User:Kaiguy02/Christianity and homosexuality

The Hebrew Bible and its traditional interpretations in Judaism and Christianity have historically affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality, favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women over all other forms of human sexual activity, including autoeroticism, masturbation, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been variously labeled as "sodomy"), believing and teaching that such behaviors are forbidden because they're considered sinful, and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The history of Christianity and homosexuality has been much debated. Some maintain that the early Christian churches deplored transgender people and same-sex relationships, while others maintain that they accepted them on the level of their heterosexual counterparts. These disagreements concern, in some cases, the translations of certain terms, or the meaning and context of some biblical passages.

This article focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, covering how the extent to which the Bible mentions the subject, whether or not it is condemned, and whether the various passages apply today, have become contentious topics. Significant debate has arisen over the proper interpretation of the Levitical code; the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah; and various Pauline passages, and whether these verses condemn same-sex sexual activities. However, laws against sodomy and LGBT members can not be traced back to any scripture or religious text in Christianity. In fact, throughout the bible Jesus can be seen interacting with prostitutes and criminals, so there is no reason to draw the line at gay people. Many Christians who condemn homosexuality trace it back to Leviticus 20:13, which states that "man shall not lie with man", meaning it is sinful for persons of the same sex to be together; however, this is a widely debated interpretation that can be translated in multiple ways.