What it means to love

 

Except for the heat wave, this summer was like any other. Groups of people fanned out over the city with placards denouncing the LGBTQIA+ community. They even coerced the Seoul Metropolitan Government to cancel a permit for the annual Pride event at City Hall Plaza. These people were mostly concerned with what their placards called “homosex.” I suppose we can imagine what they mean. They went so far as to position themselves outside the World Cup Stadium during the closing ceremony of the recent World Scout Jamboree. One scout who saw the campaigners told them to “f-off” and included the well-known finger gesture. Some Koreans who saw this shamed the anti-gay folks for making Korea’s reputation even worse than it was because of the Saemangeum fiasco.

Hebrew and Christian scripture passages are not easily interpreted, especially not through a rubric of 21st-century Christian conservative bias. The word “homosexual” was made up by a preacher in 1891 and did not exist in ancient Hebrew, Greek or Roman lexica. Sadly, many Korean-language translations of the Bible insert the word “homosexual,” so modern readers would never know what the original language could be. To make matters worse, few pastors have learned Biblical Hebrew and Greek so cannot read the Bible text in its original languages.

Since many Christians in Korea (and elsewhere) want to talk about sex constantly, let’s look at the Bible. First, they need to quit cherry-picking one issue and broaden their feigned disgust and focus on the entirety of sexuality, not just “homosex.” The Bible strongly condemns masturbation, prostitution, premarital sex, extramarital sex and divorce. Several issues are dealt with in clearer language than the misinterpretations about homosexuality.

Jesus was the most explicit about divorce (but said nothing about homosexuality or masturbation). He is quoted directly and in no uncertain terms in Matthew 5:22. Jesus also talked about adultery (extramarital sex) in the same chapter. The language is clear and concise, with no room for misunderstanding or cultural-context interpretation. The Bible is replete with passages that need no interpretation. The language is direct. Proverbs, the letters to the Corinthians, Luke and Matthew have passages on the topic. The Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) also discuss divorce. Malachi and Deuteronomy have spelled this out.

Some good friends of mine live in the Gangnam area of Seoul, and I often visit on the weekend for supper. One of the sidestreets to get from the main avenues to their neighborhood takes me past several entertainment venues. The pavements are littered with flyers depicting voluptuous young women with alluring facial expressions. That street is not a secretive, dark back alley. These flyers are on the pavement on the main avenue and side streets where there is a lot of foot traffic in the evening. I never see any concerned Christian folk with placards and slogans standing on those street corners denouncing the men and women who entertain at these well-known “room salons” or “hostess bars.”

I occasionally am asked to perform a marriage for young couples. There is already a pregnancy in many cases, despite most churches teaching that premarital sex is a sin. How many of my colleagues in the ministry confront this issue? How do they handle it? Why are zealous Christians not standing in front of all the “love motels" where unmarried couples come and go like revolving doors? They ought also denounce the newly developed places where middle and high school students can go with their partners.

Christians often claim to “hate the sin but love the sinner.” Yet, their perhaps well-intended idea doesn’t square with the teachings of Jesus. Pastors who preach this from the pulpit tell their parishioners we all are sinners and God can’t love us because of sin, but we can ask forgiveness repeatedly. Wait a minute. God can’t love us because of our sin? The very Christian theology of humanity is that we are all sinners, destined by our nature to keep sinning. If that’s the case, how can we be loved? We can’t even love ourselves because who can love a sinner like us?

Because of the constant harangue from preachers, we can’t see anything but sin in ourselves and others. We keep being reminded that God hates and we have to beg forgiveness over and over and over. And then we sin again. It’s hard to claim “God is love,” or “Jesus loves me,” in that understanding.

To everyone identifying as “Christian,” get out your Bibles and read the four gospels again. Read carefully, and pay special attention to the teachings of Jesus in his parables, stories, miracles and interactions with all those around him. If, as the Good News tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” and if we are to “Love thy neighbors as thyself,” how is “Hate the sin, love the sinner” any part of the message of Jesus? Is that what the Son of God taught? Is that what the gospel is about?

Confused Christians must relearn what it means to love.

Rev. Steven L. Shields (slshields@gmail.com) has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. He is the president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea. He served as copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect The Korea Times’ editorial stance.