Homosexuality in Scripture, by Brad Miner

By Brad Miner, The Catholic Thing, Nov. 9, 2021

Brad Miner is senior editor of The Catholic Thing, senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute, and a board member of Aid to the Church In Need USA. He is a former Literary Editor of National Review. His most recent book, Sons of St. Patrick, written with George J. Marlin, is now on sale.  …

Thanks to all of you who responded, and so generously, to the beginning of our end-of-year fund drive, which we announced yesterday. I never worry when this time of year rolls around because I know that our readers are committed to making sure this work continues. But I am occasionally surprised – as when one woman yesterday pledged $365, a dollar for every day of the year, since that’s how often we appear. I’m used to donations from every state in the Union, and all over Canada. But now also from Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, the UK, Ireland, and Poland, as well as Norway, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand. I couldn’t begin to express how much it encourages all of us – writers and staff – when we see that kind of support. A few of you inquired whether your donations are tax-deductible. They are.

 The Catholic Thing is a program of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington D.C., to which the IRS has granted permanent 501 (c) 3 status as a non-profit institution. I also see that some of you have chosen automatic monthly payments – which may be an easier way for you to help us, and certainly lets us plan with greater security as we look at our work for the coming year. We’ve made a good start. And I ask those who have not yet donated to please join with us. Do your part for The Catholic Thing. – Robert Royal

What Is Man? is a new book – new anyway in English, having been published at the end of 2019 in Italian as Che cosa è l’uomo? – from the Pontifical Biblical Commission. As such, it has no identified author or authors. (The English version was prepared by Fathers Fearghus O’Fearghail and Adrian Graffy.) It carries the subtitle, A Journey through Biblical Anthropology and is a defense of the Biblical roots of Catholicism’s view of human beings and our relationship to God.

When first published, there was a flurry of rumors in the press claiming that the book (either subtly or explicitly) suggested homosexuality should be considered normative. Fr. James Martin, for one, asserted that What Is Man? explains one of the Bible’s key condemnations of homosexual acts, the story of the destruction of Sodom in Genesis, as not really about sexual transgression at all but, rather, a lack of hospitality among the Sodomites. And there is a passage in What Is Man? that confirms the sins of the Sodomites were not exclusively, well, sodomy. But it’s also clear that the “men of Sodom” sought to “know” Lot and his angelic visitors, and that “to know” in the context “is a euphemism for sexual relations.” …

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