Thanks, Rainboy! I have a number of very busy days coming up but I will take this away and smith at a response.

I'd appreciate it if you would clarify one thing for me, though. Your taxonomy of relationships into norm vs. alternative seems to be entirely based on the non-biblical concept of normality or normalcy that was first mooted in the 1840's. It was part of the evolution of Georgian-era thought into the Victorian thought that became the guiding ethos of much of the world during the second half of the 19th century, when most of the earth was under the sway of European empires or culturally similar governments. I've always felt it had a great deal to do with regimenting people to be good imperialists, forming a sort of social uniform one could put on as part of one's general soldierliness. Sociologists in recent decades have had a lot of skeptical things to say about "the norm."

Do you have an underlying biblical concept in mind that you are trying to make more accessible with this terminology? Specifically, are you classifying relationships into those that are "against nature" and "in accordance with nature" as St. Paul did? Or do you really support the construct of "the norm" as it was conventionally understood circa 1950?

One major difference is that "the norm" rhetorically suggests that the socially/morally desirable thing is also the prevalent thing and that anyone deviating anywhere from the mainstream of society is probably going wrong. "Para. vs. kata physin," "against and for nature," as in St. Paul doesn't comment on society at all but instead suggests that behaviours are either harmonious with how God created things or are disharmonious with the creation. A person could go very far against the grain of society and be quite far from the norm, for example, by becoming a Christian (a dangerous, heterodox sect in the Roman empire in 100 AD), but that would not mean that they would be against the thrust of God's creation.

If I am really discussing Paul's "nature" with you then I would like to know it.