Sexual Perversions​—Past and Present

As Bible students, we know what happened in ancient Sodom​—how the sex-mad men and young boys of the city demanded to have relations with those whom they viewed merely as Lot’s male house guests. (Genesis 19:4-11) This event took place only about 450 years after the Flood. In those early times it also became common for humans to have sexual relations with animals. Thus, some 400 years later, in four different places, God’s Law to the nation of Israel condemned this practice, with death being the penalty for violators. (Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 18:23; 20:15, 16; Deuteronomy 27:21) In addition, God’s Law to Israel made sexual relations with persons of one’s own sex a capital offense​—violators being sentenced to death.​—Leviticus 18:22; 20:13.

Nevertheless, in the centuries that followed, the peoples living round about the Israelites were so deeply involved in homosexual practices that the Israelites themselves time and again became involved in homosexuality. (1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46) On one occasion a Levite was a houseguest in the Benjamite city of Gibeah, and the men of the city surrounded the house shouting: “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may have intercourse with him.” (Judges 19:22) Practically the whole tribe of Benjamin was wiped out at Jehovah’s direction because of this matter.

‘But why bring up such unpleasant Bible history,’ some may be thinking. Because today we live in a society that has sunk to greater depths of immorality, and God’s present-day people are also endangered. Consider briefly the extent of homosexuality and its influence:

“Roughly 30% of [San Francisco’s] population is homosexual,” states the Medical Tribune of September 23, 1981.

“The issue of the ’80s is the growing impact of gay culture on heterosexual life and​—more importantly—​heterosexual values. . . . The general acceptance of gay culture is a signal that our fundamental beliefs have been changing,” reports Maclean’s magazine of February 18, 1980.

“The large gay concentration in the entertainment and media fields puts gays in a position to mould values and opinions,” notes a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia.

People’s attitudes are definitely being molded to accept homosexuality as being normal, even proper. According to The Toronto Star of August 24, 1980, “Young members of the United Church . . . welcome the idea of homosexual ministers.” The London Daily Mail of June 5, 1980, says: “Homosexuality should not be a bar to holding office in the Methodist Church, a revised report recommends.” And when a woman wrote to say that she was shocked to learn that her 23-year-old grandson was gay, a newspaper columnist answered: “God didn’t write the Bible. Homosexuality is as old as mankind . . . What you must do now is learn to accept him the way he is. He is still a fine young man.”

Bible View of Sexual Perversions

Due to worldly propaganda even some among God’s people have been influenced so as to view homosexuality and similar sexual perversions as ‘not so bad.’ However, God’s Law to Israel was that homosexuals should be put to death! And in the Christian Greek Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 says, according to the New International Version: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral . . . nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders . . . will inherit the kingdom of God.” And, according to this same Bible translation, Romans 1:26, 27 says: “Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men.” Ro 1 Verse 32 continues: “Those who do such things deserve death.”

Surprisingly, some who have become involved in immoral conduct, such as bestiality, did not feel that what they did was really so bad. Yet having sexual connections with an animal is wrong. It is grounds for being disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation. Similarly, some have expressed ignorance regarding what are homosexual practices. What, then, is homosexuality?

What Is Homosexuality?

To help get this clear, consider dictionary definitions of homosexuality:

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language: “Erotic activity with a member of one’s own sex.”

The American Heritage Dictionary: “1. Sexual desire for others of one’s own sex. 2. Sexual activity with another of the same sex.”

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: “Sexual desire or behavior directed toward a person or persons of one’s own sex.”

It is interesting that, according to dictionary definitions, homosexuality includes sexual DESIRE for others of one’s own sex. Yet the Bible makes a distinction between the practice of what is bad and sinful desires or tendencies. These desires may be present despite determined efforts to eradicate them from mind and body. Because of their earlier life environment, and perhaps other factors, we may have Christian brothers and sisters who from time to time have the urge for sexual relations with members of their own sex. But they fight that unnatural, Satan-inspired desire​—and they do not give in to it. So they are not practicing homosexuals. They get control of their thinking, knowing that wrong desire that is allowed to grow fertile is bound to express itself in wrong acts.​—James 1:14, 15; Colossians 3:5-10.

What is condemned by God in the Bible, and is a disfellowshipping offense, is the “erotic activity,” or ‘sexual behavior,’ directed toward another person of one’s own sex. This activity, or behavior, does not necessarily have to be sodomy in order for it to constitute homosexuality. Any activity involving the genitals of at least one of these persons, such as kissing, fondling, rubbing one’s sexual parts against another, or other such behavior designed to obtain sexual pleasure with another member of one’s own sex, is homosexuality. And while most people think of homosexuals as males, the term applies equally to females who carry on similar practices, though they are generally termed lesbians.

Avoiding Wrong Sexual Conduct

Persons who may have homosexual desires need to fight hard against them. At the same time, we should be careful that we do not become the victim of a person whose wrong desires may be getting the better of him. At times homosexual acts have been precipitated by things that in themselves are not wrong, such as the giving or accepting of back rubbing or of back washing in the shower. Or sometimes persons will playfully wrestle and become aroused sexually. There is a need for caution. Be aware that such activity can lead to, and on occasion has led to, homosexual acts, even among Christians.

Why is it that some become involved in sexual offenses​—in homosexuality, bestiality, Peeping Tomism, and so forth? It has been found that the minds of the offenders were on sex to a great extent. Sometimes they were avid readers of pornographic literature. Seemingly without exception, they were habitual masturbators.

Regardless of how such propaganda is altering “people’s perceptions of homosexuality,” it is just as abhorrent to the Creator of the human body as it ever was. God’s Law required that homosexuals in ancient Israel “be put to death without fail.” (Leviticus 20:13) And God’s law for Christians shows that his mind on the matter has not changed. The Bible says clearly that “homosexual perverts” are classed along with others who “will not possess God’s Kingdom.”​—1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, Today’s English Version.