Gays in the Bible

Yes Evangelicals, they’re there.

Are Evangelical Christians going all liberal on gays? It used to be you weren’t even allowed in many churches, if that’s what you were. Now, you’d be welcomed!—if you’re celibate, in therapy, and praying for a miracle. “Many assume that lifelong celibacy is the only option for believers with same-sex attractions,” writes Christopher Yuan in his 2018 book, Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, but “we also shouldn’t discount the possibility that God can do the improbable.”

Just—keep on praying. Or how about this? Let’s learn about the many amazing gay scenes and themes in the Bible.

Pasiteles, “Orestes and Pylades” c.106–48 B.C.

Ishamel ‘mocks’ Isaac

But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son . . .” —Genesis 21:9–10

Christianity likes to imagine gay sex happening earlier in Genesis. But scholars do their best to tell them: no, Noah wasn’t raped by his son Ham, and no, the Sodom thing isn’t about God getting gang banged. The men of the city demand to interrogate the divine guests, suspecting them of being spies, as Scott Morschauser shows in “‘Hospitality’, Hostiles and Hostages: On the Legal Background to Genesis 19.1–9”.