Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment, by Willard Swartley

Christian attitudes toward homosexuality – the uses of prooftexting
[3-9-06]

Willard Swartley recently addressed the question of Christian attitudes toward homosexuality in Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment (Herald Press, 2003).

You may remember Swartley as author of the classic work Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Studies in Biblical Interpretation (Herald Press, 1983), which insightfully explored the perennial question of how Christians decide what the Bible teaches on four key issues where "prooftexting" yields conflicting answers or even answers that are ethically unacceptable in a later historical context (e.g., injunctions to slaves to obey their masters). His documentation of the ways that Christian abolitionists, feminists, and pacifists moved beyond a prooftexting method (which often worked more easily to support slavery and the silencing and subordination of women) to identify their causes with the overall scriptural trajectory of "God’s redemptive action, grace, and kingdom justice" (2003, 17) has proved to be a widely influential model for understanding how Christian understandings of Scripture change and develop over time.

Many admirers of Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women will be disappointed by Swartley’s new book, which argues that homosexuality is not analogous to the other four issues on the grounds that the seven famous biblical passages dealing with homosexual behavior are unambiguously negative and that "homosexual practice is not related to grace-energized behavior in even a single text" (18) and is inconsistent with the Bible’s teachings on human sexuality (30). Rather than viewing the contemporary move toward equality for GLBT persons in church and society as a response to the biblical call for justice, Swartley views it as a product of what he considers an overly sexualized, personal-happiness-oriented, individualistic, materialistic, postmodern Western cultural worldview (Chapter Five, "Analysis of Contemporary Western Culture").

The strongest parts of Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment are Chapters Two through Four ("Old Testament and Early Judaism," "Jesus and the Gospels," and "Understanding Paul on Homosexual Practice"), which provide a solid survey of contemporary biblical scholarship on the key texts. Swartley helpfully outlines and summarizes the range of critical views, acknowledging that the texts do not address the concept of sexual orientation but also expressing doubts that the texts are restricted to exploitative sexual practices only. Swartley holds that the frequently made assertion that Jesus was silent on the topic is not upheld by a careful reading of Jesus’ commitment to BOTH "compassion and holiness" (44)—with an assumption that homosexual behavior cannot be holy. Although Swartley’s preference is clearly for conservative interpreters (especially Hays and Gagnon), he presents alternative exegetical views in an even-handed manner.

The most disturbing limitations of Swartley’s perspective are found in his support of the possibility and desirability of change in sexual orientation and behavior, which he summarizes in such statements as the following: "We need to pay more attention to both the findings of scientific literature and the church’s healing ministries that indicate change from homosexuality to heterosexuality is possible, especially when the person desires the change" (86). Readers need to be aware that Swartley is rejecting the conclusions of the overwhelming majority of contemporary scientific and mental health professionals, although he does concede that change may not be possible for some persons until "both homo- and hetero- are eclipsed by the heavenly body" (88).

Swartley’s book provides a useful reminder that not all who are inspired by Scripture to live out a countercultural commitment on certain issues (such as pacifism, which is so central to the self-understanding of Swartley’s Anabaptist tradition) will necessarily see other controversial contemporary issues as countercultural calls to justice. Preachers and teachers who cite the history of the slavery and women issues to support changed thinking about GLBT persons in church and society need to be aware of—and able to engage in discussion of—the counterarguments being made against the validity of such analogies in biblical interpretation.

Nancy Weatherwax is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Missouri—Columbia.