# Jesus attend a gay wedding! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 6, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320 "2003-05-06T03:00:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jackie\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@jackie\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackie_lee)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/1 "2003-05-06T03:00:43Z")
Do you believe Jesus would attend a gay wedding? If you have any scriptures pertaining to this that is good too. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/2 "2003-05-06T03:04:18Z")
If Jesus were a physical person, alive on this planet today, then yes I believe he would attend. It’s a fairly rhetorical question though, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/3 "2003-05-06T03:09:38Z")
Well, I was taught that Jesus is everywhere, so yeah, he’d be at a gay wedding. ---
**Author:** ![jackie\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@jackie\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackie_lee)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/4 "2003-05-06T03:17:53Z")
Yes I think he would attend a gay wedding if he was invited. He may turn the water into wine also. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/5 "2003-05-06T03:18:56Z")
Jesus was known for associating with people who were, at least in terms of the orthodox mores of his day, outcasts or widely condemned as immoral. I am sure, from that standpoint, he would appear at a gay wedding. Would he completely approve? I am not sure. The allegedly anti-gay verses of the Bible are the work of Paul of Tarsus, not Jesus and his contemporary disciples. (To some people it may not be so rhetorical!) ---
**Author:** ![jackie\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@jackie\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackie_lee)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/6 "2003-05-06T03:38:44Z")
Yeah he did hang out with the outcasts and sinners I guess you could say. I don’t think he would approve of the wedding though. IMO:) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/7 "2003-05-06T03:41:49Z")
This is wildly speculative, as most have acknowledged, so I’ll jump in w/ my wild speculation. Would Jesus associate w/ gays? Yes. He taught love of all, and seemed to emphasize that by associating with some generally disliked folks. Would Jesus attend a gay wedding? I don’t think so. Assuming that this were a religious ceremony, I don’t believe there is anything in the Bible or Jesus’ teaching that would tend to advocate a religiously sanctioned wedding of same sex couples. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/8 "2003-05-06T04:10:22Z")
Not only would, but does… Any time there’s a “Nuptial Mass” at a liturgical church that extends the marriage blessing to a gay couple covenanting their vows to each other. And if He were here in the flesh? Absolutely! And He’d have a few comments about judging your fellow man similar to those He directed at the Pharisees to those who said otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/9 "2003-05-06T04:47:37Z")
Polycarp: How about a plural marriage? I took a lot of heat on another GD thread for linking gay marriage w/ plural marriage, but I’ll stick my neck out again. I must one of those people who never learn… ---
**Author:** ![geordielass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@geordielass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geordielass)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/10 "2003-05-06T05:07:49Z")
Of course he would. Jesus loves everyone. Why would anyone think he wouldn’t be there? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/11 "2003-05-06T05:12:24Z")
I’ve never seen a singular marriage in my life, although there are some people sufficiently in love with their own perceived greatness that it wouldn’t surprise me! I don’t have a clue – why not ask Him? 😉 Seriously, if He had a problem with anybody’s proposed nuptials, I can see Him going and talking to them about what His reservations would be, not laying down rules as His followers seem wont to do. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/12 "2003-05-06T05:25:45Z")
I’d argue he probably wouldn’t have. The idea of a gay wedding would be so far outside the Palestinian Jewish experience of the time that I don’t think anyone living then and there would even think of one. In fact, the only reference I can think of to a “gay wedding” from about that time is something the Suetonius (I believe) claims Nero did He records a marriage ceremony conducted with Nero as the groom and a slave dressed in drag as the bride, but he records that more as an example of Nero’s oddness and depravity than anything else. From Chapter 28 of “Lives of the Caesars” > [@](#): > > He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero s father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/13 "2003-05-06T05:39:09Z")
Polycarp: I know the OP only asked about “attendance” at the wedding, but I think most of us are also looking at whether he would approve of said wedding. That’s where I was coming from when I brought up plural marriages. Strictly speaking, I could agree that he might attend a gay wedding. But I can’t see that he’d approve. IIRC he was not shy about speaking his disaproval at times (eg moneychangers in the temple), so I don’t buy that he wouldn’t voice approval or disaproval. But in reality, and you are clearly more knowledgeable than I on this subject, **is there ANYTHING even remotely related to homosexuallity in the New Testament Gospels?** I think we’re all just guessing from the “sense” we get of Jesus’ character and philosophy. Not any facts to go on that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/14 "2003-05-06T05:50:54Z")
Even if, note I say _ **IF** _, you were to consider homosexuality a sin, I think He would attend. > [@](#): > > _Matthew 9:9-13_ > > As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. > While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” > On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” So no, Jesus would not avoid homosexuals. IMHO This may not sit well with some fundies, but Jesus almost seemed to go out of his way to contact sinners and the unclean. He revealed himself as Christ for the very first time to a Samairtan woman who may seem to be of questionable morals. He _touched_ a leper to heal him saying, “I want to.” He refused to condemn a woman caught, so they said, red handed in adultery, instead telling the crowd, “Let you who is without sin cast the first stone.” I consider myself to be Christian and am quite a Bible student (though not a scholar). My dad is gay, so I may have a bit of a bias in how I look at this. Does the Matthew cite help? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/15 "2003-05-06T05:55:34Z")
just to be clear, I am not calling Gays unclean or sinners thought I would clear this up after rereading my post (I love my dad) There are Scriptures that some people use in anti-gay preaching. (1 Corinthians 6:9,10 comes to mind) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/16 "2003-05-06T05:59:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _1st Corinthians 6:9,10_ > > Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Just quoting it, y’all. Don’t dogpile me for what someone else wrote. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/17 "2003-05-06T06:01:35Z")
I didn’t find anything specifically by Jesus on the subject of homosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/18 "2003-05-06T06:10:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*Just quoting it, y’all. Don’t dogpile me for what someone else wrote. \*\* I had read that in translating the Bible from ancient greek that they took a word that did not mean homosexual and substituted homosexual for it. I wish I remembered where I read that. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/19 "2003-05-06T06:17:27Z")
That’s interesting. I’ll look for it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320/20 "2003-05-06T06:33:05Z")
_malakos_ (soft) and _arsenokaitos_, about which I’m not sure of the meaning, are the two Greek words that I can recall that are rendered “homosexual” in some translations. And yes, **No Clue Boy** , you’re 100% correct – Jesus never addressed the issue of homosexuality. He does have a lot to say about standing in judgment over others, and about considering oneself to be more righteous than another – something that seems to have completely escaped those who tend to speak with self-assumed authority on what He would do. I’m basing my answers on what it says about what He did with those considered sinners in His day, and extrapolating it to today. Perhaps **Diogenes** will wander in – I know he has a much better background in New Testament Greek than I do, and can probably identify the anti-gay Pauline passages and explain what the original had to say. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-attend-a-gay-wedding/173320.md?page=2)