Some things are easier not to think about

One of the Big Issues in the church today remains that of human sexuality. I became a Christian as a teenager and started my faith journey in a conservative evangelical environment. In many ways I am deeply thankful for this = I was ‘born’ into a tradition which placed great emphasis on the centrality of Scripture and the redeeming work of Jesus. BUT it was a world of stark alternatives where everything was right or wrong; light or dark. Homosexuality was an abomination. Initially and for a number of years (about 2 !) I held this belief. Then I entered a sort of no-man’s-land of uncertainty where I basically just avoided thinking about it and did not have an opinion. This lasted for a long time – about twenty years – until it was not tenable any longer. What I could not reconcile was my ever deepening understanding of a radical, transcendent, utterly-disturbing Divine Love and a myopic, brittle and deadening world view which saw a section of people as irredeemable because of who they had been created to be.

It is not as we were taught

There is now an increasing body of biblical scholarship and opinion regarding the meaning of those passages in Scripture which have in conservative tradition been understood to point towards homosexuality being sinful in orientation and in practice. I have struggled with the traditional position and its consequential exclusivity and negative portrayal of God’s love for years, as a bible based evangelical. In recent years though, through emerging evangelical biblical understanding of the very few passages which mention homosexuality in the bible, I am increasingly convinced that God does indeed love all people equally, that the gender to which a person finds themselves attracted (not a choice) does not effect how God loves them, that all people, as created in God’s image, need the love and companionship (including intimacy) of an exclusive partnership.

A liberation

This has been a liberation for me – not that I am gay, but that the God I believe in does not exclude people for things for which they are not responsible. I don’t believe this is me twisting the Bible to mean what I want it to mean – rather I believe that through the ages translators have written their own prejudices into the text and we have been only too happy to reinforce this with our own predispositions.

Bottom line – I do not think that a committed, exclusive, long-term relationship between two same-sex people who love each other is different in essence from a similar heterosexual relationship and so it should not be an exclusion to leadership or anything else in the life of the Church, including marriage.

My journey continues

I am by no means a Biblical scholar.  I am on a journey of faith as we all are, whatever we believe or say we do not believe.  Quite apart form a formalistic, academic understanding of faith, there is a desperate need for authenticity – to be real and to keep it real.  I believe more and more that it is not enough to have come to a point of personal liberation on this issue.  In order to maintain authenticity as a Christian I am constrained to “hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake”, to “DO JUSTICE” and therefore not to remain silent when I believe that brothers and sisters of whatever or no faith are discriminated against, deeply hurt, and treated abominably because of who they are.

We are all on a journey

I recall someone saying at St George’s, Arlington (where I worshipped for a number of years when we lived in the USA) that they felt hurt and uncertain because they were trying to work through their own beliefs on this issue, and were not yet clear in their minds one way or the other, but that they felt threatened if they raised their questions about what the Bible said or what they thought at the present. They felt that even the process of enquiry resulted in them being labelled homophobic.  This either meant that they reacted negatively and reinforced their traditional perspectives or that they could not proceed along a path of genuine rediscovery.  I have to have sympathy with this because it is where I have come from. This does not mean though that I think that the rights of others should be put on hold whilst everyone gets on board.  I belief that the train has already left, that it is being steered by none other than the Holy Spirit, and that there is plenty of room for anyone and everyone to get on board, the sooner the better.

Personally

On a personal note I must thank a couple of people who have helped along the way for me to find liberation in this area. They might not think it but their authenticity and courage, their love of life and insistence on being who they are has lead the way.  A special nephew, JB, a certain priest in Virginia Diocese and public figures like Vicky Beeching, and +Jonathan and +Christopher of Southwark Diocese (who were very understanding in the wobble of conscience I had in the run up to my Ordination in June 2014).

Resources

In the course of the journey I have learned a lot.  Over the past year or two I have had to articulate my position a couple of times which has helped me to clarify things.  This process is not over yet by a long way though.  I am including a couple of documents here, not because they represent any great scholarship on this matter, but because they may be helpful to others who are struggling with these issues.

A Letter – This is a reply I sent to a friend who challenged me after I presented a workshop on inclusivity in 2013.  I have not included the letter he sent me to respect his privacy.