Table of Contents | 1. Can a person who is gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender be part of the Church?
One of the most troubling questions of this modern world is that of homosexuality and the Christian faith. More than that, the entire country is substantially divided by this issue. On the one hand, there are deeply committed Christians who proclaim, loudly, passionately and, often, angrily, that the teachings of the holiness codes in Leviticus as well as Paul's writings forbid the expression of sexual love between two people of the same sex. On the other hand are those Christians, equally committed and passionate, who believe that sexual orientation is a given of human nature. Therefore, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender persons are bound by the same rules and codes as hetereosexual persons, including the right and freedom to marry. So how does a person decide which stance is acceptable? One place to begin is the book of Louis Crompton entitled Homosexuality and Civilization. His work is comprehensive and offers a way to think clearly about homosexuality. The other place to begin, for many Christians the only place, is the Bible. Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor in the Divinty School and Pusey Minister of the Memorial Church at Harvard University, has an able exposition on homosexuality and the Bible in his The Good Book. A principle guideline may be distilled from the wisdom of tradition even if some things lie outside of any immediate situation. But, most biblical scholarship doesn't find a concern for sexual orientation in the pages of scripture. Moreover, Jesus never mentions the issue. In fact, the word "homosexuality" didn't enter the English language until 1892! Remember, the Bible is to be understood as a compass, not a road map. By this, I mean that it doesn't always indicate the proper turn in the road for us although it keeps our direction steady. So, while it points us in a given direction, the Bible isn't to be understood in some "yellow pages" sense. You have a particular need. You open the Bible and, behold, there is your answer. The Bible isn't this kind of guide. Nor is it an "owner's manual." It isn't rules for a "purpose driven life." In his essay called A Biblical Perspective on Homosexuality David L. Bartlett, of Yale Divinity School, offers guidance for the task of an interpretive biblical hermeneutic. At the outset, he points out that much of the concern among those who raise questions about the acceptance of homosexuality is rooted in the claim that Christian morality is to be defined by its differences from the morality of the world. It cannot and must not shift with every wind of change. He writes that "changing ethical practices or shifting sexual mores in the 'secular' world cannot dictate changes in Christian ethical principles." This is the gist of the view that sees the Bible as a "road map." To determine the validity of this contention, he examines the familiar passages from the Old Testament and the New Testament. He exegetes the non-Pauline passages as well as the Pauline passages. Since Paul is often the referent for arguments about homosexuality, his interpretation of Paul's view is nuanced as well as detailed. "Therefore Paul's argument is not purely a 'theological' argument. It is an argument based in part on his own empirical understanding of the nature and consequences of homosexuality." That becomes the hermeneutic to develop "an adequate biblical understanding of homosexuality." Dismissing the notion that cultural bias is enough to reject Paul's perspective, he develops some principles by which we can deal with this concern. He concludes, "Without exception, those biblical passages which refer specifically to homosexual practices condemn those practices." Emphasis mine. At the same time, using a Pauline hermeneutic of "freedom from the law," he asserts that "traditional arguments from proof texts are a very inadequate means for moving toward a more adequate Christian response to the issue of homosexuality." Thus, he concludes by paraphrasing Paul. "In Jesus, neither hetereosexuality nor homosexuality -- in themselves -- are of any avail but faith working through love." Reflecting on these very same biblical passages William Sloan Coffin writes, in his book Credo, "It is not scripture that creates hostility to homosexuality but rather hostility to homosexuals that prompts some Christians to recite a few sentences from Paul and retain passages from an otherwise discarded Old Testament law code. In abolishing slavery and in ordaining women we've gone beyond biblical literalism. It's time we did the same with gays and lesbians. The problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages that condemn it, but rather how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ. It can't be done so instead of harping on what's 'natural,' let's talk of what's 'normal,' what operates according to the norm. For Christians the norm is Christ's love. If people can show tenderness and constancy in caring that honors Christ's love, what matters their sexual orientation? Shouldn't a relationship be judged by its inner worth rather than by its outer appearance? When has a monopoly on durable life-warming love been held by legally wed hetereosexuals?" Where does that leave us? It is essential to return to the best understandings we have. In summary, heterosexual and homosexual orientations, and all the basic gradations which appear on the spectrum of those orientations, are handed to us, not chosen by us. And, for me, it is this understanding that informs my own stance toward homosexual persons. Just as I had nothing whatsoever to do that I can recall with my being hetereosexual so it is with others whose orientation is different. Sexual orientation is a mysterious given communicated through an exceedingly complex set of chemical, biological, chromosomal, harmonal, environmental and developmental factors totally outside my control. In "God language" my hetereosexuality is a gift of God's grace. What I do with my sexuality is within the range of freedom available to me as my personal, moral and spiritual responsibility. The perspective is the same for homosexuality. That orientation, too, is a gift of God's grace. It comes in the same mysterious way as hetereosexuality. It is communicated through the very same exceedingly complex set of chemical, biological, chromosomal, harmonal, environmental and developmental factors totally outside one's control. In a lecture on Sexuality Melvin Wheatley, a United Methodist bishop, said, "All of us are busy all of the time acting out our own sexuality on, at least, two fronts. On the front of our own male and female role images, expectations and aspirations and on the front of our...relations in the erotic and genital sense. One of the persistent barriers on the front of affirming one's own masculine or feminine identity is created by the inevitable stereotypes current in any culture and heavily maintained by some in our culture suggesting and, at times, trying to dictate what it means to be masculine or feminine as if those are static concepts. But because of these dictations as to what it means to be masculine or feminine, each of us is forced either to challenge the stereotypes or repress and/or repudiate some parts of ourselves because there is no stereotype that fits perfectly any single one of us. Careful research, in fact, into individual differences has revealed the rigid stereotypes of gender characteristics to be as false as the racial and national and all other stereotypes have been." What's true for gender is true for orientation. Therefore, my conclusion is affirmative about the question with which I began. Sexual orientation doesn't disqualify anyone from the church or any other human activity that honors compassion, justice and peace. Both homosexual and heterosexual are adjectives, not nouns. They describe something important about us but not our essential human essence. Christians are called to recognize their homosexual brothers and sisters as full members of the body of Christ and to acknowledge that homosexual relationships can be legitimate expressions of human love. |