Jesus on Homosexuality| Dr. Robert Gagnon lecture

Uh, we're gonna talk, uh, tonight about Jesus and also about after Jesus in the second half.

We're gonna talk about the two texts, uh, that Jesus pointed us to, Genesis one twenty-seven and two twenty-four.

We'll look at them more in their own context.

I always start when discussing the issue of the Bible and homosexual practice with Jesus.

Now, that causes some surprise or even consternation to some people because Jesus didn't actually say an explicit word about homosexual practice or transgenderism.

And yet, what I'm going to argue is that there is a moral logic behind his argument in this famous Jesus sex text, as I call it, in Mark ten, verses two to twelve, and Matthew nineteen, three to nine.

That's a parallel to the Markan text.

And in that context, Jesus uses a form of moral logic which renders a male-female prerequisite, I'm tipping my hat as to where I'm going here, a male-female requirement or prerequisite for all sexual activity as the foundation of sexual ethics in his understanding.

Now, of course, it's good to begin with Jesus because, let's face it, he is our savior.

He is our Lord.

And so what Jesus regards as of preeminent significance must likewise be regarded as such by the church.

He's our Lord.

He's our savior.

That's where we get our understanding.

Unfortunately, we're at a place in many venues now where even what Jesus says is not regarded as necessarily definitive.

That's extraordinary.

Um, I debated once, not d- well, it was really more, it was more, it was a National Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Baltimore, and a scholar by the name of William Loader, who is an Australian New Testament scholar, had written a book called The New Testament and Sexuality.

Uh, he has actually written more on sexual ethics in early Judaism and early Christianity than anyone who's ever lived, and there's some very significant works that he's written.

However, his own personal view on the specific question of homosexual practice is he supports it.

He affirms it.

And, uh, there were, this was a panel on his book.

I was one of five people on the panel that was going to critique or review aspects of his book.

And I focused on his 70-page chapter on homosexuality, in which I was his chief dialogue partner.

And, um, I expressed areas where I had some disagreements with him, but we had a great amount of agreement about how actually to interpret, uh, what Jesus and Paul and other writers of scripture said about the issue.

Part of my case was making the point that Jesus' view would have precluded any acceptance of any form of homosexual practice or transgenderism.