Thank you for your support and understanding. Homosexuality is very easy to understand. We are exactly like you, except that we romantically love people of the same gender. Everything else is exactly the same. We want relationships and family, we want love, just like anyone else. Alas, there are some religious groups and by bigots who keep spreading lies about us, like saying we are child molesters. Yet statistically, Straight men molest children at a higher rate than homosexual men do.

It is great to hear from open-minded people like you.

Hi. Thank you for your kind words.

Did you also see the other two papers that go with this one?

New Testament + Homosexuality [link]
Old Testament + Homosexuality [link]
SODOM DESTROYED ON 6-29-3129BC [link]

The latter one gives more detail about the Judaic and Orthodox Christian views of Sodom & Gomorrah.

I feel I should warn you. I get attacked regularly, sometimes viciously, by Christians, for my above papers. Most are so bad that I hide them from view. If you allow comments on your page, or supply an email address, you will get attacked, along with personal attacks on your character, being told you will burn in hell, are Satan’s child, etc. Just so you know.

Usually they have not even read any of the papers they are screaming about and are outraged that I would dare to write about Homosexuality and the Bible, or claim translation problems and accuse me of daring to question the word of God. My answer to them is that I do not question the word of God or Jesus, I question the words of Translators who had their own hidden agendas. I say we must go back as far as possible to original scriptures, which in the case of the New Testament, is in Coptic Greek.

Translation is extremely difficult after 2,000 years. A language must be translated in context of the culture at the time of the writing. Also, you must use the actual language of the time. There was language drift in Coptic Greek, just as in all languages. There was no word for same-sex sex or homosexual sex in the Coptic Greek language. Paul did not even write, so he dictated to a scribe who wrote in Coptic Greek.

To give you a very small example of translation drift just in the last few decades, Paul used the phrase, “Faith, Hope and Charity.” The primary definition of the word ‘Charity’ meant: Universal Love For Your Fellow Mankind. But over time, the vernacular of the word ‘Charity’ came to mean: The voluntary giving of help to people in need. Many of the latest translations of the Bible, like the New American Bible, translated Paul’s phrase, “Faith, Hope and Charity” into ““Faith, Hope and Love.”

Something big is lost in this translation, to go from “Universal Love For Your Fellow Mankind” to “Love.” Imagine the problems of jumping over 2,000 years from an ancient language, where most of the cultural context is lost, and only very well studies Scholars in Greek language and culture can do an effective translation. But instead, it is theologians who are less educated in both ancient Coptic Greek and the Ancient Coptic Greek culture and the ancient culture of Judea.

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YOUR QUESTIONS

I wrote my papers with one thing in mind. I wanted to be a missionary Priest, but could not reconcile my Faith with my Homosexuality, and there was no help at all back then. I struggles with self-hate and internalized homophobia. I set out to help LGBTQ people be able to reconcile their faith with their homosexuality, as well as to help their parents and other loved reconcile their Faith with the homosexual nature of their loved one.

I also wanted my papers to act as a REFERENCE for when LGBTQ people are attacked by Christians or Jews with Biblical passages, with hot Indexes and Table of contents to quickly find passages and provide arguments against those using biblical passages as a weapon against them, or to help convince parents and loved ones.

It was never my intent to convince Conservative Christians to accept homosexuals, because they are too blinded by hate and a desire to discriminate against others, especially when they believe they have God’s permission to discriminate and abuse homosexuals.

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To answer your questions, first you must decide who your intended audience is. If you want to include a young audience, then your layout is not ideal for that but I think it is easily adapted to a younger audience.

First, I know it is a bit of work, but on your first page, a linked Index of Biblical passages, linked to where you cover said passages, would turn your site into a handy reference guide for people looking for help on a specific passage or two. For example, a person could scan down the index to find Leviticus 18:22, click on it, and be taken to where you discuss that passage.

I think that your pages are well laid-out for Biblical researchers and those interested in an in-depth study, but they are not laid-out well for a younger audience. I have found in my years of working with youth (ages 12 to 25) that most young people today are completely put-off by large blocks of text. If I were to do my papers over, I would do them differently. I wrote them years ago.

However, your pages could very easily be adapted to please both youth people and those wanting a deeper look at the subject. You could give a relatively short summary in each column, followed by a link to another page offering the full details for those who want the all of the details and references. I am suggesting separate pages, because if you put both the summaries and details on a single page, many people would look at a page with a ton of text and just hit the back button or close the window/tab. If they see a smaller amount of text, they are more likely to read it, and if they are then captivated or interested in more detail, they can click on the link and get it.

In other words, you might consider inserting a summary page before the detail & reference page, with a well-labeled link to further deals and references. this should appeal to a wider audience.

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NEWER INFORMATION

I give both Judaic Rabbinic and Orthodox Christian views of Sodom & Gomorrah in my paper SODOM DESTROYED ON 6-29-3129BC [link] which is worth checking out.

It is important to note that Homosexuality was never interpreted into Sodom and Gomorrah until the 11th century by the Italian ascetic Peter Damian. In other words, Christianity never saw Sodom & Gomorrah linked to Homosexuality, for over 1,000 years after the birth of Christ. I give the details of this translation in the above linked paper, under, “ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN VIEW.”

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Frankly, my paper on the New Testament needs a little bit of updating, but I simply do not have the time to do it now. For example, Biblical Archeologists have found that the place where Jesus was raised in Judea was very urban, a city that was relatively densely populated with Roman Citizens and Garrisons. Joseph, was a carpenter, which was like an upper-middle-class trade in those times, and it is very likely that he worked a lot for the romans (where the money was).

This is significant because it means that it was extremely likely that Jesus would have known about ‘Same-Sex Sex’ or homosexual sex in his lifetime of ~34 years. The Romans openly practiced ‘Same-Sex Sex’ as part of their normal sexuality. They Greeks and Romans had no word for ‘Same-Sex Sex’ or homosexuality in their language, because it was considered as just being one aspect of sexuality.

If you then consider that Jesus never once said a single word against ‘Same-Sex Sex’ or homosexuality, as witnessed by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, his omission speaks volumes. It is the same with God’s only direct message to us (not via men) in the Ten Commandments, has no mention of ‘Same-Sex Sex’ or homosexuality.

Are you aware of the change in the Catholic Catechism concerning homosexuality? The Catholic church’s official stand on homosexuality is that Homosexuality itself is not a sin. But a much more significant change is that the Catholic Church has conceded that people are BORN homosexual. More churches are doing this because of the overwhelming science. We even know much of the mechanism.

Normally you would think that God never makes a mistake, therefore homosexual sex, within the confines of a gay Marriage (long-term loving and committed relationship), would not be a sin. Unfortunately, the church still sees Homosexual sex, even in the confines of a loving long-term relationship (marriage), as a sin. They feel that God gave homosexual people the burden of living all their lives in celibacy as a test of their faith.

Reference: You can Read or Download the Catholic Church's Catechism on Homosexuality: Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination [link] from the 2006 American Conference of Catholic Bishops:

The church acknowledges that people are born Homosexual and that Homosexuality itself is not a sin.

"Homosexual Inclination Is Not Itself a Sin
While the Church teaches that homosexual acts are immoral, she does distinguish between engaging in homosexual acts and having a homosexual inclination. While the former is always objectively sinful, the latter is not. To the extent that a homosexual tendency or inclination is not subject to one’s free will, one is not morally culpable for that tendency. Although one would be morally culpable if one were voluntarily to entertain homosexual temptations or to choose to act on them, simply having the tendency is not a sin. Consequently, the Church does not teach that the experience of homosexual attraction is in itself sinful."

"The Church teaches that persons with a homosexual inclination 'must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.' We recognize that these persons have been, and often continue to be, objects of scorn, hatred, and even violence in some sectors of our society. Sometimes this hatred is manifested clearly; other times, it is masked and gives rise to more disguised forms of hatred. 'It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs.'

Those who would minister in the name of the Church must in no way contribute to such injustice. They should prayerfully examine their own hearts in order to discern any thoughts or feelings that might stand in need of purification. Those who minister are also called to growth in holiness. In fact, the work of spreading the Good News involves an ever-increasing love for those to whom one is ministering by calling them to the truth of Jesus Christ."

I hope this is of some help,

Matthew