I am not gay, have no family members who are, and have no experience with this lifestyle.  So who am I to judge?  Why don't we just let consenting adults do what they wish, so long as no one else is hurt?  Many in our society take this approach to the subject, whatever their own sexual preferences might be.  To do otherwise seems to be intolerant and judgmental, two words our postmodern, relativistic society condemns.

On the other hand, believers and those interested in the Christian faith do well to ask what God's word says to every subject present in our culture.  An objective reading of history and Scripture will inform our faith and make it more relevant to our problems and issues.  For several pages we've considered such a survey.  Now let's summarize what we've found, and ask how it all applies to our lives and relationships.

We have surveyed the seven passages typically cited with regard to this issue.  In Genesis 19 we find the attempt by men in Sodom to "have sex" with Lot's angelic visitors (v. 5), and God's consequent punishment against the city.  While homosexual practice is clearly part of the text, the passage is less clear as to whether God's judgment is against homosexuality itself, or the crowd's abusive attempt to commit homosexual rape.

Next we found Leviticus 18:22, with its clear prohibition against homosexual activity, and Leviticus 20:13, with its prescription of the death penalty for such activity.  Since some consider these passages as "outdated" as the Bible's (supposed) endorsement of slavery, we next took a brief side journey through the latter issue.  After noting the biblical abolition of social and racial discrimination (Galatians 3:26-28), and the fact that followers of Jesus were the leaders in abolishing the institution of slavery, we concluded that the Bible is being unfairly interpreted by its critics on this issue.

We considered briefly Deuteronomy 23:17-18, which outlaws all prostitution, whether male or female.  And we focused at some length on Romans 1:26-27, with its description of homosexual acts as "unnatural" and "indecent."  We closed our survey with brief studies of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11, passages which are considered by some to refer to homosexual prostitution but which seem more objectively to forbid homosexual practice in any context.

As we have seen, proponents of homosexuality as a biblical lifestyle have arguments by which they attempt to reinterpret these passages.  It may be of interest, however, to note that no biblical passage can be cited with confidence as an endorsement of this activity.  No biblical leader or ethical model taught by the Scriptures can be construed effectively as practicing this lifestyle.

And the Old Testament prohibitions we have discussed in our survey are too unambiguous to ignore, and are renewed in the New Testament.  A basic principle of biblical interpretation is that an Old Testament teaching which is renewed or endorsed in the New Testament retains the force of precept and principle for Christians today (see Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth, 2d ed. [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993] 153).  So, in completing our brief biblical survey of this issue, it seems clear to me that Scripture intends us to see homosexual practice as unbiblical.