By Marilyn Quigley

Recently, a member of my family overheard a restaurant conversation in which a woman said her son asked her where the Bible says homosexuality is a sin. She reported answering, “One throwaway verse.” Her ignorance should have embarrassed her.

It is no surprise that Americans are almost totally ignorant of the Bible’s contents. This year, 58% of us report reading the Bible as somewhere between “never” and four times a year, with worship attendance in those low occurrences at 68%. For most U S citizens today, the content of the Bible is merely hearsay, and only 20% believe it is the literal word of God.

Thus, the Bible is now at the epicenter of The Great American Moral Earthquake, causing a huge rift in America’s ethical bedrock. This moral divide is pushing citizens apart, as did the slavery issue — splitting religious denominations as well as fragmenting friendships and families. And now, it’s removing many kids from the public schools. People are ostracized, canceled, and demonized.

The LGBTQ community assume, wrongly, that conservative religious people hate them. Rather than hatred, it is knowledge of and respect for Scripture bringing fear for America that cause many Jews and Christians to push back.

A close look at the Torah’s book of Leviticus in chapter 18 reveals why many deeply religious people tremble for America. Some Christians would say, “But that’s Old Testament — not applicable to us.” Then can we throw out the Ten Commandments? Though Christians believe the ceremonial laws were for the Jews and that the New Testament abrogated the food laws for Christians, conservative believers consider the moral laws impervious to cultural changes.

The entire chapter of Leviticus 18 unequivocally bans certain sexual sins, naming incest, adultery, and sex with animals, which God calls a “perversion” that defiles. Most Americans no doubt agree with God here, though they would not use the culturally incorrect term perversion.

But on the remaining Leviticus topic — homosexuality — most citizens now patently part company with God. Verse 22 contains the “throwaway” words mentioned above: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” (Both genders would have been assumed.) “Detestable” is translated “an abomination” in many versions. Its Hebrew word, to'evah, refers to that which morally offends.

Thus, God calls homosexual practices morally offensive, regardless of the otherwise positive traits of those who choose the behavior.

After the chapter’s detailed list of prohibitions, God finalizes with repeated condemnations, as if to say, “Let there be no misunderstanding”:

• Doing these makes a person unclean (inwardly and spiritually).

• The nations in Canaan did all these things; thus, His words, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.” (This verse answers why God demanded the slaughter of the Canaanites.)

• Such behavior makes the land itself unclean because of its iniquity. “Even the land was defiled, so I punished it for its sins.”

• Sexual perversion is likened to putrid, rancid stomach contents: The land “vomited out its inhabitants.” The Israelites were warned not to do any of the abominations “lest the land vomit you out.”

• Such behaviors demanded perpetrators to be “cut off from among their people” to keep the practices from spreading.

• God ends by saying, “Never practice any of these abominable customs … and never make yourselves unclean by them.”

God ends with, “I am the Lord your God.” Many will say, “But I acknowledge no God and am free to do as I please.” Yes, the God who hates sin also gave humans free will. Today most people don’t think agreement with God is necessary. Even many “religious” people consider the Bible a mere book of “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.”

Despite Americans’ differences, we must treat all people with respect and kindness. But those are not the same as approval. Many who believe homosexual behavior is wrong have gay and lesbian family and friends whom they love and enjoy associating with. I am one of those.

What, then, should we think about Leviticus 18?

We who consider the Bible authoritative believe America is headed for dire consequences, possibly those used in the past for rampant sexual sin. We are alarmed because what formerly was unthinkable has become “normal,” similar to attitudes in the city of Sodom. Even many who consider themselves religious believe fornication (a word also out of fashion in polite society) is acceptable, and they wave pride flags for homosexuality, transgenderism, the emerging “polyamorous” unions, and drag queen parades with nudity. Currently, 71% of Americans support gay marriage and about 75% of non-LGBTQ Americans are comfortable viewing gay couples in advertisements.

Furthermore, currently almost 50% of us believe attempting to change genders is morally acceptable. As many predicted, laws in some jurisdictions now mandate parents to sign for removal of children’s sexual organs and allow blockers or else they risk removal of those children from their homes. The new euphemism is “gender-affirming healthcare.”

The sacrifice of our children has begun — not to the Canaanite god Molech, but to an abominable ideology.

God silently observed the sexual immorality and child sacrifices in Canaan. Then one day He sent a foreign people called Israel into that area to drive out and slaughter so that the land could be cleansed. It began to vomit in death the inhabitants because of its putrid accumulation of detestable practices God wished to eliminate.

But today in the United States, most non-religious people along with many Christians and Jews approve of at least some things named in Leviticus 18.

Knowing God’s cataclysmic and fiery responses to sin makes conservative believers tremble at what we see. There are no “throwaway” verses. We fear what might be in the future for this land of the “free to thumb your nose at God.”

America is experiencing a moral earthquake, and a tsunami just might follow.