Understandably, some readers expressed concern re last Sunday’s column with regard to Christian pride and Pride Month. Some responded quoting popular clobber texts. Clobber texts are those used or weaponised to condemn people of LGBT+ identity. They are also used to secure a confident sense of being saved above “those people”.

One responded quoting Romans 1:26-27, noted, “All I know is that Paul says: Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

When we have been misinformed with a limited view of the text, we must be patient with our sisters and brothers who do not have the time to explore other dimensions of textual interpretation. The term ‘homosexual’ is new to the Bible. It was not known in the time of Paul. However, same-sex sexual activity was known to the Greco-Roman world.Paul found it important to make a distinction between Christian practices and pagan worship. In his day, plenty of same-gender sexual activity was done in the context of such worship that included prostitution and the abuse of enslaved people. The pagan practice saw dinner parties marked by drunken orgies which honoured pagan gods. For the Christian, this was not a requirement in offering worship to the One, true God!