Fornication

Question:

What is the Unity understanding of the word "fornication" in the Bible? I didn't pick a particular verse because it is used multiple times. As a gay man, I have heard that homosexual marriage is not the same as heterosexual because it is "fornication" or a cover for "sexual immorality."

Comment:

First of all, I need to make the point once again that Unity does not have 'official' positions on anything beyond our five universal principles. My responses to these Bible questions represent my personal understanding from my study and experience of those principles from the perspective of one Unity minister.

I think the distinction you're questioning is quite simple—and, of course, very controversial among many more traditional Christians. I would say 'fornication' in the Bible describes any sexual activity that is manipulative, selfish, and self-serving. The pleasure of the sexual experience is meant to be spiritual in nature, arising from, and expressive of, infinite love. When Paul, for example, includes 'fornicators' on his several lists of those excluded from the kingdom of heaven, he is describing sexual licentiousness—people who have made sex a false god, in a way that violates the first commandment that our spiritual Self must always be our highest priority. For two millenia, translators and interpreters have injected their own biases, assuring everyone that Paul meant 'homosexuals' when he wrote 'fornicators.' But there are heterosexual fornicators as well as homosexual fornicators.  

Now, I as a gay male do not presume that all heterosexuals are fornicators just because some are. But many religious heterosexuals do presume just the opposite.  

The Truth is that love has always been richly present in many—but not all—homosexual relationships, and in many—but not all—heterosexual relationships. Jesus left us with the simple request that we love one another. He didn't say men should only love women, and vice versa. He simply asked us to love. Any expression of love, and any commitment based in love, is a sacred use of divine power. The church and state have recognized the sanctity of heterosexual marriage for centuries. It has taken them longer to begin to recognize the same sanctity may express homosexually as well. What a privilege it is to be living in a time when that is changing—and to realize your consciousness, and mine, are contributing to that change.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed