Leviticus also condemns eating pork, rabbit, or shellfish, cutting hair at the sides of one’s head, and having sex during a woman’s menstrual period - none of which Christians continue to observe.ħ.
Leviticus condemns male same-sex intercourse, but the entire Old Testament law code has never applied to Christians in light of Christ’s death. The prohibitions in Leviticus don’t apply to Christians.
The Bible explicitly condemns Sodom for its arrogance, inhospitality and apathy toward the poor - not for same-sex behavior.Ħ. It’s commonly assumed that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah out of his wrath against same-sex relations, but the only form of same-sex behavior described in the story is an attempted gang rape - nothing like a loving, committed relationship. Sodom and Gomorrah involved an attempted gang rape, not a loving relationship. Those harmful consequences should make Christians open to reconsidering the church’s traditional teaching.ĥ. The church’s rejection of same-sex relationships has caused tremendous, needless suffering to the LGBT community-bad fruit. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that good trees bear good fruit, while bad trees bear bad fruit. Condemning same-sex relationships is harmful to the LGBT community. Requiring that all gay people remain celibate is at odds with the Bible’s teachings on celibacy, which are grounded Scripture’s core affirmation that God’s physical creation is good.Ĥ. The Bible honors celibacy as a good way of living - Jesus was celibate, after all - but it also makes clear that celibacy must be a voluntary choice. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.3. The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the conversation. “The current approach was discriminatory and wrong,” Trudeau said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday about the change to Canada’s blood donation restrictions, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “it’s been a long time coming.” Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time authorized a condom for anal sex in February. The news follows other recent milestones related to the LGBTQ community, including when France announced it was lifting similar blood donation restrictions beginning in March and when the U.S. This week: Senate works to confirm Biden picks ahead of break Schumer vows votes on background checks, voting rights after break The questions are intended to identify potential blood donors at higher risk of transfusion-transmissible diseases such as HIV. Those who say they have will be required to wait three months before donating. Under the new criteria, all donors will be asked if they have had sex with new or multiple partners in the past three months, and if so, if they’ve had anal sex with any of those partners. “While this eligibility change represents a significant step on our continual journey to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive national transfusion and transplantation system, we still have considerable work to do to build trust and repair relationships with LGBTQIA+ communities,” Sher said in a statement. Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, hailed the lifting of the ban as the “result of over a decade of work to make participation in Canada’s Lifeline as inclusive as possible.” The sexually active ban was then dropped to one year in 2016 and finally three months in 2019. In 2013, a lifetime donor ban on sexually active gay and bisexual men was reduced to a five-year restriction. The change will go into effect by the end of September.Ĭanadian Blood Services, which operates in all provinces except Quebec, had requested the change to Health Canada criteria following several other revisions of the ban in recent years. Health Canada will no longer ask men if they have had sex with another man within three months of donating blood, and will instead screen donors of all genders and sexual orientations for high-risk sexual behavior equally, according to a release. Canadian health authorities on Thursday announced that this fall they will lift a ban on blood donations from men who have sex with other men, making eligibility criteria the same for them as for every other donor.