Yes, I have no expertise, no knowledge of Koine Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic, so have to rely on the experts. I understand that the Greek word arsenokoitai only appears in the Bible twice, so is hard to accurately translate. Here's what one source says:
What does "arsenokoitai" really mean?
[FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica] Nobody knows for certain.
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"Arsenokoitai" is made up of two parts: "arsen" means "man"; "koitai" means "beds."
Although the word in English Bibles is interpreted as referring to homosexuals, we can be fairly certain that this is not the meaning that Paul wanted to convey. If he had, he would have used the word "paiderasste." That was the standard Greek term at the time for sexual behavior between males. We can conclude that he probably meant something different than people who engaged in male-male adult sexual behavior.
One source states that the Septuagint (an ancient, pre-Christian translation of the Old Testament into Greek made between the 3rd and 1st century
BCE) translated the Hebrew "
quadesh" in I Kings 14:24, 15:12 and 22:46 into a Greek word somewhat similar to "
arsenokoitai." This passage referred to "
male temple prostitutes" - people who engaged in ritual sex in Pagan temples.
This makes a heck of a lot more sense to me, as Yahweh is often quite concerned with prohibiting pagan religious practices, mandating monotheism, and distinguishing Jews and Christians from pagans.
Apparently until fairly recently, this word was thought to mean "masturbators" not "homosexuals." That may be in part because English did not have a word for homosexuals until pretty recently.
What is clear is that lesbianism or same-sex relations between women are nowhere prohibited. Nowhere. Not once. In the entire Bible.
That's where the divorce issue comes in, or rather, re-marriage after divorce. Here you have something that is very clearly prohibited (except for adultery), repeatedly, by Jesus himself, with no translation problems. Conservative Christians practice it regularly, vote for people who do it (Ronald Reagan comes to mind) and generally have no problem with it. You don't see them advocating for legislation to prohibit re-marriage after divorce, although their religion prohibits it.
On the other hand you have something--lesbianism--which is not prohibited at all. Anywhere. In several thousand pages, where it gets only one not very favorable mention in a story told by Paul. But bigoted hypocrites not only condemn it, but feel they're justified in denying equal marital rights to us. They certainly wouldn't vote for a lesbian. And they have no biblical justification for this whatsoever.
As far as Rick and Luke claiming that other people are trying to conjure up hypocrisy so they don't have to listen to what they say--please. I don't have to listen to what you say, because I'm not Christian. It doesn't matter to me whether you want to engage in gay sex or not. The reason I call these Christians--specifically, those who decry lesbianism while accepting remarriage after divorce--hypocrites is that they are. And for me, this exposes them as fundamentally dishonest. It has nothing to do with scripture, and everything to do with their own prejudice. As Luke said, he thinks it's "disgusting," and doesn't have enough manners to keep his opinion to himself. I think his sex life is disgusting too, but would not volunteer my personal opinion in the matter, had he not opened the door. His sex life is his business, and does not have to pass my personal taste test.
In any case, what is really disgusting to me is: prostitution, rape, sexual exploitation, child pornography, and other sexual behavior that is primarily heterosexual and almost never lesbian.
