Sex and the Bible

David Maddox (Inside Politics, 21 July) draws attention to the incongruity of the new Liberal Democrat leader being unable to accept homosexuality.

Christians make a rod to beat their own back by paying too much attention to the unenlightened views on this matter by the Jewish scriptures, which they presume were endorsed wholesale by Jesus.

However, Jesus himself is not recorded as having made any comment on the matter. In fact, he seems to have had an intimate relationship with one of his disciples.

It is important to recognise that Jesus (unusually) seems to have remained unmarried and probably thought sexual relationships irrelevant in the face of the expected kingdom in which, he believed, the resurrected would be sexless.

So Christians would do themselves a favour by taking a similar disinterested attitude to homosexuality and all other modern sexual relationships, including abortion. They should follow their leader.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh