Homosexuality and Religion

I wish I were religious. There is a part of me that yearns for faith. For some kind of divine purpose.

But I can’t seem to overcome scepticism. Following COVID, I spent months attending a local church (the controversial one) trying to immerse myself in faith.

Since then, I occasionally will listen to sermons via podcast. Recently, they revisited homosexuality.

They beat around the bush with nice platitudes like ”God loves everyone equally” However they never condone homosexual relationships/gay marriage. When I read between the lines, what I hear is:

“We can’t control our desires, but we should control our actions. Gay people can still be good christians if they remain celibate”

This follows from many bible verses:

e.g. Leviticus 20:13

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

However this was written in a very different time.

1. Without modern hygiene, perhaps homosexual intercourse was especially risky for individuals and community.
2. With feudalism, maybe you needed to be at breeding capacity
3. Without modern justice, homosexuality undermines patriarchy.
   1. It’s no longer simply men dominating women. Patriarchs also have to be cautious about being dominated by other men.

If those were true, one can see how it would be natural to prosecute homosexuality.

But these points hardly apply in modern times. So one would think God would have changed his attitude.

It raises the Euthyphro dilemma:

Does God command it because it’s right, or is it right because God commands it?