By Sister Abigail Hester, OFC
A Franciscan Clarean Defense of LGBTQIA+ People in the Face of Weaponized Scripture
💥 Introduction: Holy Misinterpretation, Batman!
Let’s get one thing straight — or rather, let’s get everything delightfully queer: the Bible is not a homophobic book. It has been read that way by empire, patriarchy, and bigots with bad haircuts and worse hermeneutics. But when we read the text through the lens of liberation, context, and queerness, the clobber passages turn into… well, laughable.
This study will walk us through the so-called “clobber texts,” clap back with history, context, theology, and a wink of divine sass. Because honey — we weren’t made to sit silently while folks misuse the Word to harm the very ones Christ came to liberate.
📜 The “Clobber Passages” in Question
These are the six classic “texts of terror” often flung like theological dodgeballs at queer folks:
- Genesis 19 – Sodom and Gomorrah
- Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 – “Man shall not lie with man…”
- Romans 1:26–27 – “Shameful lusts”
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 – “The effeminate” and “homosexuals”
- 1 Timothy 1:9–10 – “Perverts” or “sodomites”
- Jude 1:7 – Sexual immorality of Sodom again
Let’s unclobber these one by one.
1. 💣 Genesis 19: Sodom and Gomorrah
Clobber claim: God destroyed Sodom for gay sex.
Response: God destroyed Sodom for rape, violence, and inhospitality — not Pride floats and drag brunches.
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she was arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” – Ezekiel 16:49
🎯 Boom. That’s the Bible clapping back at bad theology.
The real sin: Abuse of power, exploitation, and cruelty to strangers. In other words, homophobia, not homosexuality, is the Sodomite sin.
Queer note: If anything, Genesis 19 is a call to defend the vulnerable — especially travelers, the gender-nonconforming, and the powerless. Sounds like a call to queer hospitality!
2. 🧀 Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Clobber claim: Being gay is an abomination.
Response: So is eating shrimp, wearing polyester, and planting two seeds in one field (see Leviticus 11:10, 19:19). But you don’t see them picketing Red Lobster, do you?
📘 Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan remind us: Leviticus is a purity code, not a moral absolute. It was written for ritual cleanliness, not eternal judgment.
Abomination (Hebrew: toevah) means “ritually impure,” not “eternally condemned.” It was about Israel’s identity, not your date to prom.
Queer theology twist: Jesus broke the purity codes constantly — touching lepers, eating with sinners, and healing on the Sabbath. If you’re breaking purity rules to love better, you’re doing it right.
3. 🌀 Romans 1:26–27
“God gave them up to shameful lusts… men committing shameless acts with men…”
Clobber claim: Paul condemns homosexuality.
Response: Paul condemns exploitative, idolatrous, excessive lust, not loving same-sex relationships.
This is Paul throwing shade at Roman orgies and temple prostitution, not your marriage license.
🧠 Scholar alert! Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Daniel Helminiak point out that Romans 1 describes unnatural acts — but Paul isn’t defining what’s natural in your biology. He’s critiquing excessive Greco-Roman patriarchal sexual dominance.
Patrick Cheng says this passage is about imperial excess, not queer tenderness. Paul didn’t know about modern sexual orientation. To read that back into the text is like blaming Jesus for Twitter.
Fun fact: In Greek, “unnatural” (para physin) is also used to describe God’s actions (Romans 11:24). So clearly, “unnatural” ≠ evil. Sometimes divine love is unnatural — especially when it breaks the world’s rules.
4. 🎭 1 Corinthians 6:9–10
“Neither the sexually immoral… nor men who have sex with men…”
Clobber claim: Gays go to hell.
Response: The Greek words used here are:
- Malakoi – “soft ones,” often referring to effeminate men or passive partners (but also used for luxury pillows).
- Arsenokoitai – a bizarre compound word Paul seems to invent, literally “man-bedders.”
🧑🏫 John Boswell and Dale Martin show us: we don’t really know what arsenokoitai means. It shows up almost nowhere else in ancient Greek literature. Could mean exploiters. Could mean temple pimps. Could mean… tax collectors for all we know.
So unless you’ve built an entire theology on mistranslating ancient Greek and ignoring love, maybe sit this one out, clobber crowd.
5. 🪓 1 Timothy 1:9–10
“The law is laid down… for the unholy and sinful, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality…”
Clobber claim: The New Testament condemns homosexuality.
Response: Again, we’re dealing with that strange word arsenokoitai — not “gay people” in modern terms. There’s zero reason to believe Paul had anything in mind resembling today’s same-sex relationships built on mutual love, covenant, and faithfulness.
Also — let’s talk context. This list is like Paul’s version of a “bad people” rap sheet, mixing thieves, liars, and… apparently queer folks if we mistranslate? Not convincing.
Truth bomb: Love rooted in justice, mutuality, and consent is never what Paul condemns. What’s condemned is exploitation, domination, and violence. And that applies to all sexualities.
6. 🔥 Jude 1:7
“Sodom and Gomorrah… indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust.”
Clobber claim: LGBTQ people are like the people of Sodom — lustful and unnatural.
Response: What’s “unnatural” to empire often looks like God’s justice breaking through. If you’ve ever loved someone in a way the world told you was wrong — welcome to the revolution.
Marcella Althaus-Reid calls this “indecent theology” — reclaiming the power of the body, of erotic love, of pleasure, and queerness as sacred, not sinful.
So if loving queerly is unnatural, then so is grace. And I, for one, am living for both.
✊ Holy Takeaways: What Jesus Would Say
- Jesus never said a word against LGBTQIA+ people.
- He did say a lot against religious hypocrites.
- He did say love your neighbor. And honey, that includes your queer neighbor — and yourself.
🧼 Clobber texts = cherry-picked, context-ignoring, empire-approved weaponry.
💖 Queer love = holy, sacred, Christ-reflecting.
💅 Closing Benediction (Drag Mass Style)
May your love be louder than their hate.
May your queerness be too fabulous to ignore.
May your faith be too fierce to silence.
And may your theology leave no clobber passage unchallenged.
Go in peace, beloveds. And throw glitter in the face of bad exegesis.
