Homosexuality: In Orthodoxy

Homosexuality: Although there is much more open debate about homosexuality in the twentieth century than in earlier times, there is a clear reference to it in ancient writings. The often used synonym, sodomy, stems from the seemingly homosexual activity among the people of Sodom (Genesis 19) and the severity of the restrictions laid down in the Code of Holiness, without imposing the death penalty, suggested that the need for discipline should be high. , (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13). The Old Testament understood normal sexual intercourse, not only as a way of expressing a love relationship, but also as a divinely appointed way of creating new life.

In the New Testament, Saint Paul condemns male prostitutes and homosexuals (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11). In the first chapter of his letter to the Romans (Romans 1: 24-32), he also regards it as unnatural. Homosexuals are included elsewhere among immoral people who, as St. Paul says, deserve judgment from God (I Timothy 1:10). There is no example throughout the New Testament of approval, acceptance, or even tolerance of homosexuality.

Throughout Christian history, this discontent has continued. In the patriarchal era freedom from homosexuality was seen as a sign of the moral superiority of the Christian to the ugly lifestyle of the transformers. Paternal thought, like written references, is directed to the practice of homosexuality, not to desire itself. The Orthodox Church does not condemn the person who keeps this tendency under control and ministers to homosexuals who wish to find liberation from this slope