To be fair to the Xian fundies, there is a passage condemning gays in the New Testament. Of course, Paul wrote it, and he basically hated ALL sex, so there ya go.
"Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:8-10
There's actually a big debate about whether or not Paul meant homosexuals there. In the original ancient Greek version, he used two words which have since been translated as "homosexual";
arsenokoitēs and
malakos. "Malakos" is actually closer to "effeminate", used for describing woman-like men. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous to say early Christians would have considered it immoral for men to be effeminate, but keep in mind Paul came from a society where women were second-class citizens. It was thought as God's given duty for a man to be tough and all warrior-like. Women were considered to be only good for child-bearing. I imagine the reason later societies thought "effeminate man" meant "gay" is because of the stereotype that gay men are girly. That idea didn't exist in Greek society - remember the Spartans?
Arsenokoitēs is harder to define because it appears Paul literally just made it up. Seriously, it doesn't appear in any Greek texts before the New Testament, and Paul was the only Bible author who used it. Some people it think it may have had something to do with homosexual rape or pederasty, but we have no real way of telling what the hell Paul actually meant there. It's hard to believe he meant homosexuality, though, because there were far more specific Greek words available for him to use (
paiderasste, for example, which clearly is translated to mean relations between men).
So, yeah. Homophobic Xians don't even have
that excuse.
