{"id":15043,"date":"2023-05-15T11:27:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T18:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=15043"},"modified":"2025-01-21T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T23:41:07","slug":"homosexuality-is-sinful-and-contrary-to-nature-evidence-of-mans-rebellion-against-god-and-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2023\/05\/homosexuality-is-sinful-and-contrary-to-nature-evidence-of-mans-rebellion-against-god-and-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Homosexuality is Sinful and Contrary to Nature, Evidence of Man’s Rebellion Against God and Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homosexuality by Fr. Thomas Hopko –
\nThe most direct reference to homosexuality in the New Testament, as we have seen, is in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, where erotic sexual actions between people of the same sex are used as a striking example of the distortion of human being and life resulting from man’s rebellion<\/strong> against God and nature\u2015that is, against the way God made things.<\/p>\n

An interpretation of this passage that claims the apostle was right in forbidding acts “contrary to nature,” but was ignorant of the fact that many people are “by nature” homosexual and therefore should act according to their God-given homosexuality, is unacceptable<\/strong> to the Orthodox Christian faith.<\/p>\n

No one in Orthodox Christian tradition has ever interpreted this text in this way, nor can anyone do so, according to Orthodoxy, when they read Bible as a whole. On the contrary, the biblical reaching is rather this: The fact that many people have sexual feelings and desires for persons of their own sex is among the most powerful proofs that human being and life have been distorted by sin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to Orthodox Christian interpretation, the Bible also teaches that as time goes by, things will become more confused and difficult for humanity. In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus even asks whether the Son of man will find faith on earth at His coming (Luke 18:8).<\/p>\n

In this view, as human nature and society become more darkened<\/b> and disintegrated<\/b>, the number of people with same-sex attractions and passions, and indeed, with confused and deformed desires of all kinds, will dramatically increase and multiply.<\/p>\n

When contemplating this traditional Christian conviction, we cannot help but recall the fourth-century saying of St. Anthony the Great, who predicted, “A time is coming when [people] will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack [them] saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.'”<\/p>\n

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\nExcerpts from “Chapter 12 – Same-Sex Attraction and Scripture” (page 57) in the Christian Faith and Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections<\/em><\/a> book written by Fr. Thomas Hopko. (Minor organizational edits and bolding of key words done by blog editors to enhance readability.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fr. Thomas Hopko – The most direct reference to homosexuality in the New Testament, as we have seen, is in St. Paul’s letter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,194,15,5,130,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-fr-hopko","category-moral-issues","category-orthodox-christianity","category-orthodox-church","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}