Mom, Dad, I know by now you’ve heard about last week’s Supreme Court ruling about gay marriage. You probably have emotions raging around inside of you and don’t know what to do exactly with these overwhelming feelings regarding the mystery and complexity that is homosexuality. I know this may be an awkward conversation, but let me try to help. You see, it’s actually pretty simple to me. When two people really love each other—

Honey, we appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but we already think it’s pretty simple too. It’s in the Bible: homosexuality is a sin.

And where exactly does it say that, Mom?

Well, I don’t know exactly—but I know it’s in Leviticus and Paul talks about it in the New Testament. And it’s in other places, I’m sure.

Yeah, homosexuality is actually referenced seven times in the Bible, four in the Old Testament and three in the New. Now, we’ve probably all seen that West Wing GIF set or similar posts that point out a shit ton (sorry, Mom) of intense rules in the Old Testament that we don’t recognize today, like not being allowed to plant different crops alongside one another (Leviticus 19:19) or handle pigskin (Leviticus 1:7-8). We don’t follow these rules anymore because, as you know, the Old Law was replaced by Jesus’ saving grace (John 1:16-17, Romans 8:1-3). So I think we can safely disregard the Old Testament mentions of homosexuality.

Okay, but like you said, it’s still mentioned in the New Testament, which you just said we now live by!

You’re right! But before we get into those verses, I think it’s important to say that Jesus Himself never once mentioned homosexuality. Just putting that out there.

Now, there are a few things to keep in mind when looking at these verses. For one, some of the translations aren’t exact or perfectly clear. For example, when Paul says “homosexual offenders” in 1 Corinthians, the Greek word (arsenokoites) could alternatively refer to adult men who kept young boys for sexual practice. Kind of an important discrepancy, I think. Further, the other two verses are in the context of idolatry (Romans 1:26-27) and homosexual rape (etymology of “sodomy” in 1 Timothy 8-10). None of these even come close to referring to consensual and caring relationships that are prevalent in the homosexual community today. Every mention of homosexuality is through its sexual practices (with connotations of non-consent); nowhere does the Bible mention that being gay in itself is a sin.

You know, I don’t really know if being gay is a sin so much as gay sexual practices are.

See, I don’t really get that though. Because I’m pretty sure God says you can sin through words, actions, and thoughts (Jesus talks about it in Mark actually). So I’m not sure why having the desire to have sex with someone of the same gender wouldn’t be considered a sin. It’s kind of an all or nothing deal. But okay.

Why would having sex in a consensual, loving marriage between two gay people be a sin?

Well, God created sex in order to reproduce, and two people of the same gender can’t reproduce. It’s unnatural.

Okay, so I’m just going to assume that you two have—nope, I can’t go there. Let’s generalize. Lots of heterosexual married couples have sex with condoms or while the woman is on birth control. In both of these instances, the couples are having sex because it feels good, not to have children. They’re having sex for reasons other than reproduction, which is the only thing sex is supposed to be for, you say. So following your line of argument, any married couple who has sex for pleasure is sinning in the same way as a homosexual married couple who has sex.

(long pause)

It’s so easy to take verses out of their written and cultural context and misinterpret them, especially when the verses themselves aren’t completely clear. I mean, Christians used Biblical evidence to support slavery and female subjugation back in the day. Not cool, amirite?

I think the real point, the big kicker, the king kahuna if you will, is that these are only a few fragmented parts of a big beautiful book that has a very clear portrait of God. God is all knowing, all powerful, and most importantly all loving. We as Christians believe He loves us supremely and unconditionally. He loves us so much that we have a New Testament (and don’t have to worry about that whole pigskin thing). And as His followers, it’s our duty to extend that same love to others. Only God is the True Judge. We are here to be kind, to show mercy, to be understanding, and to love, to love, to love.

I think it’s easy to lose sight of that, to appoint ourselves as righteous enough to judge. It’s easy to forget that we all need a Savior. Black, white, rich, poor, gay, straight, Republican, Democrat—we all need Jesus and His love.

Yeah, especially Democrats.

Another time, Dad, another time.