'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is an abomination.'

This is what Fred Phelps put on the Matthew Shepard Memorial.

And along the same lines, Leviticus 20:13,22:

'And if a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.'

What I would like to know is this: How do those people here who are Christians but who do not advocate the death penalty for homosexuals reconcile their own views with the fact that the Bible seems to say quite unambiguously that they should be put to death?

They are hypocrites. Simple as that.

Alot of things in the OT should not be taken on face value. I've put this link up in another thread, but here it is again. http://www.cathedralofhope.com/homosexuality/

Oh, and the death punishments referred to in the OT are sins. As it is explained is various parts of the NT, especially chapters five through eight of Romans, we die by sin - we are dead in sin. If that sounded a bit vague, then read it and judge for yourself.

Hmm, according to leviticus, any form of nudity is against god's laws... This includes seeing baby pictures of yourself or other chidren that most every parent takes!! LOL
So seeing your children nude is also against his/her/it's laws.. No more changing the diapers of your sibling's, cousins, nieces, nephews, well you get the idea... cause if you do, you'll see them nude... And according to that part of the bible, it's a sin.. Major by the way that it's stated!!!

Shame isn't it??? LMAO

Are you referring to the quotes "Uncovering nakedness..." etc? Well, think metaphorically. What is 'nakedness'? In the book, getting shitfaced of drugs or alcohol in public, making a total ass of yourself, is considered 'seeing his nakedness' (i can't recall the exact extract/s off the top of my head) Plus, you gotta look at what the 'law' was saying, or what the teachers at the time interpreted it.
various parts of the NT preach that 'Love is the law' and what is in your heart is what really matters. If you find pornography offensive, yet you watch and enjoy it, then that would be sinning. But if you don't see anything wrong with peaceful, pleasurable acts, then there is nothing wrong with them.

I'm christian. I tend to look at the Bible as something that can be used when it is needed, but it is not the foundation of my faith. The foundation of my faith is the living, present, helping, loving, right-now God.

i guess when they realized it was becoming a legal issue with the old testament and how to deal with those not "properly christian" they had to make the new testament...i wonder what they'll make up now that it's outdated...and funny enough archeologists are discovering that there were actually a lot of mistranslation and biasness in the bible...two thousand years and it's falling apart.

Got that right! It's been in the hands of so many different dictators and governments to use over the peoplethat it's become too twisted and has become a book of contradictions. I say it belongs in the "Sci-fi/Fantasy" section of Barnes n' Noble.

The eating of shellfish and crabs is also an abomination. (I believe that is also in Leviticus, but don't quote me on that.) So since the same term, abomination, is used, that means that a homosexual act is on par with eating a nice shrimp scampi.

Leviticus is basically the Hebrews distinguishing themselves culturally from their surrounding groups. Everything they were supposed to do was clean, and everything everyone else was doing was considered unclean. It is not so much about superiority (the Hebrews were never a dominant power in the ancient world) it is about distinguishing, "this is what we do, and that's what those people do."

shrimp scampi?!?!those sinful barbarians!

So if you feel something is right in your heart, that makes it moral? You are saying that there is therefore no universal morality, or even a society-wide morality, and that what is moral for one person is immoral for another in the same situation because of their beliefs? To take an extreme but pertinent example, Hitler had no doubts that what he was doing was the right thing. Was he a moral person?

Also, if you are judging your own moral values, you are doing the same as those who don't believe in God, so what was the point of Jesus?
Surely a Christian believes that Jesus was sent to earth to teach us something? In that case you should surely listen to what he says, and you can't pick and choose because then you're simply inventing your own code again.
And if you're going to listen to Jesus and the NT, why not listen to the OT? Is it all redundant? If so, why read it?

Hmmm... I think if that was entirely the case then they wouldn't be on about executing people so much. leviticus is a moral code imo.

it is the commission for Hebrew society like the code of Manu was the commission for Indian society and the code of Hammurabi was the commission for Babylonian society.

The thing about this is I have people arguing leviticus to me when I'm doing pro-gayrights stuff.

I put no stock in the bible as authority. I see it as no bette rthen a fictional story. A bit like lord of the rings, but with less sword and sorcery.

Why should I accept leviticus a sjustification for anyhitng. A lot of christians use the bible to justify everything. Unfortunately they do it to me and I don't beleive in the bible so their authority is meaningless

Neon

I was just thinking...it could, with good will, be interpreted in the way that you shouldn't have sex with the same gender in the same way as you do with the opposite sex...

I'm not all too familiar with Leviticus...but it sounds roman, and I know the ancient greeks, as well as the more decadent romans, saw homosexual sex as purer, and more accepted, than heterosexual sex. Intercourse with women was considered dirty, and for procreation only...

So I don't know how well an anti-homosexual argument that scripture is...

Remember that this is the Bible we're talking about, Clear. Many of the early books have Latin names, because the Christian Bible spent quite a bit of time being written in Latin through history.

Leviticus refers to the Levites, the descendents of the tribe of Levi, who were assistants to the priests. They were the keepers of the laws that the Jews followed, the ones that defined them as a people and set them apart from the pagans (not our modern day ones, but the polytheistic peoples of their area). It had nothing to do with Roman culture, since at the time Rome had yet to form into a world power.

The old testament of the bible, especially Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Leviticus, deals alot of time explaining the way that the hebrews lived. So in essence, unless your jewish, you can't really take these books into context too far.

The guidelines of a Christian lifestyle are explained in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus explains all the Christian regulations when he gives the people "The Beatitudes" Kinda like a modern ten commandments.

So what does this mean in context to your statement arty? The book Leviticus was written long before Jesus Christ was ever born, thus you must assume that this verse is not pertaining to Christianity. Leviticus was a hebrew book, in the original hebrew bible, Hebrew are jews, not christians, and homosexuality is a sin, yours sins are not measured by how great or small they are, they are all just sins, sins that are equal.

I just wish everyone could use the same names on those people...I know there is no Leviticius in the norwegian bible...I'm just not sure what that section might have been called in our version...

Well, it's most likely laid out in the same order. Does the Norwegian Bible have the Old/New Testament divisions? If so, whatever the third book of the OT is, should be the book of Leviticus.