“The authors of the Bible had no idea that same sex attraction was a thing.” – Anglican priest, Father Rod Bower, says

“The only concept of human sexuality that’s available to Biblical writers is what we would call ‘heterosexuality’ — the opposite-sex attraction. [The Bible’s authors] are aware that there is behaviour that they see, that they believe is deviant. But what they don’t know is that there is something that exists called same-sex attraction.

“And so it’s not Biblically fair from a scholar’s point of view to look at that as homosexuality. What the Bible is really saying, if anything, is heterosexual people shouldn’t have gay sex. And I’m OK with that. But we can’t impose a 20th century psychological concept onto writers that had no idea that same-sex attraction was actually a thing.”

Anglican priest and prominent same-sex marriage supporter, Father Rod Bower, responded to someone who asked him how he could support same-sex marriage and call himself a Christian.

The questioner quoted several Bible verses that she interpreted to be against homosexuality, and asked Bower, who campaigned strongly for the Yes vote last year, to explain himself. By responding, Bower explained that in his view, the Bible doesn’t directly address homosexuality, because homosexuality as we understand it today wasn’t really a concept when the Bible was written.

When the questioner, clearly not impressed by his response, drew the conversation back to Bower and again asked him to clarify his view on gay people and same-sex marriage, Bower confirmed that he “absolutely” supports marriage equality.

“[Gay people] are loved by God. They are worthy of love from everybody. And that’s my personal belief.”