"In fact, 99.981 percent of the verses of the Bible are completely silent regarding homosexuality."
This question is more complicated than it might at first seem. First of all, the Bible is not a book, it is a library of books, most of which are written by different people (and sometimes a single book has multiple authors). So, when you read the Bible, you are not just hearing from one person, but dozens and dozens of different people - each with their own unique perspectives.
Now, there are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. In total, only 4 out of the 66 books of the Bible have anything at all to say about homosexuality. The other 62 books are completely silent on the matter. So, does the Bible as a whole condemn homosexuality? No. Do a majority of the Books of the Bible condemn homosexuality? No. Does a significant minority of books in the Bible condemn homosexuality? That depends what you consider to be a significant minority. How does 6.5 percent sound?
What if we asked, how many chapters of the Bible contain verses that condemn homosexuality? The answer is 5. That is only 5 out of 1,189 chapters of the Bible which address this subject. That is less than one half of one percent. I'm sorry, but I don't think that is very significant.
The six passages of scripture which are usually referenced by Christians who feel obligated by the Bible to condemn homosexuality are as follows: Genesis 19: 4-9; Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20: 13; Romans 1: 24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; and 1 Timothy 1:9-10. But let's deal with these passages separately.
Genesis 19: 4-9
First of all, the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction in chapter 19 of Genesis is probably the most popular scripture used to condemn homosexuality. The problem is, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't really about homosexuality. It was about people's inhumane treatment of their fellow human beings. I won't spend any more time on this subject here, because I've written three posts on it already. They can be found here (Part 1), here (Part 2), and here (Part 3). Because it wasn't about homosexuality, this scriptural reference wasn't even counted in the above calculations, but it wouldn't change the results much anyway.
Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13
Secondly, we have two parallel verses in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. I would agree that they are unequivocal in their condemnation of homosexuality. The problem with the Leviticus condemnations of homosexuality is that they are in Leviticus. You see, Christians have no clear and consistent way of determining which of the laws of Leviticus are still in force, and which are obsolete as a result of Jesus' fulflilling the law. Christians have already disregarded many of the laws of Leviticus. For example, there are actually more verses in Leviticus (and elsewhere) which condemn the act of eating bloody meat, but most Christians today wouldn't think twice about ordering a rare steak. Furthermore, we don't even fully adhere to the verses in question (thankfully). Leviticus 20:13 doesn't just label male homosexuality an abomination as 18:22 does, it goes way beyond that and actually requires that the guilty parties be put to death. Thank goodness, most Christians are comfortable disregarding that part of the verse... the question is, why don't we just disregard the whole thing?
1 Timothy 1: 9-10
Next, we have to talk about Paul's letters, beginning with 1 Timothy. Here, an author who is claiming to be Paul mentions "them that defile themselves with mankind" in a laundry list of other kinds of "sinners." So, clearly verse 10 is speaking unfavorably about homosexuality. The problem is, 1 Timothy wasn't actually written by Paul. It is a fraud written by someone claiming to be Paul. That said, 1 Timothy isn't really worthy of the trust that most Christians place in it.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Finally, we have to talk about Paul's two authentic letters which mention homosexuality. Similar to 1 Timothy, 1 Corinthians lists various kinds of "unrighteous" people who "shall not inheret the Kingdom of God," including "abusers of themselves with mankind." According to the Oxford Study Bible, the Greek is "Arsenokoitai" which literally means "men who bed males." This sounds like it could be a reference to the aforementioned verses in Leviticus, which raises an important question - "Was Paul convinced of the immorality of homosexuality because of an independent revelation from God, or did he just take these verses in Leviticus for granted?"
Romans 1: 24-27
Here, Paul describes what he apparently considers to be "degrading passions":
"Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another."
The Oxford Study Bible notes that the views expressed here are consistent with Leviticus as well as with the attitudes of Paul's Jewish contemporaries. Again, it is pretty clear that Paul does not think highly of those who engage in homosexual intercourse. And again, the question I raise is whether Paul's opinion is divinely inspired, or whether he is taking for granted the moral authority of Leviticus and his Jewish contemporaries regarding homosexuality?
I think it is important to remember that Paul is a human being and that humans make mistakes. To me, with a few exceptions, Paul's letters appear to be overwhelmingly inspired by God. At the same time, even he acknowledged that the counsel in those letters was sometimes his opinion, not necessarily the result of specific revelations from God. This gives us some wiggle room, I think, if we are not comfortable condemning our LGBT brothers and sisters to celibacy or hell. Another area that warrants further exploration is whether homosexuality as we know it today is even the same thing as the stereotype of Greco-Roman homosexuality that Paul and his Jewish contemporaries had in mind. If Paul knew what we know today about LGBT issues (through scientific and psychological research), would he still have condemned it?
While there are 5 passages of the Bible which appear to condemn homosexuality, the Bible as a whole says next to nothing on the subject. In fact, 99.981 percent of the verses of the Bible are completely silent regarding homosexuality. Paul's disapproving remarks may be traced back to his culture and to Leviticus (rather than originating with a divine revelation directly from God), and Leviticus contains all kinds of rules which Christians and Latter-day Saints no longer feel obligated to follow. In addition, as Mormons, we believe the Bible to be the word of God only "as far as it is translated correctly." Therefore, we have even more wiggle room than Paul himself gave us. Furthermore, because the Book of Mormon (which contains the fulness of the Gospel), Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are completely silent on the issue of homosexuality, the case against homosexuality in the LDS standard works is pretty weak. Lastly, the case against the legal right of same sex couples to marry under the civil government doesn't have a leg to stand on in the scriptures.
*Inspired by a thoughtful question my Dad posed to me a few years ago.