Curious Christian

A well-known Australian expat recently declared that the Bible is “pretty straightforward” on homosexuality, and that ministers should be removed from churches when pastoral care is extended to affirming the relationships of LGBTQ+ people. I think it’s time we stop pretending that such claims are as straightforward as they sound.

The truth is, the Bible doesn’t actually address mutual, loving same-sex relationships of the kind we’re talking about today. What it does mention—on the rare occasions the topic comes up—are very different kinds of scenarios: attempted gang rape in Sodom, cultic prostitution in Canaan, and exploitative Greco-Roman relationships that often involved older men using boys or slaves. These are all rightly condemned. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking these are the same as two consenting adults committing themselves to a faithful partnership. That’s not honest biblical interpretation. It’s reading the text through the lens of our own fears or agendas.

Jesus, for his part, does quote Genesis about marriage being between a man and a woman, but he does so in a conversation about divorce, not sexuality. His emphasis is on covenant faithfulness, challenging the way men in his culture treated women as disposable. To then turn around and use that passage as a weapon against queer people, while ignoring how it confronts heterosexual sin, seems like a serious misreading of both Jesus and the Scriptures.

And let’s talk about this idea that homosexuality is somehow the worst sin. You won’t find that in the Bible either. In Romans 1, Paul lists same-sex acts alongside greed, gossip, arrogance, and ruthlessness, not to rank sins, but to show how all humanity is broken and in need of grace. In his other letters, he includes things like slander, drunkenness, and materialism, sins we’re far more comfortable with in our congregations. Yet somehow, this one issue becomes the litmus test for orthodoxy. Why? Why this particular sin, and not the others? Why are pastors losing their jobs over extending compassion, when others can ignore justice or harbor pride without consequence?

I’ve been through divorce myself, so I know what it’s like to wrestle with Scripture when life doesn’t fit clean categories. And I know how tempting it is to single out other people’s “failures” to avoid facing our own. But pastoral care is not compromise. Listening to someone’s story, sitting with them in their pain, walking with them as they seek to follow Jesus, that’s not weakness. That’s what ministry is supposed to be. If our churches punish ministers for showing grace, then maybe the problem isn’t theological drift, it’s that we’ve forgotten what the heart of the gospel is.

No, the Bible isn’t as straightforward as some like to claim. It’s full of calls to holiness and fidelity, yes, but also to humility, mercy, and deep listening. And if we’re going to follow Jesus, then we’d better learn to hold all of those things together, not just the ones that make us feel righteous.