Rebecca McLaughlin recently published a short book, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality. (If you’re not familiar with McLaughlin, I’d encourage you to check out her book, Confronting Christianity, which won the 2020 Christianity Today Book of the Year award.)
To clarify, McLaughlin is referring to same-sex romantic partnerships, and she asserts that the Bible does not affirm such relationships (p. 13). What’s more, “… the question of whether the Bible allows for same-sex sexual relationships cannot be set aside as a secondary issue on which Christians can agree to disagree” (p. 16).
All ten claims she addresses push back against the way that Christians the world over have understood biblical teaching for the last 2,000 years. Some of those claims are:
“Jesus was silent on same-sex relationships.” However, Jesus did very clearly draw on Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 to teach that God’s design of marriage involves the one-flesh union of man and woman (Matthew 19:4-6). And so, sex is intended to unite male and female opposite-sex pairs, not same-sex pairs (pp. 26-27).
“It’s inconsistent to follow the Old Testament on same-sex sex but not on shellfish.” Since the OT prohibits both eating shellfish (Lev. 11:9-12) and homosexual acts (18:22; 20:13), why oppose one practice but not the other? Answer: the NT treats the OT laws about food and sex differently. As for dietary laws, Jesus declared “all foods clean” (Mark 7:19). But he reaffirms the OT teaching that sex is for the marriage of a man and a woman.
“A God of love can’t be against relationships of love.” But the Bible considers sex outside of marriage as sin (e.g., Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3; Col 3:5), and “when Christians draw each other into sexual sin of any kind, they’re not showing love to one another” (p. 102). We love others when we encourage them to trust and obey Jesus in all aspects of their lives.
