What about conflicting commandments? “Not good to be alone”
Margaret Olson Hemming is the brilliant coauthor of the series The Book of Mormon for the Least of These. In a Dialogue Gospel Study presentation about minute 54, she pointed out that when scriptures conflict, Jesus gives us a pattern about how to reconcile them.
This is particularly important for the LGBTQ community. Even if the reader thinks the scriptures condemn same sex relationships (more on that later), how can we reconcile them with Genesis 2:18, “it is not good for man to be alone”? Here’s Jesus’s pattern.
In Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus addressed divorce by referencing Genesis 2:24 (which says leave your parents and cleave to a spouse) and Deuteronomy 24:1-4 (which describes the proper way to divorce in Mosaic law). The two texts conflict, because Genesis says one thing about divorce and Deuteronomy says another. When Jesus said “in the beginning it was not so” (vs. 8), He was saying that the prior text wins out.
Could we do the same for Genesis and Leviticus/Romans/Corinthians? Even if the reader believes that certain verses condemn same sex relationships, the admonition in Genesis wins out: “it is not good for man to be alone.” That interpretation also aligns with the overarching moral message of the entire gospel of love: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Besides, Margaret pointed out that many scriptures are often taken out of the sexual context of their time to condemn homosexuality and queerness (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10 - see Daniel McClellan and Amy Jill Levine).
As always, it just comes down to love.
-Marci