MOUNT VERNON — That homosexuality is an extremely controversial subject among Christians isn’t news. A handful of Bible verses state — or seem to — that it is a sin, a very big sin.
But do those verses really mean that? Does the Old Testament book of Leviticus really condemn homosexuality as the worst possible sin? Did God destroy the Old Testament city of Sodom for that reason? Does the Apostle Paul condemn homosexuals in the New Testament, and does God really mandate that people who love each other and want to live as a family be sent to hell, except when one is male and one is female?
Tony Marconi presented an alternative perspective on homosexuality and the Bible on Jan. 30 at First Congregational United Church of Christ, in a lecture titled “God vs. Gays: The War That Never Was.” The event was sponsored by the Knox County Gay-Straight Alliance.
Marconi, a full-time educator, holds degrees in history, sociology and education, and is an activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered civil rights. He and his life partner, Martha, helped found the advocacy group Equality Ohio, and Marconi, a Christian, is a member of the Delaware Gay Straight Christian Alliance, an advocacy group made up of straight and gay people who support each others’ lifestyles and civil rights.
Marconi began his presentation with a recitation of Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” which includes the thought that “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”
“My friend Heather,” Marconi told the crowd, “who is an American Baptist minister, marched in her first gay-pride parade. Someone in the crowd watching the parade threw an object that struck her in the head. Heather looked down to see what it was, and it was a pocket edition of the Bible. I think it’s the perfect metaphor for what is happening in this country ... we want to build higher walls from which we can fire our ideological arrows down. I’m tired of this. Good fences don’t make good neighbors. We all need to be that something that doesn’t love a wall.”
Marconi said the story of Sodom in Genesis 19 is used as argument against homosexuality because it includes the attempted gang-rape of two male strangers by the men of that city. He gave three reasons against that argument, the first being that “rape is not an expression of sexual orientation — it is an act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon.”
In the time of Lot — the host of the two strangers — said Marconi, male-on-male rape was used regularly to humiliate an enemy or a stranger in town. He said Lot’s puzzling offer to the crowd of his own daughters in the men’s place was a bluff, because Lot would have legal recourse since women were considered property, and the crowd knew that.
Second, Marconi noted that other biblical references to Sodom say violation of Judaism’s strict hospitality codes, among other offenses, caused the city’s destruction by God, not same-sex offenses. These are mentioned in Ezekiel 16:48-49, Jeremiah 23:14, by Jesus in Matthew 10:11-15, Isaiah 1:10 and 3:9, Jeremiah 23:14 and Zephaniah 2:8-11 as violation of hospitality customs, “injustice, oppression, partiality, adultery, lies and encouraging evil doers.”
“Abusive behavior, not homosexuality, is what is being condemned in this story,” Marconi said.
He noted Judges 19:22-30, in which a heterosexual rape resulted in the victim’s death, which led to the destruction of the city of Gibeah.
“No condemnation of sexual orientation is implied in either story,” said Marconi.
“There are 6 billion [people] from [Adam and Eve],” he said, “and that’s right now, not to mention the ones who came before.” He included among those left- or right-handedness and hair and eye coloring. “Why would God pick that one trait, [homosexuality], out of so many, to be unhappy with?”
Asked what “straight allies” — those who support LGBT rights — can do to help, Marconi said, “First, straight allies have to get out of the closet, too. We need to be vocal ... and encourage our churches to be officially welcoming churches [to gay people].
“We’re not doing God’s work by making gays and lesbians the targets of legal discrimination,” he added. “Even if we believe that they are sinners, their sins are a matter between them and God — not them and God through us. Nor should anyone’s perceived state of grace ever be the basis on which their civil rights are measured. To that end, civil marriage must be considered a civil right. I want to see this discrimination end in my lifetime.”
The Rev. Bege Wiegman, who pastors a local church near Jelloway, was not so sure that will happen.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “We still have racism in this country. We still have women who are not accepted as clergy. This is not going to go away. I’m concerned about the judgment that certain Christians have against our brothers and sisters who are gay and lesbian. [Gay rights] can be so divisive, and I keep trying to figure out why it’s so divisive. When Scripture is pulled out of context that way ... there are other things we pull out of Scripture and we don’t do.”
The pastor of FCUCC, the Rev. R. Keith Stuart, said his church hosted the presentation “as a continuation of our emphasis on our mission statement, to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. [Gay rights] is a justice issue for our church. For our church to serve as a safe place for LGBT people is such a small thing, such a small gift we can give them compared to all they face. It apparently means a lot to them that there’s a congregation willing to step forth and say, ‘Come here and discuss and converse in an environment where you can agree to disagree.’ To me, this is about your assumption about God. Do you believe God is a god of trust or mistrust?”
“Given that we all consciously choose how we want to interpret Scripture,” said Marconi, “why would we purposely choose an interpretation that drives us to diminish and make difficult the lives of millions of people and the thousands of children they are raising — an act that is in direct violation of the teachings of Jesus Christ?”
