Stop Using Leviticus to Shame LGBTQIA+ People

One of the most harmful words used against LGBTQIA+ people is “abomination.” It is thrown around like a spiritual grenade, usually with very little attention to language, history, culture, or context. And, because apparently nuance left the group chat, many people have been taught to read that word as if it simply means, “God hates this.”

But when we look more closely at Leviticus, we find something more complicated. These laws were given to an ancient people trying to maintain their identity in the middle of surrounding nations. Many of the prohibitions were about being “set apart” as a community. They were identity markers, not always universal moral laws for all people in every time and place.

That matters because Leviticus also prohibits things most modern Christians do not worry about at all: wearing mixed fabrics, eating certain foods, planting different seeds in the same field, cutting hair in certain ways, and getting tattoos. And unless someone is planning to launch a church-wide crackdown on shrimp, cotton-poly blends, and that one pastor with a forearm tattoo, we should admit that we are already interpreting these texts selectively.

The real question is not, “Can I find a verse to use against someone?” The real question is, “Am I reading Scripture faithfully, humbly, and honestly?”

The world of Leviticus was not talking about loving, committed same-gender relationships as we understand them today. It was a patriarchal world where women were often treated as property, sexuality was tied to family survival and inheritance, and purity laws were deeply connected to ancient cultural identity. That does not make the Bible irrelevant. It means we have to stop pretending these texts dropped out of the sky in English with no context attached.

And here is the part we really need to name: modern Christianity has ignored plenty of ancient sexuality and purity laws that apply to heterosexual people, while turning LGBTQIA+ people into the “hot button” issue. That is not faithfulness. That is selective outrage dressed up for church.

If our reading of Scripture causes harm, shame, exclusion, and spiritual trauma, we need to ask whether we are actually hearing the voice of God or simply protecting the prejudice we inherited.

Because the gospel is not good news if it only sounds good to the people already holding power.