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Even pagan Ancient Roman society put more restraints upon it that our post-modern Western society does: From this Lutheran(LCMS) blog- http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=34693 "Thesis #2: Society is relatively ignorant of what scripture says on the issue of homosexuality, especially within its historical context If homosexuality is not to be singled out and/or removed from this list, could it be that Paul isn’t talking about homosexuality; maybe the passage isn’t interpreted or translated correctly? Examining the usage of the words μαλακoι and απσεvoκoιται are extremely valuable to the discussion and questions at hand for it reveals an important historical context for us to assess. You see, in the Romans Empire during the time of Paul ‘active’ homosexuality conducted by a Roman Citizen was tolerated when the ‘passive’ recipient was not a Roman Citizen. In other words, homosexual acts were not tolerated when the passive recipient was a Roman Citizen (i.e., it was not appropriate for a Roman Citizen to be penetrated in a homosexual way, but a Roman Citizen could penetrate a non-Roman Citizen). Thus, it could be said that the Roman Empire in the first-century had moral restraint on the ethics of homosexual activities. Indeed, it was inappropriate for a Roman Citizen to engage passively in homosexual activity, but not actively. Why is this important to understand? It is important to understand because Paul, knowing the Roman Empire’s homosexual ethics, uses two distinct words in talking about and condemning homosexuality; he uses both the words μαλακoι and απσεvoκoιται in his 1 Corinthian list. In other words, Paul not only condemns passive homosexuality (μαλακoι) as the Romans did, but he also uses the word απσεvoκoιται to condemn active homosexuality. Thus, Paul irrefutably rejects both the passive and active acts of homosexuality in his letter to Corinth."