Homosexuality in Pauline writings
As Professor Neufeld mentions, Paul is very clear in his view of homosexuality in his writing. However, the context in which he writes is very important to consider. Namely, the fact that the homosexuality in his day is not even remotely close to the homosexuality we have today. For example, as Professor Neufeld mentions in Greco-Roman culture of the time many men would have sex with younger boys. In addition, much of the homosexual sex would occur during orgies or sex rituals, almost in such a way as to worship sexual pleasure. In stark contrast, homosexuality today occurs in loving, faithful relationships just as any given heterosexual relationship might be. Thus, the reason why Paul lists homosexuality along with thieves and murderers in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10, is because he is actually speaking about adulterers and pedophiles. In addition, the Jewish community at the time strongly disapproved of the sexual rituals practiced in Greco-Roman society, which in turn may have intensified Paul’s disapproval of homosexuality. This is especially apparent in Rom 1:26-27, where Paul uses a term that is often translated as “vile affections” or “shameful lusts” to describe what the people who partook in the sexual rituals were feeling. This is important because it shows that Paul really only thinks of homosexuality within this context of sinful lust, instead of love, because that was the only thing that made sense in his time. There would be no reason for him to make a disclaimer exempting wholesome gay couples because he likely had never encountered an openly gay people outside that negative context.
In addition to this, there is a lot of missing contextual information because we are reading only one side of the conversation. To explain, Paul’s writing is often a discourse between himself and his assembly, and the context of this discourse is often ignored or simply lost. Someone may have had a concern or asked him a specific question which prompted Paul to write what he wrote, and this context may have an effect on the meaning of Paul’s writing.
The problem with ignoring context is that it becomes very easy to use scripture to push a certain agenda in our time. For example, it can be a compelling argument for Christians that homosexuality is wrong because it is almost undeniable that Paul disapproved of homosexuality in his time. Thus, without any context, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that homosexuality must be wrong in our time too. But if one takes a moment to understand why Paul had this opinion in the first place, the answer is not so clear because homosexuality in his time was extremely different from homosexuality in our time.