Eunuchs

On the topic of Gay folks: In the ancient world eunuchs were associated with homosexuality. Luke tells his friend that a self-avowed eunuch was welcomed in to the early church without any concerns about his sexual orientation. He was welcomed on the same basis as other people – his faith in Jesus Christ.

Not just anyone was permitted to serve as a eunuch. Given their intimate access to the women of the household, they had to be men who had a reputation for being disinterested in women as objects of sexual attraction.

It was not always possible to find someone like this but eunuchs were not all straight men who were castrated. Jesus recognized that there were eunuchs born that way, eunuchs who had been made eunuchs by others and those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The born that way apparently included males who from childhood seemed incapable of or disinterested in sexual intercourse with women.

History tells us that Darius III and later Alexander the Great had a eunuch lover, Bagoas.

When the Ethiopian introduced himself to Philip as a eunuch, Philip would have  known he was dealing with a man who was part of a class commonly associated with homosexual desire.

Like gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people today, eunuchs were the sexual outcasts of Jewish religious society. The eunuch was persona non grata both socially and religiously.

Philip, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, asked the eunuch if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch told Philip he couldn’t unless someone guided him.  Philip started where the Eunuch was reading and told him the good news of Jesus. When they came to some water the eunuch asked Philip if anything prohibited him from being baptized. Philip’s answer should be astonishing to anyone who still holds a prejudice against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender believers “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

Philip did not say, “Since you’re a eunuch and you may desire men; can you promise me you’ll never have a sexual relationship with a man?” Instead Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” We have no way of knowing whether the Ethiopian eunuch was in fact gay. But we do know he was part of a class of people commonly associated with homosexuality and that this fact was completely irrelevant to whether he could become a Christian.

This story illustrates that what matters is how we relate to Jesus; a point which many modern Christians refuse to apply consistently. Scripture is not what keeps them from accepting gays and lesbians as brothers and sisters; prejudice does. If there were some scriptural basis for excluding the Ethiopian eunuch because of the real possibility he was homosexual, Philip would have known it.