An Interview With the Authors of the Exegetical Work “Clarifications on Homosexuality in the Bible”

February 13th, 2007 posted by kendall at 3:00 pm

Q: This work was written by two Catholics and a Protestant. Do you think it can contribute to the progress of the ecumenical cause?

Imbaza: This book, which does not deal with ecumenism, can remind readers that Catholics and Protestants can in fact meet again around the same Bible. It shows that initiatives on various themes are possible and can be envisioned in an ecumenical framework.

Father Edart: This book is in itself an ecumenical work. Although each author is responsible for his part alone, the work was carried out in profound listening to one another.

This was translated in a mutual correction of works not only in the form, but at times also on the background. We were especially careful to avoid any interpretation of the text that went beyond its literal sense — which is already word of God as the constitution “Dei Verbum” underlines.

Thus we made the experience of a common reading of the Scriptures possible. We very much hope that this book will help Christians of different confessions to dialogue on a particularly delicate and important subject.

Q: What is the book’s message?

Imbaza: On reading, in their contexts, the biblical texts relative to the topic of homosexuality, one is obliged to see that the Bible’s position is clearly against homosexual practices.

A healthy reading of the Bible, both of the Old as well as of the New Testament, cannot escape this fact. Contrary to certain publications, we think that the passages mentioned before as supposed illustrations of active homosexual life — Jonathan and David, Jesus and the beloved disciple, etc. — do not, in fact, evoke the subject.

Read it all.

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