You did it!

You made the choice to invest in a future version of YOU who is not longer held back by bad interpretations of the clobber passages.

I'm so freakin' proud of you.

In Genesis 19 we read about "God destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah" because their wickedness had reached God's justice-hearing ears.

However, this story has long been (mis)used to show God's negative judgment toward homosexuality.

That's just a bad reading of this story.

We begin our study by stepping way back and exploring the broader context of the ancient world, specifically their hyper-focus on the value of hospitality.

In this session we'll explore the larger context of Genesis, including why the ancient Israelites might've included and preserved the story of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction.

Alright, it's finally time to explore the story!

Let's work our way through the series of events, paying attention as we go to what the story-teller might be trying to tell us.

After having gone through the story (hopefully with fresh eyes) let's now extract five key observations that will help us unlock, and UnClobber, this ancient story.

Even though revisiting the story with fresh eyes is often helpful enough to understand what is (and is not) going on in Genesis 19, to further aid us in UnClobbering this passage we can look to other witnesses throughout the Bible to better understand the destruction of these ancient cities.

After all is said done, what (if anything) does Genesis 19 have to say to those who identify as LGBTQ?

What does it have to say about homosexuality? 
What does it have to say to people of the same sex in a loving, consensual relationship?

I hope at this point you know the answers.

I vividly recall the first time I realized that people who call themselves "Christian" would stand in picket lines holding signs that say things like, "God hates f*g*."

What made it worse, though, was when I discovered where such language came from, and what it was that gave these folks their sense of rightness.

The Bible.

They thought this is what the Bible says.

Well, it doesn't.

At. All.

The term "abomination," in English, means all sorts of things that the original Hebrew word found in the Leviticus clobber passages did not mean.

So we begin our exploration of these passages by diving deep into this word.

What it meant, how it was used, and why translating it as "abomination" was and is a really bad move.

In this session we'll explore the larger context of Leviticus, including what was going on in the life of Israel and why this book of laws and rituals was written and preserved.

Time for us to zoom in a bit to the chapters and verses in Leviticus that contain the clobber passages.

In this session we'll get our arms around what sorts of prohibitions (and why) the clobber passages are lumped together with.

Because these verses do not exist in a vacuum. They have a context that we must see and understand.

If we just read these verses in the English, perhaps we can be forgiven for assuming they are prohibitions against any and all same-sex sex acts.

But once you start peeling back the layers of the original language, well, that's a whole 'nother story, my friend.

In this session we'll explore four big takeaways from what's happening in the original language, and how that gets mucked up and/or lost in our English translations.

After all is said and done we are finally ready to ask: What, if anything, do these clobber passages have to say to those who identity as LGBTQ?

What does it have to say about homosexuality? 

What does it have to say to people of the same sex in a loving, consensual relationship?

I hope at this point you know the answers.

I know, I know... many of us believe (and were taught) that the book of Romans was, like, Paul's BOOK OF THEOLOGY. Explicitly articulating everything need you to know about Christian Doctrine!

But, um, no. Not so muchh

Paul was a real, historical person.

Rome was a real, historical city (well, still is, actually).

The just-recently-got-started Christian church in Rome, during the 40's and 50's AD, was a real thing.

Paul founded that church, then wrote them a letter.

We call that letter "Romans."

Let's dig in...

Now that we understand a bit about why Paul wrote this letter, and what was happening in the church community in Rome, let's dive in to how Paul kicked things off.

The clobber passage in Romans 1:26-27 are not just random words, they are part of a larger thing Paul was doing.

It's time we understand what that thing was.

In the last session we gained insight into what Paul was up to (and why, again? To help reconcile the fracturing communities within the church in Rome!).

In this session we'll see how Paul flipped the script on the deeply held Jewish prejudices against Gentiles.

By now we've seen how the clobber passage in Romans is nestled within a larger discourse Paul used (borrowed?) in order to move the fractured community toward wholeness.

In this session we'll examine how Paul himself didn't really buy in to or agree withmuch of the larger discourses in chapter 1.

On one hand, we could almost stop after session four and conclude: whelp, this passage has been UnClobbered!

However, I understand that some of the words/ideas/phrases in this clobber passage has done immense harm.

So we can also explore these words in more detail and create even more space between these verses and any idea that God/the Bible is anti-LGBTQ.

After all is said done, what (if anything) does Romans 1:26-27 have to say to those who identify as LGBTQ?

What does it have to say about homosexuality? 
What does it have to say to people of the same sex in a loving, consensual relationship?

I hope at this point you know the answers.

Have you--or someone you know--ever done a Google search: "Is homosexuality a sin?"

If so, odds are you've wound up at 1 Corinthians 6:9. The place where people swear the bible is CLEAR.

Well, here's the thing... it's not.

Clear.

But even more so, once you dig just a bit under the English surface, what we find is that perhaps Paul was not saying what we assume he said.

Let's dive in!

First things first, friends:

What was happening in Corinth when Paul wrote his letter?

Why did he write it? What was he trying to do?

Same questions with Timothy?

If we have any hopes at understanding verses like the clobber passages, we have to situate them in their context.

One of the first problems we run in to with this clobber passage is how differently various English translators have handled the two Greek words in question.

The word "homosexuality" has a very specific meaning in our world today.

And, such a definition and understanding was not how they thought about it 2000 years ago. 

In this session, we'll do a high-level overview of what people would've thought when they considered "same-sex sex acts."

The heart of these clobber passages are in two Greek words that have caused all sorts of trouble, trauma, and tragic theology.

Let's unpack these words and discover how to properly understand and apply them, yes?

So then, if Paul didn't say, "men who practice homosexuality won't inherit the Kingdom" then what was he talking about?

Y'all, we can actually know this.

We don't have to guess.

Nor do we have to settle for bad translations

After all is said done, what (if anything) do either 1 Corinthians or 1 Timothy have to say to those who identify as LGBTQ?

What does it have to say about homosexuality? 
What does it have to say to people of the same sex in a loving, consensual relationship?

I hope at this point you know the answers.

Here’s a little bonus video for y’all.

I remember being so intrigued when I first started studying about eunuchs in ancient Rome while working on the UnClobber manuscript.

The implications here are so fascinating.

I hope you enjoy!