what to do with lusty power

The day my daughter told me she wasn’t heterosexual was the day I started to pay attention to the discussions in Christian circles around “what God thinks” about all this. I’m sad to say I hadn’t given much awareness before that to the actual people affected – seeing the debates as “an issue” instead. Having skin in the game doesn’t make you care less about the Bible and what it teaches. It makes you see that these are actual people with hopes and hurts, with blood in their veins, who bruise and bleed and cry. When I saw my own daughter as one of them, an entire group of people was rehumanized in my eyes.

One of the passages that has given me consternation from the beginning is Leviticus 18:22. Early on, I felt this verse was being misrepresented. It falls within a group of verses all about incest and power imbalance. But there are other verses there too that don’t seem to fit either.

I just want to say at this point that, rehumanizing people before digging into an issue that affects them directly should be a minimum standard for any student of the Bible. Contrary to the accusations of some, having the ability to care compassionately for those affected by my study actually made me a better student.

The Leviticus passage has been used as a weapon. It has been viewed through a lens of judgement more unyieldingly than possibly any other verse in the entire Bible. And yet I have no intention of discrediting Leviticus. Because, while this verse has been picked up out of its context by the one side for many decades, it has been minimized and dismissed by the other. I have found it most frustrating when people who are doing good work on the rehumanizing side have minimized the value of an entire chapter or book or even the entire Old Testament. As someone who values any of the Bible, I believe I must value all of it – within its intended context. What I mean by that is that the Scripture has valuable and important things to teach me that help me understand myself, others, and the Creator. We can all agree that the Bible can and has been used as a weapon for evil. The message must be true to its intent and consistent with its own overarching message. And as I grow in awareness of the ways I have dehumanized entire groups of people to make my own understanding king, I must be willing to seek answers that are not obvious. When my own understanding requires more of others than it does of me, it should be a red flag that my understanding needs to be questioned.

Last week I heard a well thought out argument for a different lens with which to approach the “clobber passages” in the Bible – six sections of the Bible that are used in defense of a view of homosexuality that I find problematic. (I have written elsewhere that I believe this view actually causes real harm.) In this message that I listened to last week, the arguments for changing our minds on the meaning of the New Testament passages was very well presented. I welcome this voice and I am grateful for the speaker’s call to action. But his lack of attention to the Leviticus passage grieved my heart again, and I began to mull it over anew. I read it and thought on it and discussed it with a friend.

I’m including the entire chapter of Leviticus 18 NIVUK even though it’s long. Pay special attention to the many people listed who are prohibited as potential sexual partners. And then pay attention to the verses that don’t seem to fit – in particular verse 19 where it is prohibited to have sex with a woman who is on her period.

18 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “I am the Lord your God. ³ You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. ⁴ You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. ⁵ Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.
⁶ ‘“No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
⁷ ‘“Do not dishonour your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
⁸ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonour your father.
⁹ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
¹⁰ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonour you.
¹¹ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
¹² ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
¹³ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
¹⁴ ‘“Do not dishonour your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
¹⁵ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.
¹⁶ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonour your brother.
¹⁷ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
¹⁸ ‘“Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
¹⁹ ‘“Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
²⁰ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with your neighbour’s wife and defile yourself with her.
²¹ ‘“Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
²² ‘“Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
²³ ‘“Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
²⁴ ‘“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. ²⁵ Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
²⁹ ‘“Everyone who does any of these detestable things – such persons must be cut off from their people. ³⁰ Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practised before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.”’

The setup here is important. This passage is not written in a vacuum. It is not written in the same way as the Ten Commandments. It is specifically written to a people who are about to form a nation – a people who had formerly been enslaved and who had witnessed the evils of unchecked power preying on the powerless. Now these people would have the ability to decide what kind of people to be. And particularly, what kind of people with power they would become. Who we are is often shaped by the natural checks and balances that surround us. When we have power, often we become like those we have witnessed in power previously. God was saying that this nation should be different. That they should hold themselves to a standard, even in their power and autonomy, that they had not witnessed before.

The other contextual detail that I think is most important is that this was an extremely patriarchal society. This passage is written to those in power – to those with agency – namely to men. There is one verse written to women because it addresses the one group they might find they have power over – animals.

So it’s clear this passage was written with the purpose of protecting the unprotected by way of teaching those with unchecked power to check themselves. Crudely, this is a passage written to horny men who might come across someone or something they could easily consume on their own lusts. Far from being an indictment on homosexuality, this passage is an indictment on lusty power. This lens actually makes verse 19 – the one about women on their period – fit nicely.

I know there’s more going on than my simple reading, but I think the overarching purpose of the passage is an important one. If I were to paraphrase what I believe God is saying in this passage, it would go something like this:

Listen, men. When you’re walking around your property, feeling good about yourself, lusty, and drunk on power, don’t consume that lust on the first thing that comes along. If it’s your mother, step-mother, sister, daughter-in-law, etc, leave her alone. If it’s a woman on her period, leave her alone. If it’s your neighbour’s wife, leave her alone. And don’t think sacrificing one of your children will be an even trade for this sin. Don’t do that either. If a man (or boy) comes along, don’t consume your lust on him either. Even if an animal comes along, leave it alone too.

I’m so glad this chapter isn’t a manual on how we manage our sexual lusts today. It was necessary and it fit the time in which it was written. But if this was what we’re using to shape our sexual ethics today, no unmarried non-relative woman would be safe unless she was on her period. This chapter is not about how we should set up our sexual ethics. It’s less than the minimum standard. No, you should not consume your sexual lust on any of these (including men or boys that happen to be around.) You should practice self control and value others as higher than props for your own consumption – even though that is the way the other nations operate.

I have much more to say about this chapter. I think it has a lot of important things to say to us about power and power imbalances. But I’ll leave it here for now. Thanks for reading.