Professor: Group’s resolution misrepresents Biblical witness
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 31, 2005
Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, a Biblical scholar who holds the traditional view that homosexual behavior is sinful, has registered his opposition to a proposed resolution by the Society of Biblical Literature that says “the issues of gay marriage, abortion, and stem cell research … are not major concerns in the Bible and in fact are not even directly addressed in the Bible.”
In a response posted on his Web site, Gagnon, a member of the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, said the society’s decision to poll its members about the resolution is an “attempt borne of both ignorance and arrogance. It is, in a word, outrageous.”
The resolution – which Gagnon said reflected displeasure with the “vote in the presidential election” – was circulated at the society’s annual meeting in San Antonio. The council’s executive council decided “it would be beneficial to survey all members.”
Gagnon is the author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, a major text analyzing Biblical references to homosexual behavior and sex outside of marriage.
In his response to the society’s e-mail survey, Gagnon said, “The resolution that you have produced certainly does not represent my views and, at a number of points, flatly misrepresents the biblical witness. To suggest that the Bible shows no great concern for an other-sex prerequisite in marriage demonstrates a profound ignorance of the biblical witness especially as regards literary and historical context matters.”
He conceded that the Bible does not mention stem cell research, noting that the Biblical writers had no way of knowing about it. But he expressed strong disagreement with the society’s executive council conclusions about homosexual behavior and same-gender marriages.
“What this means is that if you oppose gay marriage you are, according to the Executive Council of the Society of Biblical Literature, a homophobe and probably a misogynist too,” he said, adding:
- “You cannot possibly be concerned about the unhealthy dynamics of being sexually aroused by, and attempting to merge with, what one already is and shares as a sexual being, male for male, female for female. Nor can you have any legitimate concerns for the effects on marriage and young people that a full-court press for endorsement of homosexual behavior might bring. Nor do you have a clue about what the biblical text says. If you oppose abortion (apparently, at any time and for any reason) you are a misogynist who is simply out to control a woman’s reproductive rights. You have no concern for the protection of helpless, unborn human life. And if you oppose stem cell research you are a restrainer of free expression and scientific research who couldn’t possibly have any valid moral questions about limited benefits from stem cell research versus promoting a culture of death. Never mind that in promoting such a resolution the Executive Council is itself seeking to restrain freedom of expression and thought in its own circles through name calling of those with whom they disagree.”
The Society of Biblical Literature is a 6,000-member international organization. Its purpose is to provide a “forum to test ideas and advance the understanding of the Bible’s role in the public arena.”
Instead of marriage and homosexuality, the resolution states that “the moral issues dominating the biblical texts focus … on concerns such as the well-being of individuals, the integrity of community, care for the powerless and the vulnerable, economic justice, the establishment of peace, and the stewardship of the environment.”