CAN GAYS AND LESBIANS
BE TRUE CHRISTIANS?
BE TRUE CHRISTIANS?
This site is for everyone.
And it should especially help gay men and lesbians who feel a
conflict between their sexuality and their Christian beliefs.
God loves you and has given you an attraction to others of
the same sex (or people of the opposite sex, if you are
straight).
This site shows that a person can be both a true
Christian and a loving, sexually-active gay man or
lesbian.
The site also shows that the Bible’s condemnation of
homosexual activity (sex between men and sex
between women) does not apply today.
Why does it not apply today? Because it applied only to the
ancient Israelite and Greek-Roman cultures of Bible times.
So man-man sex and woman-woman sex is okay if no
one is harmed.
The main ideas are:
SAME-SEX ATTRACTION
 | The Bible accepts same-sex attraction and | |
| might refer to same-sex orientation. |
SEX BETWEEN MEN
| The Bible is silent on sex between men | |
| except for full sex, which it prohibits. This prohibition does not apply today because it applied only to the Bible cultures. |
| All sex between men (including full sex) is | |
| okay if no one is harmed. |
SEX BETWEEN WOMEN
| The Bible criticizes sex between women but | |
| does not prohibit it. As the criticism is culturally based, it does not apply today. |
| Sex between women is okay if no one is | |
| harmed. |
LOVE
| A long-term relationship between two men | |
| or two women has love, affection and caring as well as sex. |
This site shows that:
The Bible talks about same-sex acts but not
homosexuals, gay men or lesbians.
The Bible treats same-sex acts as illicit sex acts committed by
ordinary people. Therefore any use of homosexual,
homosexuality or sodomites in a Bible version is a
misleading translation error. So there is no criticism or
condemnation in the Bible of homosexuality as a sexual
orientation or of gay men or lesbians as types of people.
The Bible accepts same-sex attraction.
The Bible has positive stories of same-sex emotional or
romantic attraction and deep friendship. Also, the Bible might
indirectly refer to same-sex (homosexual) orientation. More
details
The Bible nowhere says that all sex outside
marriage is wrong.
The Bible simply says that certain kinds of sex, e.g. incest and
adultery and prostitution, are wrong. More details
The Bible's criticism of sex between women
does not apply today.
The Bible has one criticism of sex between women (lesbian,
straight or bisexual) but does not say don’t do it. The criticism
seems to be based on how women's sex roles were seen in
the Roman and Jewish cultures of Biblical times (women
should be passive, not active, in sex). As the criticism is
culturally based, it does not apply today. More details
The Bible's prohibition of full (penetrative) sex
between men does not apply today.
The Bible does not criticize or prohibit any form of sex
between men (including oral sex, deep kissing, fondling and
mutual masturbation) except for men penetrating men. As in
other societies of Biblical times, the prohibition is aimed at the
man being penetrated. This Biblical prohibition seems to be
mainly based on the cultural view that the penetrated man is
acting like a woman (instead of like a man) in sexual
intercourse. The male penetrator is condemned for helping the
penetrated man to act like a woman. As the prohibition is
culturally based, it does not apply today. More details
For those who disagree that a Biblical criticism
or prohibition does not apply today when it is
culturally based.
Some people say that it does not matter whether a Biblical
criticism or prohibition is culturally based; it is still the Word of
God and must be obeyed. This view faces difficulties when
slavery is looked at. The Bible approves of people owning
other people as slaves. But despite the Bible’s approval, we
don’t say that people can own other people as slaves today.
One therefore cannot say that something is approved (slavery)
or prohibited (men having full sex with men) just because the
Bible says so. We need something more; and this is provided
by the biblical “no-harm” test. More test details
Results of the “no-harm” test.
Men having any form of sex with men (including full sex) pass
the “no-harm” test if each man acts with caring love and does
not harm himself, the other man or any third party (e.g., a
partner), physically, emotionally, mentally or relationally, directly
or indirectly. This also applies to sex between women when no
harm is caused. Find out more
Relationships.
We can observe that a long-term relationship between two
men or two women involves much more than sex. It usually
includes mutual love and affection, caring and companionship
and is similar to a long-term married relationship between a
man and a woman.
For Questions and Answers on topics of this site click here.
Using this site:
You can easily see the main ideas of this site on the detailed
summary above.
You can also see the main points by clicking on each topic in
the left-hand panel near the top of the page. When a page
gives a Summary of the topic, you can get more information
by clicking on More Details on that page.
Alternatively, check the site's pages on the
Biblical arguments
The arguments used in this site are based on the Bible, which
is treated as being accurate.
You are free to copy, adapt, distribute and transmit the
information on this site provided that you credit the author
(Colin Smith) and that the information is not used for
commercial purposes. This site is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Feel free to link to this site.
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