"There are no gay people in Sochi." (Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov)

Given that Sochi, the 2014 Winter Olympics host city, is known as a centre for gay life in Russia, it is ironic that the city's mayor announced that homosexuality was not accepted in the Caucasus and that there were no gay people in Sochi (source: the BBC News). While his worship is not the first mayor to make vacuous statements about their city, Mr. Pakhomov was simply following the party line regarding the unacceptability of gays in President Putin's Russia, and the danger which they represent to society, children in particular.

But as uninformed and prejudicial as many see the Russian stance, it pales in comparison with certain African countries. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Nigeria. The maximum punishment in the twelve predominately Muslim northern states that have adopted Sharia law is death by stoning. In mostly Christian southern Nigeria and under the secular criminal laws of northern Nigeria, the maximum punishment for same-sex sexual activity is 14 years' imprisonment (source: Wikipedia). The most recent legislation, signed by the president without announcement, has made it illegal for gay people to even hold a meeting. The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act also criminalizes homosexual clubs, associations and organizations, with penalties of up to 14 years in jail (source: Associated Press, Jan. 13, 2014 as reported by CBC News).

Uganda takes its opprobrium to an even higher level. As reported by the CBC News (Dec. 20, 2013):

Ugandan lawmakers on Friday passed an anti-gay law that punishes "aggravated homosexuality" with life imprisonment. The bill drew wide condemnation when it was first introduced in 2010 and included the death penalty, but that was removed from the revised version passed by parliament.

Although a provision for the death penalty was removed from the original bill, the law passed Friday sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for the new offence of "aggravated homosexuality," according to the office of a spokeswoman for Uganda's parliament.

The bill was introduced to parliament by a lawmaker who argued the law was needed to deter Western homosexuals he accused of "recruiting" Ugandan children. Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law that criminalized sexual acts "against the order of nature," but the Ugandan lawmaker who wrote the new law argued that tough new legislation was needed because homosexuals from the West threatened to destroy Ugandan families and were allegedly "recruiting" Ugandan children into gay lifestyles....Despite criticism of the bill abroad, it was highly popular among Ugandans who said the country had the right to pass laws that protect its children.

Same-gender marriage, of course, is illegal in the vast majority of the world's countries (see the excellent map http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/map-same-sex-marriage-world/).

Canada's relatively tolerant attitude toward gays is a recent phenomenon. As a high school and university student in the 1960s, I was enculturated by both church and society to take a completely intolerant view of "homos" or "queers" as we typically called them. Justice Minister (and soon to be Prime Minister) Pierre Trudeau's famous statement in 1967 with reference to homosexual relations that "There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." sent shock waves through the country and was roundly rejected by the church. It was only in 2005 that same-gender marriage was legalized in Canada, just the fourth country in the world to do so at the time.

To this day many Christian denominations reject any notion that homosexuality is biblically condoned or that same-gender marriage should be permitted by the state. The more conservative elements within the church still see gays as Hell-bound by definition. But that theological position rests upon a remarkably small number of biblical texts. My project for the next few posts is to look at each of these texts in context and come to some conclusion of my own about what they teach. I should admit up front that my present belief is that the gay orientation is not condemned by Scripture. But I have never done a verse by verse analysis on the subject.

So here goes. Wish me luck.