nature. But these relationships have an orderly limit. Nowhere in the Word do
we find support for calling them anything more than friendships.
Instead (and this is the second category), we find a number of hard-tohear teachings about the ultimate expressions of same-sex attraction. Again the
intent is to place a clear limit. We read of “forbidden classes (or relationships)
of people enumerated in Leviticus 18” (Conjugial Love 519; cf. Genesis 19:57, 1 Kings 14:24), of conjunctions that “ought not to be named” (Spiritual
Experiences 4763, Conjugial Love 450), of “behavior that is contrary to the
order of nature” (Arcana Coelestia 2322); and the like. In general, homosexual
attraction that extends into the physical realm is identified with adultery.
(Arcana Coelestia 2220, 6348)
I acknowledge that these teachings are talking about the sexual acts
related to homosexuality, and that some have argued that they don’t apply to
the more laudable and inner connection of love that a man can feel for a man
or a woman for a woman. I would note that many things that extend into the
sexual realm are forbidden for us, for they can have lasting consequences for
ourselves and others.
For example, the Word speaks in many places against the innate temptation
to connect sexually with many people of the opposite sex (or arguably of the
same sex), calling it “lust for variety” (Conjugial Love 507ff), and, in the case
of married people, adultery. (Ibid. 453) It is certainly true that all of us have
things to work on in order to shun wandering lusts and to strive for chasteness
around the things of marriage.
What I hear in the context of same-sex relationships is again a clear
boundary: they are not to go beyond a certain point, not into sexual expression,
and not into a relationship that resembles marriage.
A third category of teachings relates to gender. This is a tricky and
sensitive thing to talk about, as scientific exploration provides us with a great
deal of information to process, some of which conflicts. I would be out of
my professional depth to comment on specifics in the scientific realm, but I
mention it because it is part of the thought pr