In a facebook post, Dave "the yellow" Bartosiewicz wrote:
My mind and heart has been seriously thinking about these dear young souls who are killing themselves in this state. We all know it's at such high epidemic proportions. These are lives who have so much more to live for, but have in their minds, "there's no better way out". To address the gay issue, which I have a number of gay friends who love Jesus, my stance is this now. If they want to be apart of the Body, I believe we must "let go of our judgment and Let God change them" God knows them. God sees their future and He knows what will happen. As far as the Mormon policy, I do not believe in anyway that it is of God but of judgmental men. "Let go, Let God". Let's love them...That's what God is calling us to do.
This is also seen in his recent video, "Dave Believes We Need To "Let Go, Let God" With The Gays. Stop the Suicides!" with the summary portion being "No Religion should ever declare who is not worthy or worthy to meet with God. The Mormon Faith declares that Gays are not accepted to be baptized or their children in their Faith. This needs to stop and rethink the position. Let go, Let God." I do find it funny that anti-LDS often critique Latter-day Saints for our understanding of a "testmony" when Dave harps on his "feelings"--As Ben Shapiro often says, "Fact don't care about your feelings"; I also don't care about the feelings of David Bartosiewicz and/or Tyler Glenn.
Firstly, as the post is in response to the LDS Church’s view on homosexuals and homosexuality, one cannot help but find Dave’s comments to be pretty hypocritical; after all, he recently shared, in this post, the conversion of a former lesbian to Evangelical Christianity ("From Lesbian to Being a Christian. A Wonderful Testimony of a Great Transformation!"). Furthermore, as a so-called “biblical Christian,” Dave’s mortal theology is not just sub-biblical, but anti-biblical, as the Bible condemns homosexual behaviour. For a scholarly, book-length treatment, see Robert A.J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon, 2001). As one biblical example, take 1 Cor 6:9-11 where the apostle Paul speaks of the former lives of people before they were converted and transformed from their sinful ways:
Firstly, as the post is in response to the LDS Church’s view on homosexuals and homosexuality, one cannot help but find Dave’s comments to be pretty hypocritical; after all, he recently shared, in this post, the conversion of a former lesbian to Evangelical Christianity ("From Lesbian to Being a Christian. A Wonderful Testimony of a Great Transformation!"). Furthermore, as a so-called “biblical Christian,” Dave’s mortal theology is not just sub-biblical, but anti-biblical, as the Bible condemns homosexual behaviour. For a scholarly, book-length treatment, see Robert A.J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon, 2001). As one biblical example, take 1 Cor 6:9-11 where the apostle Paul speaks of the former lives of people before they were converted and transformed from their sinful ways:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, not the covetous, not drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:9-11, 1995 NASB)
We will bypass how this pericope refutes much of modern and historical Protestant theologies of salvation, and focus on Paul’s teachings vis-à-vis the Christian and homosexuality.
In this pericope, the apostle Paul is clearly speaking of the former propensities of these people; he is not allowing for practicing homosexuals as being true Christians, as they cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This can be seen by the use of the aorist in the phrase καὶ ταῦτά τινες ἦτε· ἀλλ᾽ ("and such were some of you but" [v.11]). Furthermore, the terms translated as “effeminate” and “homosexual” are μαλακός and ἀρσενοκοίτης; the ESV correctly captures the meaning of these terms as denoting both the active and passive partner in the act of homosexual activity ("men who practice homosexuality"). This is also brought out more explicitly by the Lexham Bible:
. . . nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners.
The leading NT Greek Lexicon, BDAG, defines these terms thusly:
4692 μαλακός
• μαλακός, ή, όν (s. two prec. entries; ‘soft’: Hom. et al.; ins, pap, LXX, Philo; Jos., Ant. 8, 72 βύσσος μ.; Mel., P. 80, 594 στρωμνῆς μ.)
1. pert. to being yielding to touch, soft, of things: clothes (Hom. et al.; Artem. 1, 78 p. 73, 10 ἱματίων πολυτελῶν κ. μαλακῶν; PSI 364, 5 ἱμάτιον μαλ.) μ. ἱμάτια soft garments, such as fastidious people wear Lk 7:25. (τὰ) μ. soft clothes (Sb 6779, 57; s. λευκός 2, end) Mt 11:8ab.
2. pert. to being passive in a same-sex relationship, effeminate esp. of catamites, of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a relationship, opp. ἀρσενοκοίτης (Dionys. Hal. 7, 2, 4; Dio Chrys. 49 [66], 25; Ptolem., Apotel. 3, 15, 10; Vett. Val. 113, 22; Diog. L. 7, 173; PHib 54, 11 [c. 245 BC] may have this mng.: a musician called Zenobius ὁ μαλακός [prob. with a sideline, according to Dssm., LO 131, 4—LAE 164, 4]. S. also a Macedon. ins in LDuchesne and CBayet, Mémoire sur une Mission au Mont Athos 1876 no. 66 p. 46; Plautus, Miles 668 cinaedus [Gk. κίναιδος] malacus; cp. the atttack on the morality of submissive homoeroticism Aeschin. 1, 188; DCohen, Greece and Rome 23, ’76, 181f) 1 Cor 6:9 (‘male prostitutes’ NRSV is too narrow a rendering; ‘sexual pervert’ REB is too broad)=Pol 5:3.—S. lit. s.v. ἀρσενοκοίτης. B. 1065. DELG. M-M.
1133 ἀρσενοκοίτης
• ἀρσενοκοίτης, ου, ὁ (ἄρσην ‘male’ + κοίτη ‘bed’; Bardesanes 719 fgm. 3b 10, 25 p. 653 Jac. [in Eus., PE 6, 10, 25]; Anth. Pal. 9, 686, 5 and Cat. Cod. Astr. VIII/4 p. 196, 6 and 8 have the sp. ἀρρενοκοίτης; Theoph. Ant. 1, 2 [p. 60, 27]; in a vice list—ἀρσενοκοιτεῖν SibOr 2, 73; AcJ 36 [Aa II/1, 169]; cp. the association of ἄρσην and κοίτη Lev 20:13, s. Soph. Lex.: ἀ.= ὁ μετὰ ἄρσενος κοιμώμενος κοίτην γυναικείαν=‘one who has intercourse w. a man as w. a woman’; cp. the formation of μητροκοίτης [μήτηρ + κοίτη] ‘one who has intercourse w. his mother’ Hipponax 15, 2 Diehl3 [=Degani 20, 2]) a male who engages in sexual activity w. a pers. of his own sex, pederast 1 Cor 6:9 (on the impropriety of RSV’s ‘homosexuals’ [altered to ‘sodomites’ NRSV] s. WPetersen, VigChr 40, ’86, 187-91; cp. DWright, ibid. 41, ’87, 396-98; REB’s rendering of μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται w. the single term ‘sexual pervert’ is lexically unacceptable), of one who assumes the dominant role in same-sex activity, opp. μαλακός (difft. DMartin, in Biblical Ethics and Homosexuality, ed. RBrawley, ’96, 117-36); 1 Ti 1:10; Pol 5:3. Cp. Ro 1:27. Romans forbade pederasty w. free boys in the Lex Scantinia, pre-Cicero (JBremmer, Arethusa 13, ’80, 288 and notes); Paul’s strictures against same-sex activity cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of alleged temple prostitution (on its rarity, but w. some evidence concerning women used for sacred prostitution at Corinth s. LWoodbury, TAPA 108, ’78, 290f, esp. note 18 [lit.]), or limited to contract w. boys for homoerotic service (s. Wright, VigChr 38, ’84, 125-53). For condemnation of the practice in the Euphrates region s. the ref. to Bardesanes above.—RBurton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, 1934, vol. 6, 3748-82, lit. reff. and anthropological data relating to a variety of Mediterranean cultures; DBailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, ’55; KDover, Greek Homosexuality ’78; RScroggs, The NT and Homosexuality ’83; JBoswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality ’80; JBremmer, Greek Pederasty, in JBremmer, ed. From Sappho to de Sade2 ’91, 1-14; ECantarella, Bisexuality in the Ancient World ’92.—Pauly-W. 8, 1333f; 1459-68. DELG s.v. ἄρσην. M-M.
For a further discussion on the meanings of μαλακός and ἀρσενοκοίτης in this text, see Robert Gangon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, pp. 303-331.
Clearly, in this pericope, those who engage in same-sex relationships are barred from entering the kingdom of God; Paul addresses an audience who contained former homosexuals, but were transformed by their conversion and baptism (their being “washed”), coupled with their being sanctified and justified. He is not saying that some of them were transformed and rejected such a lifestyle; they all renounced such a lifestyle. The LDS Church’s teachings and stance on homosexuality is biblical; Bartosiewicz approach on this matter is not just sub-biblical; it is anti-biblical.
Although his book is not available online, Robert Gagnon's essay, "Does the Bible Regard Same-Sex Intercourse as Intrinsically Sinful?" in Christian Sexuality: Normative and Pastoral Principles (ed. Russel E. Saltzman; Minneapolis: Kirk House, 2003), pp. 106-55 can be found online on his Website. It has a good discussion of Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:9; and other issues; some of his other papers on the issue of homosexuality and the Bible can be found here.
Furthermore, Bartosiewicz has been trying to score cheap points against the Church due to some homosexuals committing suicide due to the LDS Church's stance on homosexual behaviour; it is pretty damn hypocritical due to the suicide rates amongst gay Evangelicals (e.g., see this discussion). Also, see the FairMormon wiki article, Is there an "epidemic" of suicide among gay Mormons?
