Does Ephesians 5 Prohibit "Gay Jokes"?
Recently, a good friend of mine told me about a sermon preached at his church on Ephesians 5:3-14 in which he—and many others from what I understand—took away as an application that "gay jokes" are prohibited (e.g. "That's gay."). He asked me my thoughts on this. Here is my genuine response to my friend, to help liberate him from this legalist tyranny.
It's ok to make gay jokes.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
- Ephesians 5:3-5 (KJV)
The crux of the argument against gay jokes hinges on the assertion that all the prohibitions in verses 3 and 4 have in mind sexual immorality. Not only fornication, but uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting; all of these should be interpreted in light of Paul commenting on sexual immorality. For example, with regards to the word "covetousness" in verse 3, the preacher states the following: "Is Paul switching to talk about money here? No, I think he's talking about sexual greed. Covetousness, greed, desire for something that you don't have is at the root of much of sexual sin." Just a little later, he comments on verse 4: "Don't even talk about it. It shouldn't even be coming out of your mouth... this is not a laughing matter to be joked around about, these types of sins. We shouldn't be laughing about them."
Foolish talking and jesting listed in verse 4 have sexual immorality in mind, and those are prohibited by Paul. A gay joke is jesting about sodomy, a disgusting and abominable sexual act. Therefore, gay jokes are unlawful.
Separate Vices
Here lies my first objection: there is no reason to think that the apostle had sexual immorality in mind when listing every vice here. I am a mere man, so let us consider the comments made about Ephesians 5:3-4 by a few of the great theologians in church history.
The emphases in all the following quotes are from me. I chose to only include relevant sections of the full excerpts and cut out irrelevant parts. The sources are cited, though, and you are welcome to read the full excerpts in their context.
In naming uncleanness in addition to fornication, the reference is to all sensual affections in distinction from wedded love...
Likewise with covetousness: we are to understand it is not to be named of Christians. That is, should one be covetous, should one defraud another or contend with him about temporal advantage, as evidently was true of the Corinthians (I Cor 6:1), the offense must not be suffered to go unreproved and uncorrected...
"Filthiness"—scandalous talk—is unchaste language suggestive of fornication, uncleanness and carnal sins. It is common in taverns and generally found as accompaniment of gluttony, drunkenness and gambling...
By "foolish talking" is indicated the fables and tales and other lore in which the Greeks particularly abound—a people who possess a special faculty for fiction of this sort. Similar are the tales commonly related by our women and maidens while spinning at the distaff, also those which knaves are fond of relating. Here belong also worldly songs which either relate lewd matters or turn upon slippery, frivolous themes...
"Jesting" has reference to those conversational expedients which pander to gaiety in the form of scandal; they are called among us banter and badinage. Laughter, mirth and gaiety is their purpose, and we meet with them generally in society and high life.
- Martin Luther, Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent; Ephesians 5:1-9
By uncleanness he means all base and impure lusts...
The third is covetousness, which is nothing more than an immoderate desire of gain...
By filthiness I understand all that is indecent or inconsistent with the modesty of the godly. By foolish talking I understand conversations that are either unprofitably or wickedly foolish; and as it frequently happens that idle talk is concealed under the garb of jesting or wit, he expressly mentions pleasantry,—which is so agreeable as to seem worthy of commendation,—and condemns it as a part of foolish talking The Greek word εὐτραπελία is often used by heathen writers, in a good sense, for that ready and ingenious pleasantry in which able and intelligent men may properly indulge. But as it is exceedingly difficult to be witty without becoming satirical, and as jesting itself carries in it a portion of conceit not at all in keeping with the character of a godly man, Paul very properly dissuades from this practice.
- John Calvin, Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians; Ephesians 5:3-4
With regards to uncleanness and filthiness, both Luther and Calvin connect those vices to sexual immorality, which is sensible. But we notice that for the other vices, neither Luther nor Calvin reference in any way that sexual immorality is what the apostle had in mind. Both of them take the listing of those vices as those vices as such. Particularly in Luther's case, he gives examples (there are more I didn't include) of things qualifying as foolish talking and jest. He does mention "worldy songs which [relate to] lewd matters" here, but it is in a long list of other examples not having to do with sexual immorality; he instead mainly addresses talk of the flippant and chipper kind.
Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian, comments more directly against "forced interpretations" of the listed vices:
With the sins of uncleanness the apostle here, as in the preceding chapter, v. 19, connects... covetousness. The word is to be taken in its ordinary sense, as there is nothing in the context to justify any departure from it. The assumption that sins of sensuality are alone mentioned in this and the following verse, leads to very forced interpretations of several of the terms employed.
Neither filthiness. The word... is not simply obscenity, but whatever is morally hateful. The adjective... means deformed, revolting, what excites disgust, physical or moral.
Lesser evils are expressed by the words... foolish talking and jesting. The former means such talk as is characteristic of fools, i.e. frivolous and senseless. The latter, according to its etymology and early usage, means urbanity, politeness.
- Charles Hodge, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians; Ephesians 5:3-4
I see no persuasive reason as to why we should understand all the vices the Apostle Paul lists as all being connected to sexual immorality.
Rhetoric and Societal Shame
If one is to argue that the text here prohibits any sort of gay joke, I believe a much stronger argument would simply be to argue that gay jokes fall under foolish talking and jesting in general. That is, sodomy—being such a disgusting and abominable act—ought not to be joked about so flippantly as to diminish the severity of the sin.
I will be the first to confess how prone I can be to take serious matters lightly. In my own personal life, I have over the past year been careful with regards to making jokes about hell given the gravity of the reality of eternal torment. The mature Christian life ought to be marked with a proper sobriety; the New Testament epistles are filled with calls to be sober. Yet, even with this consideration, I do not believe that anybody would assert that this means the Christian ought to never make any joke period.
There is much to be said on rhetoric, the proper use of mockery by Christians, etc. Whole books have been written on these subjects, which I will not do here. My case simply put is this: gay jokes blaspheme idols and contribute to societal shame of degenerate behavior.
Society puts sodomites (as well as all sorts of sexual degenerates) on a pedestal today; anybody who has been outside for two seconds can clearly see this. They are part of the "untouchables" of society. When we mock sodomy and related degenerate behavior, we demonstrate that we do not play by these rules nor bow down to the gods of this age.
26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
- 1 Kings 18:26-27 (KJV)
Was Elijah guilty of "not taking idolatry seriously" when he mocked the prophets of Baal and their false god? No, he merely recognized the rhetorical effectiveness and propriety of mockery in this situation.
Additionally, gay jokes, specifically ones that use the word "gay" as a pejorative, contribute to societal shame regarding this behavior. Social power is real power, even without force of civil law. Today, being labelled as a "racist" is the worst label one can receive today. In fact, we see people bending over backwards to try and appear "anti-racist" to the point of doing ridiculous and utterly absurd things. We all understand that violation of social dogmas comes at a social cost and threat of punishment; in this way, social power really is akin to civil law itself, enforced by society in large rather than a civil magistrate. This being the case, do we not want to live in a society in which degenerate behavior is heavily socially stigmatized? Instead of being celebrated, sodomites and degenerates ought to fear the social consequences of identifying as "gay." Gay jokes contribute to this, as they attach a negative connotation to the word "gay."
Growing up as a young child, I remember making gay jokes all the time with my friends: we would call each other "gay", call things we didn't like "gay", say "no homo", etc. The result? We all had an instinctual and pre-rational understanding that we didn't want to be "gay." Had any of us sat down and thought about the biblical and natural law cases for why sodomy was wrong? No, but we didn't need to; the societal stigma around it was enough. We understood that any hint of that kind of behavior would come with heavy mockery and shame from our peers.
It's time to bring that kind of societal shame back, and you can help by making gay jokes. In doing so, you can sleep well at night knowing that you are playing your small part in saving society.