Was David the LGBT Rep in the Bible?

I read this...I'm still not convinced. I think that there was definitely homosexuality going on during this period, but some of the references in bible have to be evaluated taking into consideration all historical, cultural, and traditional/ceremonial nuances of the time. If more research was done as to what was culturally acceptable at the time, we may see that some of what was mentioned in Samuel could have been deemed harmless...not sure tho.

 

Also think about the region. Even to this day heterosexual men in the Middle East are more intimate than they are here, then sometimes can be seen kissing on the cheek and holding hands in public. I'm sure the same could have been said in tribal Africa... Europeans may have been the cause of repressive male intimacy.

 

I have honestly never seen scriptures before that gave me the inclination to think homosexuality was going on in the bible. At the same time I can't imagine too much of it making it into the bible still because most modern versions were translated by those of the European persuasion if I am not mistaken.

 

We do need to remember that from a historical perspective, the bible is a tiny snippet of cultural and socio-sexual activity that occured duirng that particular time. Additional, there are definite cultural and religious norms and biases woven into the very fabric of the text. This is why the ability to exegete or learn from one who can is critical when putting biblical teachings in context of how we live today.

 

I've seen references to this thought before. I think it's possible. The Bible doesn't really outwardly condemn homosexual behaviors outside of certain contexts, which have more to do with religious taboos (abominations) that keep the Israelites pure in the Old Testament, and warnings to keep the new Christian church from being absorbed and distracted by pagan religious practices in the New testament. It's very clear to me that David and Jonathan were in love and that the issue wasn't that they were in love, but that Jonathan wasn't going to have kids to keep the lineage going.

 

We discussed this verse in my Adult Men's Sunday School class. I must admit a lot of feathers were ruffled by this. I strongly advocated that the verse was self explanatory, but the men kept trying to re-interpret it to be something else. I would not give in. The possibility of David being bi-sexual was too much for them to ponder.

 

So all those scriptures in the Bible condemning it don't convince you?

 

This is actually a very interesting topic. When I went through my sexual identity crisis and confessed to my mom that my best friend was more than my best friend, she brought up the story of Jonathan and David. It was her way of affirming the fact that two men could love each other deeply, but of course, there is a limit to that love. She mentioned Ruth and Naomi as well. (I was actually kinda surprised at her approach, and somewhat impressed. ANother story.)

But isn't that an interesting concept and exercise in contradiction? According to many believers, God can allow men to love each other so deeply and have such a strong emotional connection between them, but then casts them to hell for acting on it.

 

Let's think about this: Is it the scriptures in Bible that are condemning same gender loving individuals or is it the clergy in some churches and their interpretation?
If so, then the Bible is condemning pretty much EVERYBODY. I believe the latter

 

That's what we have to remember about the Bible and many of us forget...it's an interpretation. A group of men got together in a political process to determine what would and would not be included in the Bible and how it would be translated. Interestingly and ironically, King James, whose version of the Bible most of us use, was known to be a closet homosexual...but that's another discussion. All this being said, Biblical and clerigal (made up a word) condemnation can only be taken with a grain of salt, in some cases...homosexuality being one case in point, in my opinion. Being homosexual goes against social mores than it does spiritual.

 

And despite all the whooping and hollering about what was said in Leviticus and what Paul said about homosexuality in Romans, Jesus never said a word about it in any of the Gospels. He is suppose to be the Redeemer, the Messiah and yet he never said one recorded homophobic thing. Saved and sanctified Christians often fail to acknowledge this. Go figure...

 

The bible isn't a reliable source for anything. You gotta take into account that it's been translated many times, edited, re-edited, redacted, edited some more translated again. Supposedly there was even more juicy parts that got cut out of modern bibles for obvious reasons. There are also different versions of the bible too. There's the Catholic bible, the KJV Bible, Orthodox bible, etc. So which version is the "real truth?" Like others have said the ancient middle-east or even many parts of the modern middle-east women were inaccessible unless you owned one or more of them. So the culture is very homosocial since women were kept strictly segregated. But really take anything you read in the bible with a grain of salt. This is a book that has dragons, unicorns, talking snakes, talking donkeys, burning bushes that talk, witches, magic, a guy who got swallowed by whale and lived, and guy who was born from a virgin. This is mythology dressed up a truth.