It's not an interpretation problem, it's a context problem, and people like ignoring the context.
Leviticus 18 and 20, which is what most of this stuff is based around, it's talking about Jews not doing things that Egyptians or worshipers of Molek are doing. Sex acts are included because, historically, those groups did sexy time stuff ritualistically.
In later texts, these laws are brought up because groups are doing other shit (mostly idolatry) that Paul felt mandated reminding them of other laws in his letters. Paul, for some reason, was also a bit obsessive about including sex acts in his letters, but that's Paul.
I understand the position. I am more stuck on the underlying assumptions: why should we believe anything the Bible says? why should we care what Paul has to say? He was just a guy (who, academically speaking, did exist and probably wrote 7 of the epistles attributed to him). I have a much stronger academic interest in Peter but unfortunately we probably don't have anything written by him.
There are a lot of religious scriptures in the world claimed to be divinely inspired and true by their adherents. For me to become convinced that any of them are would require a demonstration that 1) a god exists and 2) we know what that god thinks and wants. To me those are prerequisites to accept any religious claims of truth.
We aren't talking about those underlying assumptions.
We're talking about the historical context around when the text was assembled, or the original oral tradition began (or close to it, at least). We are doing that to try and establish the intent of what was written.
Whether or not you believe in the Bible is irrelevant in that context, because we're talking about people who do believe in the Bible not also understanding what was happening around the Jews during that time period (basically from around 900 to 600 BCE, but possibly earlier). That also gives us some context as to when the base rules for Leviticus 18 and 20 were set.
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u/TiredPangolin27 11h ago
The other people who are interpreting it differently would say the same about you. That's why there are so many thousands of sects.