There was one element of Boswell’s preface I didn’t mention in my previous post because it deserves commentary of its own. Even Boswell devotes less than 100 words even though it is really a huge deal. He puts it this way;

History was written by men about men, and where women are mentioned, it is generally peripherally.

In a big way therefore, any discussion about the Bible and homosexuality, isn’t really about Sexual Orientation or homosexuality in general, but rather it is about the Bible and male gender roles and how male sexual expression aligns with gender role expectations. It is a true statement: there is nothing in the Bible about Sexual Orientation, just as there is nothing in the Bible about dinosaurs, the Ice Age, the plethora of galaxies out there I n the Universe, or even that a Universe exists. But again, Boswell’s purpose is History, and the history of attitudes from the beginning of the Christian Era to the fourteenth century.

It is not a part of his book, but the degree to which intolerance of homosexuality is really just the intolerance towards gay male behavior is or ought to be a primary argument against anyone who claims that the Bible is against homosexuality or claims that religious intolerance is the reason for social intolerance.

I have some thoughts about what this means and how we respond because of it, and that will most likely come out as we move through the book.

This past is part of a series on Boswell’s text.Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality.