Alan Austin,
"Abundant evidence of the approval of polygamous relationships was ‘Posted by Alan Austin, Friday, 13 April 2012 6:28:46 PM,’ above".

Note none of those relationships were ONE woman with several living husbands or same sex marriages. There was NO ADULTERY as they were the exclusive wives of one man!

"The Bible contains several examples of approved same-sex intimate relationships".
WHERE? and WHO? Were they CONSIDERED MARRIAGE?

Hi Josephus,

Yes, all those unions were one man with two or more women. Often with porkypines too. The point is that Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis) never contemplated for an instant that marriage was only one-man-one-woman.

So we must seek support for one-man-one-woman marriage elsewhere. And we do not find that anywhere in Scripture – except for church elders (1 Timothy 3:2).

Rather, we find a wide range of acceptable unions – some called marriages, others not.

It would seem likely if God approves same-sex unions and if He has created a fixed small percentage of people with same-sex or bisexual orientation that we would find examples in Scripture.

And indeed we do.

We cannot prove from Scripture that these were all sexual unions. And we don’t know whether or not they were considered marriages by those involved. Just as we cannot prove from Scripture that there were ever any marriages with sexual intimacy anywhere in the New Testament after Christ's birth. The Bible is not a sex manual.

But we see strong hints and clues.

We know Jonathan and David had an intimate relationship. We just don’t know how intimate. We are told they kissed each other and wept together. We know the union caused one of the fathers great anger because of "your own shame and the shame of the mother who bore you." And we know their love was "wonderful, more wonderful than that of women."

So it’s not really a platonic friendship, is it?

We know Ruth clave unto Naomi. We just don’t know precisely what ‘to cleave’ means here. It is the same word as used in Genesis 2:24.

We know "God brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs". But we don’t know how tender this love was in explicit detail, do we?

So there are three examples, Josephus.

We could analyse further the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. But there's no clear indication that the official was in a same-sex relationship. Depending on our definition of 'eunuch' that would make it four.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, AA

Greetings Alan. Bonsoir?

The question of the beloved disciple seems to have been overlooked so far.

I've always found John:19 26,27 intriguing.

Tchao

My dear WmTrevor,

I am a believer, as you well know.

And I am in enough trouble already with my lovely, devoted, compassionate, committed, Bible-believing, conservative brothers and sisters ...

Four examples of same-sex couples should be quite adequate.

Blessings,
AA

Fair enough, Alan...

Even my own atheism has no trouble with the concept of Jesus representing unconditional love of and for humanity. On this point I am in agreement with my Bible Christian and Methodist missionary forebears.

And I can look forward to the day all people professing Bible based beliefs think and act likewise.

Except for the irony that this won't be within my lifetime.

Tchao, again.

THIS IS GOD SPEAKING. WMTREVOR - YOUR PRAYER HAS BEEN ANSWERED. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU PEOPLE THAT I'M TOTALLY COOL WITH GAY MARRIAGE? I DON'T THINK I CAN MAKE IT MUCH CLEARER THAN THAT. IF I HAD WRITTEN THE BIBLE I WOULD HAVE MADE THE WHOLE THING A LOT CLEARER. PEOPLE WILL TELL YOU I WROTE THE BIBLE BUT THEY'RE WRONG. A WHOLE TEAM OF AUTHORS GHOST WROTE IT FOR ME. OBVIOUSLY THEY DIDN'T THINK GAY MARRIAGE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO DISAPPROVE OF.

JOSEPHUS - STILL PREACHING BLASPHEMY I SEE. I'VE SPOKEN TO YOU ABOUT THIS ALREADY. AS FOR THIS NONSENSE ABOUT PROCREATION BEING THE ORDAINED PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE - I ORDAINED NO SUCH THING. YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN THERE JOSEPHUS. THE ONLY PERSON IN ALL OF MY GLORIOUS CREATION WHO HAS ORDAINED THIS TO BE THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE IS YOU - AND YOU DON'T HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ORDAIN SUCH A THING. BUT BELIEVING THAT YOU DO ADDS PRIDE TO YOUR SINS OF WRATH AND BLASPHEMY. HAVE A NICE TIME IN HELL.