Homosexuality and Christianity  

I found this inspiring article today during my hour of learning
And I thought it would be good to share with all my Christian and non Christian Friends here and else where

I would welcome your thoughts at the end please


Jonathon and David
A Biblical Account of a Same Gender Marriage
A Sermon by Pastor John © June 1998 updated 8-5-2006











Welcome to Lavender Road Metropolitan Community Church!

Through scriptures, synagogues, churches, books and movies the fame of King David has been widely proclaimed. And rightly so! David was a passionate and powerful person whose zeal for life was only surpassed by his devotion to God and his unmistakable humanity. In David we see how a fallen human being with obvious imperfections can become one of God's most useful and respected servants. If David can do it, so can we!

Because of his love for God and country, David boldly slew the giant Philistine Goliath and performed many other Herculean acts. He spared the life of King Saul, despite Saul's intent to destroy him. He valiantly led the armies of Israel against all her enemies.

David was also the most famous ancestor of Jesus the Christ. Our Savior isn't called the Child of Abraham or the Child of Moses, but is universally celebrated as the Son or Child of David:

"And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased" (Matt. 21:15).

More than any other Biblical character, David fully typifies the extremes of human nature and divine potential. II Sam. 11:1-15 tells us that in order to marry Uriah the Hittite's wife Bathsheba, David had Uriah sent to the front lines to die! Such unscrupulous actions stand in sharp contrast to his beautiful Psalms by which one's soul is lifted into the ecstasies of pure love of God. Through his varied and colorful experiences Jews, Christians and Muslims all find in David a macho image of what a man should be. He was, in modern parlance, a man's man, a true macho man.

But, how about us? Is there anything in this powerful servant of God's varied experiences that would recommend him to lesbian and gay Christians as an example? What would you say if I told you that David was, at the very least, bisexual and that the love of his life was another man? What if the man traditional Judeo/Christian/Islamic religion promotes as the epitome of godliness, the standard to be emulated by all godly people, was among the five to fifteen percent of any given population whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual? Absurd? Blasphemous? Well, lets see.

If you would like to follow along in your Bibles, please turn to the Book of I Samuel.

After killing Goliath, the Gath Philistine, David went to King Saul for an honorific ceremony. Following that meeting, it appears, David met Saul's gay son Jonathan. It was, if we take the Scripture literally, love at first sight. I Samuel 18:1, in the Authorized King James Version, tells us that: "... the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him [David] as his own soul."

Jonathan loved (Hebrew: 'ahab which includes both family and sexual love) David at first sight. Their souls were knit together (Hebrew:Qashar which is to tie, physically or mentally in love, league). Their feelings were very strong, love at first sight, however at this point their love could be interpreted as platonic, although platonic love is almost never refered to as love at first sight.

At Saul's insistence, David moved into the royal household and things quickly heated up between Jonathan and David. I Samuel 18:3,4, in the Byington Translation, says that they: "pledged themselves to each other, in the love that he had for him ..." and "Jonathan stripped off the robe he had on and gave it to David..." This ritualistically represented the establishment of a love covenant relationship between the two men: What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine. From this point on there is no question about their relationship being platonic. This sharing of garments, covering the other, shows it was more than that in context of their culture.

Shortly after Jonathan and David consummated their love, Jonathan's father Saul arranged for David to marry his daughter (Jonathan's sister) Merab. Could it be that Saul knew about their love and was trying to intervene by offering David his daughter instead? The Jewish people, at this time, were still as homophobic as anyone else (though it was due to their desire for offspring, not over any alleged moral concerns). The only condition Saul set for the marriage was that David be "valiant" for him (I Samuel 18:17).

"And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him."

Why did Saul give his daughter to David in marriage? This was before the real problems we know about arose between the two men. Marrying the king's daughter elevated a person and was considered an honor, however in this case, Merab was given to David to bribe him into going off to battle the Philistines believing that in such a battle David would be killed. Why would Saul, at this point, want David killed? We only know of one reason from the text, his relationship with Jonathan. AND why would Saul first marry David to Merab? As king, Saul could have ordered David to join the war without giving up his daughter to David. There's only one reason, to explain the closeness between Jonathan and David. "Sure they were close, David was his brother-in-law!" There's no other logical explanation for this turn of events.

The idea of being "valiant" here in the Hebrew is two-fold. First, to be valiant David was to be bën, (a father to children); and secondly, he must be chayil (a good fighter). Now, one might expect the condition of loyalty to the king as a good soldier, but why would Saul also make David promise to father children? The obvious contextual answer, in light of the preceding verses, is that this was Saul's way of saying: "Hey look, your a good fighter, the people love and respect you, but this thing with my son has got to stop. You just need a good woman" (which is still a common misconception by those who view homosexuality as anything other than a natural orientation).

Granted, these verses are insufficient by themselves to establish conclusively that Jonathan and David were lovers, although I think its pretty clear already. A more orthodox assessment of the situation might be that Jonathan accepted David as a compatriot and that the act of exchanging clothing with him would indicate Jonathan's bestowal of his royalty on David as a political commitment. After all, these texts do not specifically state that they were lovers. Among the problems with this view is that as the prince Jonathan had no such authority to confer the equvilent of knighthood on another, such would have been treason.

However this is only the beginning.

At 19:2 the plot thickens. Due to reasons not revealed in the text, Saul wanted David killed. While the text, as it has come down to us, does not specifically say so, it is quite feasible that David and Jonathan's continuing relationship may have been largely responsible for Saul's determination to do away with David. Saul obviously intended for Jonathan to succeed him to the throne and for this Jonathan needed to "valliant" himself. In such a homophobic culture, an openly gay king would have been unheard of. Jonathan's homosexuality, in Saul's mind, would have constituted a threat to Saul's continuing lineage. Nothing in the text contradicts this idea and it would explain the passion with which Saul sought David's death. Looked at objectively, this is by far the most likely cause of Saul's determination to have David killed and his giving his own daughter to him.

When Jonathan learned of Saul's plans to kill David, he quickly warned him, as a lover would. The reason for this warning is quite interesting. The Authorized King James Version (the textus receptus), the Masoretic Text (the Hebrew Bible), and The Revised Standard Version all agree that Jonathan quote, "delighted much in David." The Byington translation says that "Jonathan liked David very much," The Jerusalem Bible says "Jonathan held David in great affection," while the NIV paraphrase says "but Jonathan was very fond of David," and so sought to divert Saul's wrath.

Was Jonathan's fondness for David simply platonic? The Hebrew text says literally that Jonathan desired (châphèts) David. This is the same word used in verses such as Genesis 34:19 where Shechem sexually desired Dinah.

At I Samuel 20:24-30 the homosexual aspect of their relationship becomes undeniable:

24 So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.
25 And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side, and David's place was empty.
26 Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
27 And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David's place was empty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?
28 And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
29 And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let