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# "What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?"
- URL: https://matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality/
- Published: 2024-10-12T16:24:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T19:42:32.000Z
- Author: Matthew D. Burkholder
- Tags: Theology, bible, Christianity, conversion therapy, Evangelicalism, Faith, god, purity culture, The Bible, #Migrated-1787946130805, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-28 15:42

To say that I have thought a lot about the relationship between theology and sexuality would be an understatement. It simply wasn't an option for anyone who grew up during the 90s who intended to take their faith seriously. It was *the* question. It was the question I was most likely to be asked when someone found out I was a Christ follower and especially if I told them I was a student of Christian theology. It was the broader question I needed to sort out unless I was going to turn out like a worthless, dirty rag, with nothing left to offer God in worship-and my spouse in marriage.

For the most part, my personal experience even as a heterosexual man in purity culture was harmful. I have written about it several times and don't intend to rehash it here. Nonetheless, when I read of the experiences of homosexual individuals growing up during the era of purity culture, my skin crawls. Forced confinement, attempted "exorcisms," chemical castration, conversion "therapy," family abandonment, and other horrendous experiences. The disturbing justification for these acts of abuse? That God's will as revealed in scripture was that homosexuality was sinful. Sin separates us from God. Therefore, the good Christian who loves his gay neighbour must help them purge this sin by any means necessary.

The result was decades of abuse and harm. The more we learn about sexual orientation, the more we understand it to be an enduring and stable aspect of humanity. This science directly contradicts the religious adage that an individual chooses their sexual orientation. We don't. The science has demonstrated that mandating a person to conform to a religious heterosexual orientation is profoundly damaging ([1](https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-020-01563-8?ref=matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io)[ 2](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0265580&ref=matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io) [3](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/2/54?ref=matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io) [4](https://ir-api.ua.edu/api/core/bitstreams/2ed055d9-bb8f-4b9a-a576-384b5c02f50d/content?ref=matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io)).

If religious conformity to heterosexuality has caused sexual minorities so much harm, shouldn't the conversation be over? The problem for much of the devout is the method in which identity and ethics is determined - biblicalism. In biblicalism, the teaching of the Bible is univocal and universal and therefore, clear and able to answer any question asked of it.

During Pride month, pastors who hold to biblicalism will be found preaching sermons entitled, "What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?" Although sincere in their efforts, these pastors fail to understand that homosexuality is a modern term that describes a sexual orientation, and therefore, the Bible says *nothing* about it. Absolutely nothing. Not one jot or one tittle about the psychology, biology, or sociology of what we call a sexual orientation. It's completely silent on the subject. And even if it did somehow speak to an issue thousands of years after it was written, what are the odds that the Bible shares a belief about homosexuality that is conveniently synonymous with conservative political values? Values that these pastors also happen to hold?

That isn't to say that the Bible says nothing at all about those on the margins. That *is* something the Bible speaks about. In that sense, if the Christ of the gospels were here today, how might he respond to the deep social and psychological harm caused by his church?

I have no doubt that this limited question will truly upset many of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. You can accuse me all you want of following my own set of political values in my attempt to be an ally. But I refuse to ask the Bible a question it's not capable of answering. I've seen how this approach has left a trail of brokenness and harm.

Instead, I will ask the Bible a question I believe it can answer: what is my responsibility to my LGBTQ neighbour? The answer is simple: to love them as you love yourself. And if your heterosexual orientation doesn't stand in the way of you loving yourself, why are we forcing someone's homosexual orientation to stand in the way of them loving themself?