Thread by @RutiRegan

Hello #FaithfullyLGBT. It’s #PrideMonth and bigots are out in droves throwing Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 at us.

That means it’s time for a thread about why they’re wrong, and how to read Leviticus from a place of love.

First of all, the Old Testament God is not the problem. God has never hated us.

Speaking as a rabbi, what Christians call the Old Testament is what I call the Bible.

I’m unequivocally LGBTQ-afffirming. The Hebrew Bible is not the problem.

Affirming Christians: We need each other.

Please don’t try to fight anti-LGBTQ bigotry with antisemitism.

I read the Bible in general and the Five Books of Moses in particular as telling the story of God learning to be God, and people and God learning to be in relationship to one another.

The idea that God is infallible and knew everything from the beginning is flat-out not supported by anything in the Five Books of Moses.

The Bible is a record of sacred learning. That learning is still happening today.

We need to bring our whole selves to sacred learning. Everything we know is Torah. If we treat anything as too secular to be relevant in a faith context, we’re doing it wrong.

Getting back to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 specifically: They’re obscure verses. I don’t think that anyone knows for sure what they mean — but they cannot possibly be referring to gay relationships or gay people.

The Biblical Hebrew word תועבה is more-or-less untranslatable. ‘Abomination’ doesn’t capture it. It has a ritual connotation that only makes sense when you have a cultic sacrificial system that has to be operated properly to prevent disaster.

The word תועבה is *not* the word normally used to describe sexual prohibitions. It *is* a word commonly used to describe things that should not be offered as sacrifices.

That’s what I think we’re probably talking about here.

Eg: Ex 8:26 KJV
“And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?”

This is about sheep.

My guess is that there was some sort of sexualized idolatrous ritual that involved having one of the men involved play the role of a woman.

We’re not allowed to do that ritual or serve that god. And, in fact, no one does.

The prohibitions were so successful that we no longer even know quite what they were.

To the point that they do not show up in Biblical narrative.

(Sodom isn’t an instance of this prohibition and does not use this language. That was about inhospitality.)

To the extent that this prohibition is still relevant, we could read it as a prohibition against misgendering people, especially in sexually degrading terms like “who’s the man and who’s the woman?”

Gay men aren’t women. Bi men aren’t women. Women are women.

Love is good.

There’s another prohibition in Leviticus that we should be thinking about in #FaithfullyLGBT advocacy: 19:16 “Do not spread slander among your people; do not stand idly by the blood of your fellow; I am YHVH.”

Do not spread slander about LGBTQ people by comparing loving relationships to long-defunct obscure ancient idolatrous rites.

Do not stand idly by the blood of your fellow by teaching LGBTQ people to hate themselves and their capacity for love.

And remember that if you slander LGBTQ people, incite hatred, and destroy lives, this verse says that you will have God to answer to.

/thread