Found in translation

Jerome, Bible translator, theologian, 420.

And I would prove that we have throughout the ages interpreted biblical teaching on sex grossly wrong. Tragically wrong. Disastrously wrong.

This would be my thesis statement: Every biblical reference to sex is for the purpose of protecting the vulnerable — caring for children, respecting women and defending the powerless. Period.

I say that biblical references to sex are not for the purposes of condemning pleasure, women’s leadership or homosexuality, although there seem to be strong historical and modern forces that seem absolutely fixated on exactly those ideas.

For my theologian friends who disagree with me right from the start, I say this: I love you, and I wish you could join me on this second life so we could explore this together.

For the children, the women and the gay people who have been told that the Bible says you are inferior, I say this: Don’t believe it.

And the word “inferior” puts it mildly. Let’s try “going to hell.”

We will talk about women and marriage in another posting. For now, I’d like to talk more about homosexuality, since that seems to be popular lately with the suicides and the “It Gets Better” campaign.

By the way, I give a huge shout out to Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA for posting to the “It Gets Better” campaign on the YouTube site on behalf of me and our entire church body. Thank you.

As I’ve read the testimonies of people who have come out gay — coming out stories, as they say — there is a theme that I’m noticing and it’s deeper than the bullying. It is the basing of the bullying on the Bible and church teaching.

My dear friend, Melba Major, from Birmingham, Ala., gave me permission to quote from her coming out story. Melba and I are classmates in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Antioch University in Los Angeles. Not only does Melba have a powerful story, but she’s a gifted writer and communicator. In this passage, Melba describes how her mother reacted to her sexuality:

“… during the summer following my senior year of high school she left Bibles open around the house with passages highlighted condemning homosexuality. My mother was implying that I should be put to death. My mother was implying that I should burn in hell for all eternity. She also left brochures for ‘change-back’ camp on my bedside table. My mother was threatening shock treatments.”

I invite you to read Melba’s entire story on her blog, Shoutin’ OUT from the South, a site she created to support LGBT youth. As I write this dispatch, there’s another coming out story posted on this site by a brave 16-year-old, and it also mentions how the Bible was used as a basis to condemn his very being.

But I am not a theologian and so I can’t get all fancy with Greek and Hebrew and Roman context to prove my theory of biblical truth on sex.

I’m just an ordinary Lutheran who believes it when Paul writes that there is nothing we can do or be to earn God’s love. “… for there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22-24 NRSV).

I’m just an ordinary Christian who believes it when Jesus Christ says that we are to love one another unconditionally. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. … You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31 NRSV).

I’m just an ordinary human being who is trying to sort out good and bad, friendship and love, church and society, time and responsibility. Mostly, I’m just trying to get through the day. I give thanks for my denomination, the ELCA, and my congregation, St. John’s Lutheran, Des Moines, Iowa, who focus on the things that we are supposed to do as Christians, helping the poor, caring for widows and giving the greatest dignity to all of God’s creation.

I’m just an ordinary friend, grateful for the assurance that if my classmate Melba ever decided to come to Des Moines, she would be welcomed with open arms into the life of my congregation. She would be loved. And she would probably be recruited to cook a meal or teach writing or mentor youth or lead a committee or join the membership.