Leviticus 18:22 means what?

The Bible verse taken to mean gays should die isn’t so clear.

According to Christianity, are gays supposed to be executed? I wouldn’t think so, but a police detective in Knox County, Tennessee named Grayson Fritts, in the news for a June 2 sermon at All Scripture Baptist Church, wants “LGBT freaks . . . to be put to death.”

His church’s home page lays it out: “God said homosexuality should be punished with the death penalty, as set forth in Leviticus 20:13.”

Or note Mark D. Smith, currently a professor at the College of Idaho, and author of a widely cited 1996 paper that says, yes, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are “reaffirmed” for Christians.

I wrote him, asking: Is the death penalty also “reaffirmed”?

“I read a number of studies on the topic, but I don’t remember any of them grappling with the punishment issue,” he replies.

He declines to say Christians should not kill gay people. Rather, the subject has been . . . insufficiently studied.

Read Christian commentary on these verses, and you realize: in their hearts they might just think these words are calling for that conclusion. Nothing Jesus said about love, etc., makes much difference. What matters is this: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one…