Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 06:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Sex, Gender, And Identity In Pastoral Counseling
Author: Jens Bruun Kofoed

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 121

Sex, Gender, And Identity In Pastoral Counseling

Jens Bruun Kofoed

Jens Bruun Kofoed is professor of Old Testament at Fjellhaug International University College in Oslo and Director of Center for Theology in Praxis at Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology.

Introduction

Why do we not put adulterers to death anymore as prescribed in, for example, Leviticus 20:10–16? And since we do not, why insist, then, on the enduring importance of the prohibitions on adultery, incest, homosexual practice, cross-dressing, bestiality, and other forms of promiscuity in Old Testament law? And has it any bearing on our pastoral guidance on sexual ethics, that ancient Israel’s land became unclean and caused the Lord to bring punishment for its iniquity upon it, so that the land vomited out its inhabitants (Lev 18:24–30)?

The short answer for Christians with a high view on the Bible is that these prohibitions are repeated in the New Testament (Rom 1:26–27; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 1:10), and that the land of ancient Israel prefigures the world in which a New Testament Christian lives.

At the same time, we know all too well

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 122

that such a view on gender and sexuality is like a red flag to a bull in the face of the cancel culture that pervades Western societies. For social constructivism in general and queer ideology in particular, it is common to consider what the Bible says about gender identity and sexual orientation as irrelevant, or, if given attention, as norms that should be canceled. And since many Christians, including Christian churches and entire denominations, give in to the pressure, pastors with a calling to preach, teach, and counsel on sexual ethics based on Scripture find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Christians who cancel the binding application of passages on binary gender and sexual ethics for Christians generally follow one of two hermeneutical strategies. The first attempts to demonstrate that the biblical texts do not exclude multiple genders and do not address modern consensual same-sex relationships, but instead cultic prostitution, homosexual practice with one’s social inferior, and pederasty. The second strategy involves acknowledging a binary, heterosexual perspective in certain biblical texts, but then setting them aside or subordinating them to other texts deemed more significant. In this latter view, it is not the rejection of non-binary gender identity and same-sex relation...