A RESOURCE FOR DISCERNMENT
A Review of Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment

Ted Grimsrud

Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment, by Willard M. Swartley. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

If you are interested in discussions among Christians concerning the issue of homosexuality, read the new book Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment, by Willard Swartley of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

Swartley offers this book as "a resource for ongoing discernment." I believe we should receive the book as a gift, an invitation from a church leader to needed conversation. Swartley especially aims this book at a Mennonite audience (and it is by far the most extensive published discussion of theological issues related to the "homosexuality issue" that any Mennonite scholar has produced), but Swartley’s treatment is well worth the attention of all Christians.

Swartley states that unlike the case in relation to issues he has previously addressed (war, male/female relationships, slavery), the biblical witness addresses homosexuality with clarity and uniformity. Thus Scripture does not allow for movement from a "status quo" view toward a "liberative" view.

In three chapters focused on biblical materials, Swartley provides a thorough introduction to many of the scholarly currents swirling around interpretations of the Bible’s teaching on sexuality. He firmly sides with those who see a clear and uncompromising stance in the Bible "against same-sex genital practices."

Swartley then sketches an "analysis of contemporary Western culture." He sees "the sexual revolution of the 1960s" as the crucial event that has created pressure on the church to weaken its long-term rejection of the legitimacy of same-sex intimate relationships. Swartley next develops a strategy for applying the Bible to our contemporary context and reflects on "The Church’s Belief and Response" and "A Model for Congregational Discernment."

Swartley seeks to combine compassion with clarity about sexual boundaries and our call to holy living. He admits this is a big challenge but calls the churches to seek to meet it by putting resources and energy into spiritual discernment and redemptive discipline.

Swartley deserves admiration for his courage. In laying out his thinking, he makes himself vulne/rable to challenges from various points of view; but this is what is needed for Christians to make genuine progress in responding to the issues related to homosexuality. These matters are hard ones to work through, and many questions need serious reflection.

In the spirit of Swartley’s assertion that "on these matters we need to respectfully engage each other in ongoing discussion," I want to highlight a few of the questions that seem important to me after reading this book.

(1) How do we best understand, in their broader literary and cultural contexts, biblical texts usually understood to speak to the issue of homosexuality?

Disappointingly, though Swartley devotes three full chapters (49 pages) to biblical matters, he does not delve deeply into exposition of the texts themselves. Instead he mostly settles for citing numerous scholarly opinions.

Swartley treats 1 Corinthians 6:9, for example, as if its context is Paul’s discussion of sexual morality in 1 Corinthians 5. He ignores the direct context in 1 Corinthians 6 of Paul’s critique of (probably rich) church people taking other (probably poor) church people to secular courts. The list of vices in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, then, is used to illustrate why those running secular courts are not to be trusted. This is the kind of unjust people they are—for the sake of justice you in the church need to work things out among yourselves.

When we recognize the context of the vice lists in 1 Corinthian 6 as concerned primarily with justice, not sexuality, our understanding of the two ambiguous, undefined terms in that list, malakoi and arsenokoitai (often translated "homosexuals"), and similar terms might need to be revised.

(2) Is it appropriate to make generalizations about homosexuality per se based on proscriptions and on problems that apply only to some expressions?

Swartley argues that what matters in the Bible is behavior. He states that biblically (and for contemporary Christians), the issue is what people do. And the Bible always condemns "homosexual acts."

However, this argument requires generalizing for all same-sex intimacy based on references that focus only on males. That is, Genesis 19 and Judges 19 tell of men wanting to rape other men; Leviticus 19 and 21 forbid men lying with men; Romans 1 describes men being consumed with lust for other men; and the key word employed in 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1 is a compound of the words "men" and "lying with."

Romans 1 does include a reference to women involved in "unnatural intercourse" (1:26), but the text is irresolvably ambiguous as to whether the link with the following reference to men is that both were enslaved to "unnatural passions" per se (which could have several different expressions) or both were involved in same-sex "lust."

Why do these few texts portray male-male sex as problematic? Do they do so for reasons that would also encompass female-female intimacy? Or is the behavior questionable for gender-specific reasons? If the latter is true, then the applicability of these texts to the "homosexuality issue" itself is lessened.

(3) What is the sin inherent to homosexuality?

The evidence Swartley gives for homosexuality’s being problematic does not necessarily apply to same-sex intimate relationships in themselves (that is, not to all such relationships).

Swartley appropriately argues that the churches must resist cultural dynamics that foster unhealthy sexual behavior, such as promiscuity, obsessive self-gratification, and sexually transmitted diseases. However, as he acknowledges, these problems are present among heterosexual people too. And, many would argue, there are same-sex intimate relationships that are committed, monogamous, and mutually respectful.

If some same-sex relationships do not manifest the problems Swartley cites, what is sinful about them? If the Bible is focused on male-male behavior, what is the moral violation that occurs in relationships between women? It would seem that if one is to offer the kinds of generalizations Swartley makes concerning same-sex intimate relationships as an entire class, one should be using evidence that applies to all possible members of that class.

(4) What might we learn from the lives of Christians who are in same-sex intimate relationships?

Swartley makes strong assertions concerning problematic dynamics among gay people, but he gives no evidence of considering counter-testimonies. His bibliography does not include two important books edited by Roberta Showalter Kreider, From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People and Those Who Love Them (Gaithersburg, Md.: Chi Rho Press, 1998) and Together in Love: Faith Stories of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Couples (Kulpsville, Pa.: Strategic Press, 2002), that gather testimonies from Christians in same-sex intimate relationships.

According to the writers in Kreider’s books, the issue of sexual gratification is not at the center of what draws them to their partnerships. They present their motivations in ways similar to those expressed by most Christians in opposite-sex intimate relationships—finding in their shared lives with intimate partners a sense of wholeness and completeness that provides empowerment for living faithfully as children of God.

Though these, and many more, questions arose for me in reading this provocative book, I finished it with strong appreciation for how it stimulated me to think and to pray. I hope Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment gains a wide readership in Mennonite circles and beyond. Swartley writes clearly and manifests throughout a gentleness of spirit that fostered in me a desire for ongoing discussion of these important issues.

—Ted Grimsrud, Harrisonburg, Virginia, is author, God’s Healing Strategy: An Introduction to the Bible’s Main Themes (Pandora Press U.S., 2000), and Associate Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, Eastern Mennonite University.