Biblical scholar speaks on homosexuality

"This is the most important issue facing the church since the Protestant Reformation," said New Testament scholar Robert Gagnon to about 250 General Conference delegates and visitors at a UMAction lunch in Pittsburgh. Gagnon, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice, cited pro-homosexuality arguments that devalue both Scripture and personal holiness.

"The mainline churches hold views similar to the Pharisees," Gagnon observed. "Rather than being concerned about the lowering of ethical standards, we're pleased about it."

Gagnon's book, published by United Methodist Abingdon Press, exhaustively examines all Scriptural texts relating to homosexuality. It concludes that the Bible is overwhelmingly negative toward all same-sex activity. An ordained Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister, Gagnon teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Gagnon said Jesus was concerned about economic exploitation. And yet Jesus reached out to tax collectors "because they stood most at risk of not inheriting the Kingdom of God."

Similarly, the church must condemn homosexual and other non-marital sexual activity while nonetheless extending God's grace to homosexuals and others who violate God's standard of sexual holiness. "It's hard to lift up demands and love those who violate those demands," Gagnon said. "But that's what Jesus called us to do and that's what he's doing with us."

Contrary to the assertions of pro-homosexuality advocates, Gagnon said Jesus raised the bar on sexual morality rather than lowering it. "You used to be able to get away with the following," Gagnon said that Jesus in essence told the people of his time. "But I'm closing that loophole." Christ made the mosaic law more morally consistent by condemning lust, divorce, and remarriage, he said. Christ warned that it is better to cut off a body part than to go full-bodied into hell. "How many of us like that saying?" a smiling Gagnon asked a laughing audience.

Pro-homosexuality advocates often argue that it was St. Paul and not Jesus who was against homosexual practice, because Jesus did not specifically mention homosexuality.

"If Paul didn't understand grace, then we need to reinvent our concept of grace," Gagnon responded to that argument. "Paul didn't have to say WWJD [What would Jesus do?] when it came to incest," even though Jesus never mentioned incest.

The Old Testament has only four statements against incest, and the New Testament has only one, Gagnon pointed out. Yet neither St. Paul nor the Christian church has ever questioned that incest was unacceptable, even if monogamous.

"There's a problem with investing numeric frequency of mentions in the Bible with importance," Gagnon said. "The biblical witness is so unequivocal that numeric frequency is not important."

Citing the Book of Genesis, Gagnon said marriage is not simply about romance or raising a family, but about reuniting two parts of a sexual whole in a way that same-sex unions cannot achieve.

As to modern concepts about sexual orientation, Gagnon said they would not be foreign to St. Paul because he understood sin as an innate impulse for all people.

"Jesus did not prioritize monogamy, he prioritized marriage and holiness," Gagnon said. Jesus narrowed even further an already circumscribed sexual ethic. "The work of the church is to come alongside those who struggle and help them live in a way that conforms to Jesus as the Word of God," Gagnon concluded.

Mark Tooley is director of UMAction in Washington D.C.

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