Lesson video

Hi there, my Oak scholars of religion, my name is Ms. Marx, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today, we're going to be doing about different religious views about same-sex relationships, and we're gonna be focusing on different Christian views on this.

So to inform this, we will be looking at some of the Bible passages which have helped shape different views around same-sex sexuality and same-sex relationships.

Some of these Bible stories refer to acts which have been translated as same-sex relationships, but others would argue that they were really about exploitative non-consensual sexual acts that were going on at the time when the passage was written, and so, it's important to bear that in mind as we go into today's lesson.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end this lesson, you'll be able to explain different Christian views on same-sex relationships.

So let's start with our key terms. Liberal, someone who prioritises modern knowledge and interprets religious texts metaphorically.

Literalist, someone who rejects modern knowledge in favour of a literal interpretation of religious texts.

Same-sex relationship, sexual relationships between people of the same sex, also known as homosexual relationships.

Same-sex sexuality, being physically or sexually attracted to persons of the same gender, also known as homosexuality.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, same-sex relationships and Christianity, and then, liberal and literalist views.

So let's start with our first section, same-sex relationships and Christianity.

So we can look at census data from 2021 for England and Wales to see what the different religious groups are within the country, and we can see that the main religious tradition of Great Britain is Christian, so whilst that isn't over 50% of the population, it is the religious tradition that most people feel affiliated with in the country, so when we're answering a question that asks for the main religious tradition of Great Britain, we know that's referring to Christianity.

Let's do a quick check.

What religion does the phrase, "The main religious tradition of Great Britain," refer to? Pause the video and have a go, we'll see if you've got it in a moment.

Well done, it refers to Christianity.

So let's consider this question, "How accepting should Christianity be of same-sex relationships?" What do you think? How accepting should it be? Pause video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, we can see the answer to this question as being on somewhat of a spectrum, it's not necessarily completely one way or the other, we could see that there are different degrees of how Christianity might be accepting of same-sex relationships, so here, I've got a spectrum where we could say some people might argue that Christianity should be or isn't at all accepting, some might argue it is completely, and others might argue it's somewhere on this line, on this spectrum.

There's different views within Christianity on the issue of the acceptance of same-sex relationships and people with same-sex sexuality, so it could be to do with the person themselves, it could be to do with the relationships, and it doesn't have to be completely one way or the other, there can be different sort of degrees of acceptance when we look at some of the different views we're going to look at in today's lesson.

This could be seen as a spectrum, as some Christian groups and individuals might not be accepting at all of same-sex sexuality, whereas others may be fully accepting and others may be in-between, so we'll keep in mind of this spectrum when we go through today's lesson, looking at lots of different views that are within Christianity on same-sex relationships.

Now, different Christian denominations, or groups of Christianity, there's different branches of Christianity, have different teachings and guidance around same-sex relationships, so we can look to the kind of official guidance and teachings and leadership of these groups to see what the views might be, but remember that within those denominations, Christians can have different views too, 'cause they have their own conscience and beliefs about these things.

Here we have Jason, who's a Roman Catholic priest, so he's gonna share with us what the Roman Catholic position could be.

"I'm a Roman Catholic priest, and in my church, we teach that same-sex feelings is not sinful, but acting on them is.

We do not marry or ordain people in same-sex relationships." For Jason, as a Roman Catholic priest, somebody being of same-sex sexuality and being attracted to people of the same sex is not sinful, those feelings and those thoughts aren't, but they would be if someone was acting on them according to Jason's view as a Roman Catholic priest, and this is then shown by the fact that, within his church, they won't marry a couple who has same-sex relationships, or they won't have someone ordained, so become a priest, if they are in a same-sex relationship.

But we also have other denominations which we could say are more accepting along that spectrum line, and Ji-eun is an example as a Methodist minister, so the Methodist church is a Protestant denomination, so it's not a Roman Catholic church, it's Protestant and it's its own denomination within there, and she says, "I'm a Methodist minister, and in my church, we marry same-sex couples, accept people with the same-sex sexuality as ministers, and we also do not teach that same-sex acts are sinful," so you can see here that Ji-eun's position here from the Methodist church is at a different place on the spectrum to where Jason's might be.

But not only do the different denominations, the different churches, the different groups have these different sort of positions on same-sex sexuality and relationships, individual Christians can have different views too, and here we have Richard and John, who are two different Christians from different denominations.

Richard is a Seventh Day Adventist, which is another form of a Protestant denomination, and John is a Quaker, which is another form of Protestant denomination, and they've got very different views here, let's see what they say.

Richard says, "I believe God created humans in order to be heterosexual, not same-sex attracted," whereas John says, "To me, the quality of the relationship is what counts, not the gender of the people." Where would you place these on that spectrum of acceptance to do with same-sex sexuality and same-sex relationships then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So we could argue, couldn't we? That Richard's view here is not very accepting of same-sex sexuality or same-sex relationships 'cause he says it sort of seems to go against what God's plan is, or God's order is, for nature and humans, whereas John here, we could say, is kind of fully accepting because to him, the gender of the people isn't really what matters, it's the relationship and the commitment and the love that's shown, whether they're same-sex or opposite-sex doesn't really matter to John, so we could say he's the other end of that spectrum.

So we've seen how different denominations could have different sort of positions on this, different Christians in different denominations could, but also within a denomination, so within a group, Christians may have different views on this, even if the church's stance or official position is one way, individual Christians can have different views and be a different part along that spectrum too, so individual Christians within different denominations may have different views on same-sex relationships too, and here I've got two examples of two Roman Catholic Christians, Danielle and Niamh, and Danielle says, "I believe sexuality is not a choice and God creates some people to have same-sex sexuality, but they should choose to live celibate lives," and the word celibate means when you choose not to have sex, you choose not to enter into sexual relationships, so choosing to sort of live alone, so for Danielle, the sexuality may be that that's the way God has created that person, they can't really change that, but they can change how they act and they can choose not to act on those different feelings.

And Niamh says, "I think the Catholic church should change to be more accepting of same-sex relationships.

It should welcome everyone." So Niamh here seems to want the church to be welcoming of everybody and welcoming of those relationships as well, not just the people being same-sex sexuality, but also the relationships they may enter into, but both Danielle and Niamh are Roman Catholic, even though they have these two different views along that spectrum.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which Christian denomination does not marry same-sex couples and does not ordain people in same-sex relationships? Which denomination was that? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, it was the Roman Catholic church was the example we had, with Jason and the priest, wasn't it? So we've seen already lots of different views within Christianity around same-sex sexuality and relationships, and we had our spectrum at the beginning, and I said, "Watch out for where they might fall on the spectrum," so what you're going to do now is look at the views that we've seen, these are sort of summaries of the views we've already looked at this lesson, and see where you think they fit on that spectrum line.

Are they not-at-all accepting or are they completely accepting of same-sex relationships? So people with same-sex sexuality, but also, that they could be actively within same-sex relationships? You've got six views here, which you can order along the spectrum and decide how far they go to not-at-all or completely accepting of same-sex relationships, so pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

So the views are, view one, "The church should change to be more accepting." View two, "God created humans in order to be heterosexual, not same-sex attracted." View three, "The quality of the relationship is what counts, not the gender." View four, "Same-sex sexuality people should live celibate lives." View five, "I do not marry same-sex couples in my church." And view six, "I do marry same-sex couples in my church." So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

So the way I've ordered them is that the one that was the least accepting, so not-at-all accepting I felt was view two, "God created humans in order to be heterosexual, not same-sex attracted," that view seems to suggest that there's something unnatural, not the way that God designed for people to be if they're same-sex attracted.

Next, I had view five, "I do not marry same-sex couples in my church," then I had view four, "Same-sex sexuality people should live celibate lives," 'cause here were starting to have.

Accepting that people may be same-sex sexuality, but then, they shouldn't be in relationships.

Then we have view one, "The church should change to be more accepting," view three, "The quality of the relationship is what counts, not the gender," and then, I felt the most accepting view was, "I do marry same-sex couples in my church," so that really is the church giving a blessing completely to that relationship by allowing them to marry there.

Well done.

So onto our second section then, liberal and literalist views.

So we've already looked at how different denominations, so different overall kind of groups of Christians, might have different views on the issue of same-sex relationships and same-sex sexuality, and within those different denominations you can have different positions that individual Christians take, and one of the things that could influence that is whether they have an approach to their religion that's liberal or literalist.

Sometimes this could be known as things like liberal, symbolic, literalist could sometimes be known as quite conservative or traditional, or at it's extreme, fundamentalist, so you have these different approaches to religion in general, lots of different religions have these different approaches, and within Christianity, you can have Christians who are liberal or literalist, and that can then influence really how they interpret key text from the Bible and other sources of authority, so how they breathe that source of authority, how they interpret it, how they then apply it to their daily life can have an impact on their view on things like same-sex relationships, so let's have a look.

Literalist Christians are likely to believe the Bible is the direct word of God, so it's been directly sort of dictated to the person who wrote it down and preserved, and that's what Christians read today, it's the word of God that they're reading, so therefore, it can be read literally because it's from God to the person, so you can read it and sort of take it off the page as it is.

It's eternally relevant, exactly as it's written, so even if it was written thousands of years ago, it's still relevant today 'cause it's the direct word of God written almost with that in mind, that I'm gonna open it today and read it so I can lift off the page and really apply it to my daily life sort of word for word as it's written.

Liberal Christians, however, are more likely to take the view the Bible was inspired by God, so it's still sort of godly given, it's still from God to the people, but not necessarily every single word was, like, dictated from God to the person who wrote it down, and it can also be read symbolically, metaphorically, it might have a meaning that's not, like, the literal meaning on the page but has another meaning behind it, a different kind of meaning, and liberal Christians are more likely to say that the Bible should be understood in the context it was written in, so it wasn't written at this time in this language for me, it was written at a different time and I can understand it more by understanding that context, and then, trying to kind of glean the meaning from that for me today in my life today.

Maybe there's some overall messages from the Bible that I can apply to my life today, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna take each individual sort of phrase or word, and then, apply it directly, so there's different ways of interpreting that source of authority and applying it to today's world given it was written a long time ago.

So let's look at one example, which is the story of Lot, who's also known as Lut in Islam and Lot within Judaism, so it's been a really influential story to do with views around same-sex relationships.

This was written in the book of Genesis, which is in the oldest part of the Bible, or the Torah within Judaism, and it has had a big influence on people's views to do with same-sex relationships in those three religions.

The Bible is an important source of authority for Christians on moral issues such as sexuality and same-sex relationships.

Whilst the term "same-sex relationships" does not appear in the Bible, there are different passages that are interpreted in relation to this.

The story of Lot is found in the book of Genesis in the Bible, and it's often referred to in discussions around same-sex relationships in Christianity, especially same-sex relationships between two men.

The story is also found in Jewish and Muslim traditions.

In the story, the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah are known to be sinful places, and there is a man with a family who are not sinful, so there's one man left who's not sinful, everyone else is being sinful.

God decides to destroy the towns because of their sinfulness, but one family is to be saved, Lot, or Lut, and his family.

God sent some angels to the towns to warn Lot, and although angels are genderless, so they're not male or female, they appear in sort of male forms, so we tend to think of them as male because they appear in male forms. When they come to the town square, Lot takes them to his house and he says they must not stay out late because it's dangerous.

The men of the town come to Lot's house, bang on the door, and they demand the angels, who appeared as men, are brought out so the men can have sexual relations with them.

Lot defends the angels and is spared when God destroys the towns due to the great sinfulness of the townspeople.

The story has been used within Christian traditions to show that same-sex acts are sinful, but there are many scholars and Christians who do not interpret the story that way.

The acts that the townspeople wanted to force on the male-looking angels are not the same as committed, loving and consensual same-sex relationships.

So let's have a think about how a literalist or a liberal Christian might interpret this story for today, then.

Well, here is the passage in Genesis, "The story of Lot.

They [the men of the town] called to Lot, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them.

' Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, 'No, my friends, don't do this wicked thing,'" this is in Genesis chapter 19 in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

Where does this passage mention same-sex acts, then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done, it's when it says, "Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them," so the townsmen were asking for the male-looking angels to be brought out so they can have sex with them.

So how could a literalist interpret this text if they're just taking the.

? Off the page, how could they interpret this and how could they relate that to same-sex acts? Pause the video and have another think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, they could say.

It says here, "Bring out the men so we have sex with them," and it says, "Don't do this wicked thing," so does that mean then that same-sex relationships are wicked in any context at any time? Because this was the direct word of God, which is eternally relevant and is relevant to us today.

But then what could a liberal interpretation of this text be? Again, pause the video and have a reread, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

While the phrase, "It's a wicked thing," is still there, but the context of this text is referring to non-consensual sex.

They wanted to force themselves on the angels.

This wasn't about relationships, it wasn't about love, and it wasn't about commitment, so a liberal Christian could say, "Yes, that is a wicked thing, to force yourself on another person, to force them to do something against their will like this," that would be wicked, but this isn't talking about same-sex loving, committed relationships that we can see in the world around us today.

So let's explore liberal and literalist approaches to religion a little bit more then.

Sam and Jacob are discussing it now.

Jacob says, "I think literalist Christians take the Bible more seriously because they believe it's the literal, eternal words of God," and Sam says, "I don't agree with you Jacob, liberal Christians take it more seriously 'cause they want to fully understand the context and the meaning of what they're reading," and Jacob says, "I see your point, Sam, but the exact words of the Bible seem to be a very important source of authority to literalist Christians," and I wonder which person you would agree with more here, Jacob or Sam? Do you think literalist Christians take the Bible more serious than liberal, or do you think liberal Christians do? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

I think this is a very important question because sometimes people could say, "Oh, liberal Christians don't take the Bible seriously 'cause they don't take it word for word," but perhaps they are taking it seriously 'cause they're really trying to understand it, but then, a literalist Christian might say, "If liberal Christians aren't necessarily taking all the words of the Bible as true in the same way as they are, are they taking it very seriously?" Let's do a quick check.

Which approach to religion would argue the exact words of the Bible are eternity relevant no matter what the context is? Pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, it was literalist.

So let's see a little bit more about how a literalist Christian might view same-sex relationships in Christianity.

So Jacob's asking Martha, who's a literalist Exclusive Brethren, so the Exclusive Brethren church is a denomination of Christianity that takes the Bible in a very literal way, and she says, "It's clear to me that from the very beginning of the Bible, God intended us to have heterosexual relationships.

God created Adam and Eve as a model for marriage and so they could procreate through sexual acts.

The story of Lot and the words of St.

Paul also show that same-sex sexuality and acts are sinful, as Paul says, 'Those who practise same-sex acts are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

'" Thank you, Martha.

I wonder what a liberal Christian could say in response to Martha? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, Sam is asking Fergus, who's a liberal Anglican, so the Anglican church is also known as Church of England, it's another Protestant denomination and Fergus is a liberal Anglican within that, and Sam asks, "As a liberal Christian, Fergus, how do you interpret passages of the Bible which seem to show same-sex relationships aren't acceptable in Christianity?" A bit like the ones Martha just said to us, and Fergus says, "I read the Bible as a whole message of God's love for all humans.

It was written over thousands of years in different contexts, this means we have to work hard to understand how it relates to today.

Jesus never said that same-sex relationships are wrong, and the terms St.

Paul uses do not relate to same-sex relationships today, but practises that went on during the Roman times when same-sex acts were acts of exploitation and not love." So here, again, we got Fergus really emphasising the context of when these passages were written, and so, does the word mean the same for what it did for St.

Paul or the story of Lot as it does today when we're talking about loving, committed relationships? Thank you, Fergus.

Let's do a quick check.

Which two statements are accurate about literalist and liberal Christian views about same-sex relationships? A, "Literalist Christians believe the Bible should be read symbolically." B, "Literalist Christians believe the Bible should be read literally." C, "Liberal Christians believe the context of the Bible is important for understanding the meaning." And D, "Liberal Christians believe the context of the Bible does not matter and the exact words are internally relevant." Two of these are correct, pause the video and find them and I'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, it was B and C, "Literalist Christians believe the Bible should be read literally," and, "Liberal Christians believe the context of the Bible is important for understanding the meaning," well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned then.

We have looked at liberal and literalist views to do with the Bible, particularly to do with the passages to do with same-sex relationships, and you're going to decide if the statements of the table are more likely to be literalist, Martha's view, or liberal, Fergus's view, and you're going to put them in the table under which view you think it fits with, and the statements are, "St.

Paul said that same-sex relationships are sinful." "St.

Paul said that exploitative same-sex actions are sinful." "Jesus did not forbid same-sex relationships and they can be an expression of love." And, "The Bible shows that marriage should be between a man and a woman since Adam and Eve." So pause the video and have a go, we'll see you've done in a moment.

Well done, I asked you to sort the statements into who was more likely to have the view, a literalist, Martha, or a liberal, Fergus, and your table should look something like this.

The literalist view, which was Martha, "St.

Paul said same-sex relationships are sinful," and, "The Bible shows that marriage should be between a man and a woman since Adam and Eve," and the liberal view, which was Fergus's view, "St.

Paul said exploitative same-sex actions were sinful," and, "Jesus did not forbid same-sex relationships and they could be an expression of love." So we can see here that we can have a real variety of views within Christianity, many different views within Christianity on same-sex sexuality and relationships.

So the second part of our task then, explain two different religious beliefs in contemporary British society about same-sex relationships.

In your answer, you must refer to the main religious tradition of Great Britain and one or more other religious traditions.

The main religious tradition of Great Britain is Christianity, and you could use this guidance, a point developed twice, point, develop, and one of your points must be a Christian perspective, and the second point could be another Christian view too or a different religious view, so pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, I asked you to explain two different religious beliefs in contemporary British society about same-sex relationships, and one of them had to be from the main religious tradition of Great Britain, which we know is Christianity, and your response may look something like this.

"One Christian view on same-sex relationships is the literalist Christian view that they're wrong.

Literalist Christians may believe this because they take literally the words of the Bible, which say it's a wicked or sinful act.

A different Christian view on same-sex relationships is the liberal view, that they are not wrong, but an expression of love.

Liberal Christians may believe this because Jesus didn't forbid them and other passages that seem to imply this must be read and understood in their context.

Well done.

So let's summarise everything we've learned today then, different religious views about same-sex relationships.

There's a diverse range of views about same-sex relationships in Christianity.

There are different views between and within Christian groups on same-sex relationships.

The story of Lot could be interpreted in different ways relating to same-sex relationships.

Literalist and liberal approaches to Christianity are two examples of different religious views about same-sex relationships.

So well done for for your hard work today, and I hope to see you soon.

Buh-bye! (no audio).