Late last night, I joined a BBC WM (West Midlands) phone - in programme, the Graham Torrington Late Show. Every week, the show discusses an aspect of love, sex and relationships. This week, the subject was changes in gay lives over the past 20 years or so. (Until Sunday 4th November, UK readers can listen to the full programme by following the link). Or, if you want my pearls of wisdom without the full program, if you are outside the UK, or listening at some future date - here’s an MP3 file, supplied by the producer.
terry weldon - bbc wm - tx 281012
What Torrington want to know from me, was two things. First, he asked about the circumstances that led me to marry (a lot more than twenty years ago), the consequences, and whether in modern circumstances I would have done the same thing. To recap, I repeat that as a young Catholic, steeped in Catholic education, I took it as axiomatic that I had to follow church doctrine in every element of sexual teaching. Repressing any recognition that I was in fact gay, I married far too young, two children soon followed - and thereafter a breakdown of the marriage in pretty traumatic circumstances. Along the way, both my wife and I drifted away from the church, and I lost almost all religious faith. After I later acknowledged my orientation, came out as gay and settled down in a committed, marriage - like relationship, my partner gradually led me back into the church.
The second theme I discussed concerned the very profound changes that have been taking place in the churches, and the position of gay and lesbian people in the Catholic Church specifically. I referred to the changing responses of Biblical scholars to reading the Biblical evidence, to the rise in numbers and acceptability of openly lesbian or gay clergy in many denominations, even at leadership level as bishops, or as national moderator (of the United Church in Canada), and to the spread of support for gay marriage - even in church - and to church blessings for civil unions. I also referred briefly to the growth of support groups for LGBT Christians, in every denomination (including Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists) and on every continent.
And so yes, was my very clear answer: in practical terms, it is vastly easier for young people to be openly gay than it was twenty years ago, and no, with an abundance of appropriate role models before them, these young people are far less likely than I was to feel forced into entirely inappropriate heterosexual marriage.
These changes I discussed represent four of the five transforming trends in the church that I identified in my address to the 2012 Quest annual conference. The one I did not cover directly, was the emergence of openly gay and lesbian theology (followed by queer theology), and the changing response it has forced from many other theologians, in recognizing that same - sex relationships should be viewed in much the same way as any other committed, loving relationships.
This was a subject that I covered as one of five trends in my Quest presentation - but Savi Hensman, an associate and columnist for the Ekklesia think - tank, has written on the same theme, in much greater depth, in a long essay on The Journey to Acceptance. Beginning, as I did, with the position in the mid - twentieth century and Canon Derrek Sherwen Bailey, who initiated the reassment of the Biblical evidence, she continues by tracing the developments throughout the intervening years right up to the present, identifying an impressive range of contributions by lesbian, gay and straight theologians from a wide range of traditions and denominations, and how this is reshaping views on the morality and value of same - sex relationships. (She explicitly does not include in her essay, the related but distinct subjects of gender identity and intersex people).
One of the delights of this essay, for one like myself who is not a scholar and lacks easy access to scholarly libraries and their journals, is that her extensive, meticulously cited footnotes almost all refer to on-line sources available to all. ( One or two exceptions are to abstracts of journal articles, not the complete originals, and one link I could not get to work). This a treasure trove I will be exploring in detail. For anyone with a serious interest in how the theology has changed, and continues to change, I recommend that you do, too.
Here are Savi Hensman’s section headings:
- Introduction and overview
- Beyond the sin of Sodom
- Questioning assumptions
- Love and grace
- Sexuality, liberation and “queerness”
- Theological reflection in fiction and film
- Debating sexuality in the church
- ‘Family values’ in the Bible
- Good news and challenge
- Creating space for discussion and reflection
- Looking back and forward
Related articles
- Blessed Are the Queer in Faith: Introduction and Summary
- “Blessed Are the Queer in Faith”: Quest Presentation, 2012
- Gays for Jesus: Catholic and Evangelical
- Queer Theology, Spirituality: An “Old Catholic” Perspective
- Incremental Change in Church for LGBT Catholics
- United Church Canada Elects Openly Gay Moderator
- Queer Lessons in Cardinal Martini’s Warning From the Grave
- Journey Towards Acceptance (Savi Hensman, at Ekklesia)
- Should Same - Sex Marriage be Accepted or Rejected by Christians? (Savi Hensman, at Ekklesia)
- On Clericalism: Priests as Servants or Little Lords? Implications for Gay Rights Discussion (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- Theological Commentary on Richard Mourdock’s Rape Comment (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- Margaret Farley’s Just Love: Theological Reflections
