Witness My Fury: The greek work for the NWT's "men who lie with men" is arsenokoitai. It seems to be a word coined by Paul. Strong's Concordance translates it as: Ar-sane: Male, man and Koy-tay: A couch; by extension, cohabitation; by impl. the male sperm: bed, chambering, X conceive. Many scholars say it refers to male temple prostitution. In Paul's day, men knew sex with a female temple prostitute would be wrong, but perhaps it would not be so bad with a male prostitute. Paul made it clear in at 1 Cor. 6:9-11 that such acts were also wrong. (Notice how Paul did not mention "women lying with women"?)
Why would Paul need to make such a statement? Just two weeks ago the National Center for Health Statistics reported that only 2 percent of the population is gay, 3 percent if you add bisexuals. However, a whopping 12 to 15 percent of straight -- and many married -- men admit to occassional sexual encounters with other men. (That figure is likely much higher when you consider that most straight men refuse to participate in such surveys.) The percentage in the first century was likely much higher because pederasty was still acceptable among some Greeks and so was sex with male temple prostitutes. So the question is: Was Paul refering to homosexuality as it is known in 2014 and only involes a tiny percentage of the population, or was he refering to a larger population of straight men (many married) in his day who widely practiced idolatry by having sex with male temple prostitutes and had sex with young boys? All of this is well documented in history, but churches -- including the Jehovah's Witnesses -- need a target to rally their members, much like the Pharisees did with lepers and women in Jesus' day.
