Bishop Gene Robinson has begun a series of articles on the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog. In his first article, he examines a methodology for how we might read what the Bible says about homosexuality.
What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Reading “texts of terror”
By Bishop Gene Robinson in The Washington Post’s On Faith blog
This is the first in a series of articles by The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire and a visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C., examining the Biblical texts traditionally used to address the issue of homosexuality from a religious (Jewish and Christian) perspective.
Let us be clear: people of good faith disagree, both on whether or not this method of “Bible study” is the “right” way of reading and interpreting scripture, and on its application to these texts. What is offered here is one way, and a particularly Anglican/Episcopalian way, of engaging in that endeavor.
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Understanding scripture in its contexts is no easy task, and it is fraught with potential misuse. All readers of scripture are subject to self-deception – that is, the temptation to interpret the scriptures in a way that satisfies our own selfish desires and biases, rather than hearing the truth of the passage which may challenge, condemn and call into question those desires and biases. That is why scripture must always be studied and understood in community. The temptation is too great to interpret scripture in our own image to attempt it alone. One must always be subject to the larger community’s understandings to guard against only hearing what one wants to hear.
Part of the community whose voice needs to be considered, is that of the Tradition – that is, what has been said over the years about any given passage of scripture. We, in the present time, are not the only ones who have struggled with these passages, and our own understanding needs to be informed by the larger community of the faithful in the past.
His first article can be found HERE
His second article can be found HERE