| Professor Robert Gagnon set out to write an article explaining the "clear sense" meaning of the biblical text regarding homosexual intercourse, and ended up with a full-length book. The intended article developed into the substantial The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics as Gagnon confronted an increasing number of arguments from scholars that obscured the meaning he was trying to explain; before he could attend to why the biblical text is opposed to same-sex intercourse, he first had to clear away the arguments that decry that opposition. The Bible's disapproval of same-sex intercourse, Gagnon says, is based in the guidelines laid out for human sexuality in Genesis. Both Paul and Jesus refer to the First Book of Moses when they discuss matters pertaining to sexual purity and impurity because it offers normative and prescriptive wisdom for human sexual relationships. Gagnon states that universal reasons for objecting to homosexual intercourse, and all improper sexual behavior, depend on those structural prerequisites for such relationships. |
The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon Press, 2003) |
