Americans favored extending the rights of marriage to same-sex couples.

It is important to note that the Supreme Court interpreted the U.S. Constitution, not the Bible.  The Court did not try and discern God’s will, or what constitutes Christin ethical or moral behavior and Christians should not determine their morals from public opinion polls.

The Supreme Court ruling did not define how Christians should or must view same-sex marriage.  Churches are still permitted to refuse to marry same-sex couples, and to see the love of a same-sex couple as incompatible with Christian teaching.

I know that many if not the majority of Christians will disagree with me, but I will state my personal views anyway – I am not sure that CHRISTIANS should expect non-Christians to think and live like Christians. I think it is far better to let our lives do our preaching than to try and force others to accept our beliefs. As a Christian I do not expect the government to force my Christian values or morality on me. Of course, I would love for all people to think and act like Christians “SHOULD”. It would be a better world in which to live, but I know laws will not change a cold, hateful, bitter, selfish, bigoted heart only a work of God’s Spirit will.  I think Christians should work for just laws that are fair to all and protect the rights of the minority, bring dignity to people and work for the common good of the nation and world.

What is the will of God concerning same-sex marriage?  Franklin Graham made it clear he opposes same sex marriages in uncertain terms and made it clear in his opinion it is a sin. I do not claim to be as versed in the Bible as Franklin Graham after all he had a great mentor – Rev. Billy Graham, but I know the Bible is complicated and intelligent people who read it with an open mind will find things that they might question. Some things found in the Bible seem to me to reflect the culture of the authors more than the will of God.

Women in the Bible were often seen as second class citizens. Slavery was found to be morally acceptable in the Old Testament and slave-owning Christians in the early church were not asked by the apostles to set their slaves free.   Priests were commanded to burn their daughters alive if they became prostitutes, and rebellious children were to be stoned to death. Women who were raped were required to marry their rapist.  And when Israel went off to war she believed God called her to destroy every man, woman, and child among the nations she conquered.  The Apostle Paul teaches that women are to pray with their heads covered and to not wear their hair in braids.  Women were not permitted to teach a man, and Paul notes that it was “shameful” for a woman to even speak in church.

We are not always able to discern God’s will, simply by quoting a handful of verses from the Bible.  If it worked that way we would still embrace slavery, polygamy, and concubines.  Victims of rape would still be forced to wed their rapists. All denominations would still be like Catholics and not allow women to serve as pastors and would require women to remain silent when it comes to church doctrine.

I am not going to argue the point if God makes us gay or straight.  I do know sexual orientation is developed in most of us at a very early age if not from birth.  Could it be possible that God looked at His gay and lesbian children and said, “It is not good that this one should be alone; I will make them a helper as their companion”? That is what God said in Genesis regarding a man and woman.

Spousal relationships are more about sharing lives together as one another’s helpers and companions than sexual.  It is about holding hands, sharing dreams, helping one another when one or the other is struggling.  It is about shared memories, companionship, and a warm embrace. The Supreme Court has said that this kind of committed love should not be legally denied to same sex couples.

The Catholic Church even after the recent synod in the Vatican says that gay and lesbian couples cannot enter into this kind of covenant.  They cannot receive God’s blessings upon their love within our church and from our priest because, according to our doctrine, to share their lives together as companions (engaging in sex) is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” They claim this knowing that many of our priests are homosexuals.  We teach that God says gay and lesbian people should be alone.  I really wrestle with this doctrine.

Pope Francis has instructed our cardinals, bishops and priest to welcome and love gay and lesbian people.  Catholic Christians should certainly be able to do that and remain brothers and sisters in Christ in the same church.  Unlike Protestant churches we will never be able to leave it to each parish to make their own individual choice for this would require a new type of governance and that will never happen in the Catholic Church and I do not think it should.

The famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, was Paul’s answer to divisions.  In verses 4-8 he taught the Corinthians what love looks like, “I will show you a still more excellent way:  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  Love never ends.”

In Philippians Paul offers these words to end the division: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

We must always remember that those with whom we disagree are human beings, children of God and it opens the door for us to see them not simply as adversaries, but as friends.  And this may lead us to work harder to find solutions to those issues that divide us.

The real issue for the church is not homosexuality, but the Bible. What kind of book is the Bible?  How has God spoken to us through the Bible and how does He continue to speak through it.  The answers determine how we read the handful of passages in the Bible that seem to speak to homosexuality. 

Rev. Adam Hamilton says:  some scriptures express God’s heart, character and timeless will for human beings and some express God’s will in a particular time, but are no longer binding and some never fully expressed the heart, character or will of God. I agree with him!

I certainly believe we are for all times to love God and love our neighbor and do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  I do not believe males must be circumcised or  that most of the other hundreds of passages found in the O.T. regarding the Law must be obeyed. I do not believe God ever spoke the words found in Leviticus 21:9 which requires  - if the daughter of a priest becomes a prostitute she must be burned to death or in Exodus 21:20-21, God permits slave-owners to beat their slaves with rods provided they don’t die within the first 48 hours after the beating “for the slave is his property,”  or God commanded the destruction of every man, woman, and child in 31 Canaanite cities and later killed 70,000 Israelites in punishment for David taking a census. These passages seem to me to be completely inconsistent with the God revealed in Jesus Christ who cared for prostitutes, commanded that we love our enemies, and gave his life to save sinners.

I question what category does same-sex intimacy fall into?  Consider Leviticus 20:13 in which God is said to command: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.”  Anyone who has a child that is gay would rightly ask, “Did God ever really command that gay and lesbian children be put to death?”  They might also ask, “Does God really see my child, or the love they share for their partner, as an abomination?”

Do these passages we use to condemn homosexuals describe God’s heart and timeless will, or do they address specific forms of same-sex activity in ancient Israel and in the first century world, or perhaps they may not captured God’s heart and character at all?

How we answer the questions of what scripture is, how when and why it was written, and the way in which God influenced its human authors shapes how we make sense of issues like homosexuality.