One long-simmering crisis will come to the boil this summer, when the Church of England Synod has to decide whether to accept the proposed law to allow women to be consecrated as bishops; the evangelicals last year were defeated in their attempt to have roving (male) bishops serve the parishes that reject being ministered to by a woman bishop. If Synod approves having women bishops, some evangelicals could walk away; if the proposals are watered down to suit the evangelicals, the majority of laity, clergy and bishops could reject the proposed law completely, rather than compromise the equal authority of women bishops. Women and the Church are urging the bishops to make no changes.

Southwark evangelicals set up Good Stewards Trust to keep money away from liberals

Some of Southwark diocese’s conservative evangelicals plan to syphon off much of the money from their wealthy, largely suburban and middle class parishes, into a charitable trust that’s been set up. The Trust would then only hand this money to parishes that reject homosexuality and liberalism and have signed the orthodox worldwide Anglican Jerusalem Declaration.They want to keep their cash so it cannot go to the diocese and be used to support any liberal parishes or activities.

The Good Stewards Trust is led by Rev Paul Perkins of St Mark’s, Battersea, which hosted an international meeting of Anglican conservative bishops this April. His accomplice is Rev James Paice, of St Luke’s, Wimbledon Park.

Evangelicals blocked gay-friendly candidates for Southwark bishop

The copyright on this image of Southwark Cathedral is owned by Kevin Danks and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Southwark evangelicals last year blocked the appointment of two liberals for the Southwark bishopric, the Dean of St Albans, Jeffrey John, who is gay, and Nick Holtam, who is sympathetic to LGBT marriage, and is now the Bishop of Salisbury. The compromise candidate appointed was Christopher Chessun, who has upset evangelicals by not appointing any of them in his first year. A 100 strong evangelical delegation recently met him to complain.

The dissident evangelicals in Southwark have lined up five retired Church of England Bishops, including Michael Nazir-Ali, formerly Bishop of Rochester, to minister to evangelical parishes, and they are also finding lawyers to defend themselves, in case the Church of England challenges their new arrangements.

The dissident evangelicals don’t represent all the evangelicals in Southwark and Stephen Kuhrt, a prominent Southwark evangelical, of Christ Church, New Malden, details his opposition on Fulcrum, an evangelical website. He said that he does not want “further schism and separation” in the diocese. “Creating separate structures is tempting, but is virtually always unhelpful because it creates confusion. We don’t need evangelical ghettos being created, and we mustn’t use money as a means of blackmail.”

Anglican diversity

Traditionally the Church of England has been a very broad church, from high church parishes that use the Anglo-Catholic label, to orthodox evangelicals on the right wing. Most parishes lie between these extremes and the majority of the Church of England is liberal by inclination, as last year’s Synod votes for women bishops confirmed. In contrast, worldwide Anglicanism is predominantly orthodox evangelical, because the numbers of Anglicans in African countries significantly outnumber the relatively liberal churches in the developed world.

Worldwide Anglicanism also seems to be headed for division between Churches that have signed the orthodox Jerusalem Declaration, and the predominantly liberal churches of the developed world.

LGBT acceptance and marriage are divisive issues

The acceptance of LGBT people and women bishops by the Church of England (and elsewhere in the Anglican communion) are the twin lightning rods attracting strong evangelical disaffection.

The evangelical Archbishop of York, John Sentamu has just issued a long statement of opposition to Civil Partnerships and LGBT marriage

More information

Thinking Anglicans – some dissent evangelicals rebel on finance

Guardian – money becomes new church battleground

Southwark Ministry Trust: proposals

Fulcrum, evangelical newsletter: Avoiding liberal protestantism

Evangelical Rejects

Related articles

• Women bishops: do not amend the current draft legislation(thinkinganglicans.org.uk)

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• Gays in the Church of England: Covenant rejected(queeringthechurch.com)

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• English Bishop Backs Gay Marriage: Queer Ferment in the Anglican Church.(queertheology.blogspot.com)

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• Soho Masses: An Example for the Church of England?(queeringthechurch.com)

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What can realistically be done about the problem, is far less clear.

An article by the Evangelical pastor Jean – Blaise Kenmogne (author of “Homosexualité, Église et Droits de l’Homme” – in English, Homosexuality, Church and Human Rights) has an article in Cameroon Link that is the best explanation of the causes of the problem, and a suitable response, that I have yet seen.  The heart of the problem, he argues, lies in a sterile shouting match between those “for” or “against” homosexuality, with the two sides talking right past each other. But this simple binary division ignores the complexity of the issues, and both sides completely misunderstanding the nature of the other’s concerns. To make progress, we need to understand more clearly what it is that the our opponents are objecting to, and to articulate more precisely our own position.

Sadly for the Anglophone world, the article is in French, and I have not been able to find an English translation. Because I think it deserves careful attention, I offer  one here (with a little bit of help from a friend), with limited commentary of my own.

A perspective on a subject that arouses passions.

Jean-Blaise Kenmogne 

In recent years, the issue of homosexuality has become a major issue that split the Cameroonian nation against itself. In thunderous debates where emotion, prejudice, bias and virulent passions take precedence over reflection, rational analysis of the phenomenon, an understanding that is clear about what is at stake and with a sense of responsibility for managing it, minds are heated and agitated without trying to reflect on the problem on the basis of values ​​that underlie our being together and should guide the destiny of Cameroonian men and women in a common vision for the present and the future.

Leave the field of useless passions

Today, to understand what it is really about and clarify the terms in which the problem should be posed, one must above remove the passions from the debates and look at reality in the face.

If one takes this requirement as a prerequisite, it becomes clear that we must break the sources of discourse that shape the vision of the problem in terms of a binary logic “for” and “against”, with arguments that are equally incendiary on both sides. Those who think that the issue is actually that of being “for” or “against” are deceived about the problem and falsify what is really at stake.

When one stipulates, as key arguments, that it is the duty of Cameroonians [men and women] to be “for” homosexuality, one refuses to see that the phenomenon itself is problematic in the popular imagination and that there is an urgent need to formulate the terms in which the problem arises. One just needs to take the time to talk with what might be called the average Cameroonian to realize that there is a profound ignorance of what we’re talking about in reality, especially an appalling ignorance of the functioning of human sexuality not only as a field of natural impulses, but as cultural configurations determined by history, by the foundational myths, by the collective consciousness, by purely human interests and highly complex worldviews. As long as it has not been explained what actually happens in the fields of natural impulses and cultural configurations that are actually experienced, we will find ourselves still facing individuals or collective trends that perceive homosexuality as pathological categories of “normal” and “abnormal”, the “permissible” and “non-permissible”, the “acceptable” and “non-acceptable”, the “tolerable” and “intolerable.” It is this categorization due to ignorance that makes the followers of the “yes to homosexuality” in Cameroon talk to a wall of opposition. A wall that justifies its opposition to homosexuality by what it believes to be the natural foundations of sexuality (a sexual division of man–woman) or what one thinks is the venerable and immutable tradition ancestral or religious ( the order of what has always been done).

Isn’t the fundamental work to be done that of information and education based on real knowledge of human sexuality in all its complexity, its lack of differentiation on the ground, in its modulations and historical interconnections and cross-fertilization of cultures and civilizations in the matter of relations between men and women? What is missing today in Cameroon is this work toward a scientific, historical and cultural approach to the phenomenon of sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular. What we now need is that this work be done on a large scale, so that the debates no longer take place in a sea of ignorance, where we often speak without having any knowledge of what is been talked about.

Ignorance about sexuality and homosexuality in particular, is of course not limited to Africa. Even in the richest and best – educated countries of the North, the arguments against are often couched in simplistic terms of biological plumbing, or of “human nature”, or procreation as the “purpose” of sex or marriage, with no consideration of the actual evidence from science, anthropology, or history. It could well be though, that the problems arising from ignorance are just that much more severe on a continent with much lower levels of education, widespread poverty, and more limited access to printed or electronic media.

I am convinced that once we understand the deep sources of sexuality and homosexuality, one steps out of the logic of “normal” and “abnormal” to enter that of the “sexual majority” and “sexual minority” in the order of erotic orientation, without this posing either metaphysical problems or ethical issues, neither religious issues nor legal problems. One therefore understands that the real problem of homosexuality in Cameroonian society today is one of ignorance, nothing more and nothing less:

Ignorance about the complexity and indeterminacy of natural human sexuality in its impulses; ignorance of the cultural configurations and choices that are made ​​in sexual matters as well as the profound changes that the meeting of cultures and civilizations have induced in the visions of sexuality throughout history; ignorance of the radical freedom of human beings in terms of their intimate options.

There is today an urgent need to fight against this ignorance, instead of trumpeting everywhere that one is “for” homosexuality in a society that does not even know exactly what human sexuality means. A society that tends to confuse sexuality in its human dynamics with the penetration of genitals, as if human sexuality rises only from the animal order pure and simple.

Those who argue vigorously that they are “against” homosexuality should also, in the Cameroonian society, clarify their speech and say publicly what they are talking about. It is sufficient at this level too, to avoid facile blurring of terms and to ask the average Cameroonian to realize that the “no” is not as simple as one thinks.

In the passage that follows, Kempogne makes a case that what is objected to, is not just homosexuality as we might understand it in the modern gay world, but as an expression of domination and submission. From this perspective, the opposition is not fighting against freedom and human rights, as LGBT activists naturally assume, but a fight for freedom – freedom from sexual exploitation.

More often than not one needs to realize that what is being rejected is homosexuality as a system of power and structure of domination. We do not accept the politics of homosexuality that popular imagination conceives as a ritual of power and submission, to co-opt people into the closed circles of the socially dominant. One does not accept economic and financial homosexuality, purely fuelling the need for sustenance, which links employment opportunities for young people or their academic achievements to erotic practices in which these young people do not even know in advance that such proposals are not required as a condition of employment or as systems of “sexually transmitted grades” in schools and universities. We do not accept mystical-erotic homosexuality, leading men and women into a world where their sense of freedom and responsibility is destroyed. One says “no” to all this precisely in the name of freedom and responsibility, so that the country is not engulfed by a “minority” that holds power using sexual orientation as a force of domination and submission.

In such an alternative, it is clear that what we are speaking about rises as an attack against a social logic where sexuality is nothing but an instrument which is unacceptable to the majority of citizens. It is necessary therefore that things are made clear and that one knows to the level that one is talking about. It is necessary that we distinguish well between ritual-homosexuality in politics, sustenance-linked homosexuality that we impose on unemployed youth, esoteric-mystical homosexuality linked to the cooption in lodges and metaphysical circles, and homosexuality where the common Cameroonian ignores the mechanisms and what is really at the heart qua sexual orientation. If we make these necessary distinctions clear, the issue of “no” to homosexuality will be clarified and we will show in the public square the Cameroonian’s confusion, where one believes that one is fighting against homosexuality while at the same time it, in perverse forms, invades political circles, businesses, schools and universities, the lodges and their mystical initiation rites, as is affirmed in the speech of a popular imagination that so often true, but also, often just fantasy.

Fighting against the perverse forms of homosexuality, as is the case in Cameroon, on behalf of freedom and dignity of a majority of the population, that does not mean that one is fighting against homosexuality simply as a sexual orientation freely assumed, even though it is difficult to live such a choice before a “sexual majority” often ill-informed, without any real knowledge of the natural and cultural mechanisms of human sexuality.

Kempogne does not state in his article the foundation of his claim that African opposition is based on a perception of domination / submission relationships, but it is plausible. Cross-cultural studies of (male) same – sex relationships often posit common patterns based on age differentials (as in classical Greece), or differentiated social status (as in classical China), or gender differentiation (in which one partner, although biologically male, takes on female roles and dress).  The modern Western pattern of essentially egalitarian relationships, from a global perspective, is relatively uncommon.

None of these differentiated patterns of relationships are intrinsically exploitative. The Greek age – differentiated model was based on profound respect for the junior partner, for whom the relationship was a form of education and training. In the Japanese samurai model, it was a form of military training and apprenticeship, in which the junior partner learnt his trade from an older and more experienced. It is possible though that in conditions of severe poverty, a combination of coercion and material inducements (akin to the famed Hollywood casting couch) may have distorted traditional patterns of male relationships.  

Confront the real problem

By posing the real problem in this way, the “sexual minority” whose sexual practice is not yet publicly understood, should now live without molestation its sexual orientation in Cameroon. To the extent that the war which is currently made ​​on behalf of nature, history or law is based only on ignorance, it would be disastrous if the current Cameroonian “sexual majority” bases the foundation of law upon ignorance. It is time to address the criminalization of homosexuality in Cameroon by showing that this penalty is a breach of minority rights and a denial of a fundamental right of human beings: the right to be different.

Here, Kempogne continues with a theme that is familiar to queer Christians elsewhere: that it is entirely inappropriate to base homophobia on religious texts, when these have been so freely used in the past to justify actions and attitudes that are entirely discredited today.

It is also time to stop resorting to religious texts culturally situated in history and written in other contexts dealing with specific problems of specific communities to justify anti-homosexual religious positions that are purely obscurantist. It is not honest to make God out to be an anti-homosexual just to cling to human customs whereof we now know the original context and the cultural issues at root. God has already been used in the terrifying campaigns of the Crusades, ostensibly to liberate the Holy Land, while the real geostrategic issues of the Middle Ages lay elsewhere, in the conflicts of power and civilization where God had nothing to do with the violence of men. It has also, through disastrous readings of Sacred Scripture, based on God the foundation of the system of apartheid in South Africa, with the figure of Ham, cursed by Noah. It has likewise made of God, as always through disastrous readings of Scripture, the basis of the male domination of the feminine gender, as if women were inferior in the substance of their being, beings that have brought the sin in the world with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Should we today, still manipulate the biblical texts to base an inhuman attitude toward people whose only crime is to have a sexual orientation different from the majority? To the extent that, throughout the sacred texts, God is manifested as love and that Christ reveals to us as the perfection of love that does not discriminate nor crushes persons, would it not be urgent today to start from this central core of biblical revelation to look at the problem of homosexuality in the dynamics of love? In this dynamic, and not in the considerations that disparage God within human quarrels, all too human.

He closes by warning against the temptation to LGBT activists to simply shut down all opposition by simply labelling it as bigotry. Instead, we need to identify the areas where we can make common cause with those we see as our opponents, agreeing with them on the need for laws and social opposition to relationships based on domination by the powerful of the weak, or financial exploitation of the vulnerable. By moving away from mere emotional rhetoric, he suggests that both sides could conceivably move towards a society based on mutual respect, and genuine human rights.

At the same time, we must affirm that it is the duty of homosexuals not to swing to a proselytizing that seeks to impose their choice in a dynamic conversion of heterosexuals as if they were “infidels”, according to the logic of religious cruelty. We understand that homosexuals publicly hold citizenship in Cameroon, but it is unacceptable that they become an aggressive army against the prevailing heterosexual order. The rights of the homosexual minority impose duties of respect for other sexual orientations.

It is obvious. But in Cameroon, this evidence is misleading to the extent the political-homosexuality, sustenance-based homosexuality, mafia-criminal homosexuality and mystic-esoteric homosexuality proselytize and make use of political power, economic and mafia-spiritual power to impose their worldview. Today we need new laws to be passed against such practices. We also need to organize educational campaigns to protect young people against these practices. One should also teach Cameroonians the values ​​of solidarity, unity, respect for minorities and guarantee of human rights for all. We must discover the richness and strengths of the values of the Republic in such manner as to ask what are the place and the presence of homosexuals in Cameroon.

It is in this direction that it will be possible to understand what to do with the issue of homosexuality in our country, away from emotional uproar and the hostility of a logic based on ignorance or bad faith. What needs to be done is to guarantee human rights to all Cameroonians as members of the one social and historical community. This is to allow all Cameroonians to assume their duties towards national cohesion and social peace. This is to make all Cameroonians, regardless of sexual orientation, feel Cameroonian in Cameroon and it frees in them the powers to build his country as a nation that respects the human person.

Books:

• Murray, Stephen O: Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities
• Aldrich, Robert: Colonialism and Homosexuality
• Greenberg, David: The Construction of Homosexuality

Related posts at Queering the Church:

• African, Evangelical Pastor Argues for LGBT Equality, Inclusion
• LGBT – friendly Kenyan Bishop Brutally Attacked
• David Kato: A New Ugandan Martyr
• Uganda Martyrs: Charles Lwangwa and Companions
• Nzinga (1583-1663), Female King of the Mbundu. 
• Natural Families: Africa’s Female Kings and Husbands
• Natural Law, Natural Sex, Natural Families 
• Natural Families: Acquiring Manly Virtue
• • “Against Nature?”: Exclusive HETEROsexuality, and HomoPHOBIA.
  
  

Related articles elsewhere

• Traditional African homosexuality has learned from West (76crimes.com)
• International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO) (mlp.org)

 The bishops will stand with Dolan and the U.S. Catholic Conference, but on this issue, they are in moral schism since most in the Church have moved on [to] a more humane view on the rights of those whom God has made gay.

-Daniel Maguire

When I was interviewed on the BBC last week about my response, as a partnered gay Catholic, to Obama’s support for gay marriage, the interviewer put it to me that my views are out of line with the Catholic Church. My response was to point out that in fact, it is the other way around. My views on this, and on most other matters, are pretty well in tune with those of the Church as a whole – it’s the US bishops (and many others elsewhere) who are out of step with the Church. It is well known that the views expressed by Cath0lic bishops on sexual ethics and sexuality, and presented by them as the view of “the Church”, differ radically from the views of ordinary lay Catholics, whose views on such matters are shaped by real-life experience of loving sexual relationships. It is less well known, that the views expressed by the bishops are also not shared by the Church’s own professional theologians. An article by Matthew de Luca at The Daily Beast gives some examples.

Commenting on Cardinal Dolan’s response to President Obama’s stated personal support for gay marriage,  Paul Lakeland, a professor of religion and director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, a Catholic university in Connecticut, had this to say:

“That’s not really an argument that has a theological justification,” Lakeland said of the church’s opposition to same-sex civil marriages. “It’s an argument that’s based more on fear or repugnance.

“There is a lot more to be said about these issues than one stream of words from the hierarchy,” Lakeland said.

Bishop Cordileone reacted somewhat bizarrely to the North Carolina vote to entrench discrimination in the state constitution, by describing it as a victory “for justice, fairness and equality”, on the grounds that it would somehow uphold the right of every child to be raised by his/her biological mother and father. I dealt with the  logical flaws in this earlier. Daniel Maguire says it is also theologically flawed.

Cordileone’s position is dead wrong, says Daniel Maguire, a theologian and Marquette University professor who has written on church teaching and sexuality. Maguire said the interpretation of church teaching held by Dolan, Cordileone, and other bishops isn’t representative of the position held by many lay Catholics and theologians.

This is not simply a matter of theologians following the common herd – the disagreement is more fundamental, going right back to scripture itself. I have noted before that the Gospels are better described as displaying distinctly queer values, not the “family values” promoted so enthusiastically by the religious right and Catholic bishops – and any real respect for families should include respect for queer families. Scholars like Frank Parella, a professor of theology at Santa Clara University, agree.

Related articles

• US Catholics Agree: Gay/Lesbian Relationships Morally Acceptable
• Catholic “Truth”, or “Spiritual Reaganomics” ?
• Bishop Robinson: Sexual Acts, or Relationships?
• Relationships, Not Acts: An Emerging Catholic Orthodoxy?
• US Episcopal Presiding Bishop, on Gay Clergy And Birth Control

• Beyond the Hierarchy: The Blossoming of Liberating Catholic Insights on Sexuality (Part 6) (thewildreed.blogspot.com)
• Catholics Split on Gay Marriage (thedailybeast.com)
• Fred Clark on the (Non-Existent) Moral Authority of Those Promoting Anti-Gay NC Amendment (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• Catholic Bishops, Gay Marriage – and Slavery. (queertheology.blogspot.com)

Conservatives’ concerns about marriage seem to be based on a past that is fabricated from their own anxieties and obsessions. George Monbiot in today’s Guardian debunks traditional marriage and the heterosexual nuclear family as recent myths. Christine Odone in today’s Daily Telegraph, for example, is upset about the sidelining of heterosexual marriage because a conference she was due to speak at has been cancelled.

‘Throughout history and in virtually all human societies marriage has always been the union of a man and a woman.” So says the Coalition for Marriage, whose petition against same-sex unions in the UK has so far attracted 500,000 signatures. It’s a familiar claim, and it is wrong. Dozens of societies, across many centuries, have recognised same-sex marriage. In a few cases, before the 14th century, it was even celebrated in church.

This is an example of a widespread phenomenon: myth-making by cultural conservatives about past relationships. Scarcely challenged, family values campaigners have been able to construct a history that is almost entirely false.

The unbiblical and ahistorical nature of the modern Christian cult of the nuclear family is a marvel rare to behold. Those who promote it are followers of a man born out of wedlock and allegedly sired by someone other than his mother’s partner. Jesus insisted that “if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters … he cannot be my disciple” [Luke 14 v26, 27]. He issued no such injunction against homosexuality: the threat he perceived was heterosexual and familial love, which competed with the love of God.

This theme was aggressively pursued by the church for some 1,500 years. In his classic book A World of Their Own Making, Professor John Gillis [cover illustration above] points out that until the Reformation, the state of holiness was not matrimony but lifelong chastity. There were no married saints in the early medieval church. Godly families in this world were established not by men and women, united in bestial matrimony, but by the holy orders, whose members were the brothers or brides of Christ. Like most monotheistic religions (which developed among nomadic peoples), Christianity placed little value on the home. A Christian’s true home belonged to another realm, and until he reached it, through death, he was considered an exile from the family of God.

Read George Monbiot’s full article at The Guardian

You may also be interested in these postings at Queering the Church

Hywel Williams’ Superb History of “Christian” Marriage

“The Problem With Marriage”: Gay Minister, Marvin Ellison.

The Christian Case Against Marriage: “Family Idolatry”

Dr Jeffrey John’s Theological Case for Marriage Equality

Related articles

• ---

• Emlyn Williams’ Superb History of “Christian” Marriage(queeringthechurch.com)

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• An Authentic, Catholic History of Marriage(queeringthechurch.com)

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• Tina Beattie’s Traditional, Catholic Vision of Marriage (for all).(queeringthechurch.com)

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Here’s an extract from the report at Gay Star News

Evangelical rector based in Cameroon Jean-Blaise Kenmogne has come out in defence of LGBT rights

With Christian extremists leading the campaign against gay people in Africa a Protestant pastor in Cameroon, Jean-Blaise Kenmogne, has become an unlikely defender of lesbian and gay rights.Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender carries huge risks in Cameroon; same-sex sexual acts are illegal under section 347 of the penal code with a penalty of five years imprisonment and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 Cameroon Francs. If the offender is under the age of 21 a more severe punishment is likely.

Kenmogne’s outspoken pro-gay stance is raising eyebrows because he is not only a Protestant pastor but also rector of the Evangelical University of Cameroon, as well as being an ecologist.

In an interview with Haman Mana, the editor of the Cameroonian daily, Le Jour, recently published as part of a book on the Church and Human Rights, Kenmogne tackles some of the most common homophobic misconceptions in Cameroon.

According to Slate Afrique, the pastor spoke against the prevalent opinion in country that see HIV and AIDS as a ‘plague’ that rightfully punishes sinful gays. ‘Is this how it should treat human beings? That’s the question I asked myself and propelled me to answer “no, no, no,” categorically “no”,’ he exclaimed.

He counters the often-discussed view that ‘homosexuality is a Western import and ‘un-African’ with the assertion, citing contemporary sociologists and esteemed African intellectuals that ‘homosexuality has always existed and continues to exist in Africa’.

full report at Gay Star News.

In an extended French language article at Cameroon Link, Kenmogne argues that the roots of the conflict and strong emotions lie in the mistaken insistence that the problem is a simple binary one of either “for” or “against” homosexuality, desperate ignorance in Cameroon of the complexity of and nature of human sexuality itself, as well as of homosexuality, and a failure to articulate clearly just what it is that the combatants are arguing for or against.

He also refers to the extensive research showing that homosexual relationships were extensive across Africa in pre-colonial times, and refutes the arguments that opposition is required by the Bible, by reminding us that similar arguments from the Bible were used to justify slavery and apartheid.

See also:

• Jean-Blaise Kenmogne*. L’homosexualité au Cameroun : au-delà des amalgames faciles .
• Cameroun: seul contre tous, un pasteur prêche la défense des homos
• Ce pasteur camerounais très gay-friendly

Books:

• Murray, Stephen O: Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities
• Aldrich, Robert: Colonialism and Homosexuality
• Greenberg, David: The Construction of Homosexuality

Related posts at Queering the Church:

• LGBT – friendly Kenyan Bishop Brutally Attacked
• David Kato: A New Ugandan Martyr
• Uganda Martyrs: Charles Lwangwa and Companions
• Nzinga (1583-1663), Female King of the Mbundu. 
• Natural Families: Africa’s Female Kings and Husbands
• Natural Law, Natural Sex, Natural Families 
• Natural Families: Acquiring Manly Virtue

Gallup last week released opinion poll findings that confirmed US support for gay marriage. They have followed this up today by releasing additional findings from the poll, for some related matters on same – sex relationships.   Although there has been a small drop in support since the last survey, the long – term trend is clear: there is growing agreement that these relationships are acceptable.

At 54% acceptance (against 42% still opposed), this is hardly overwhelming. The results for Catholics however, are remarkable, and contrast very sharplt with the verdict of the CDF and the Catechism:

That’s two -thirds of American Catholics believe that gay/lesbian relations are morally acceptable – a far cry from the doctrine that is officially espoused.

Related articles

• Celebrating Our Relationships
• Lay Catholics Stand Up for Gay Marriage
• Gay Marriage and the Gospels: Irony of Ironies!
• Catholic Gay Marriage Disputes: Australia
• Lesbian, Gay Catholics: Emerging From the Shadows

• Beyond the Hierarchy: The Blossoming of Liberating Catholic Insights on Sexuality (Part 6) (thewildreed.blogspot.com)
• Glenn Greenwald on Why Obama’s Statement about Marriage Equality Matters (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• GOP Insider Memo recommends changing course on Same-Sex Marriage (commonwealmagazine.org)

Reverend Dr Christina Beardsley, a transgender priest, was invited by Hertford College to preach at Evensong on Sunday.

Representing Changing Attitude, an organisation that works for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion, Beardsley preached in front of a wide range of students, tutors and fellows. This included members of the Christian Union, as well as college and University diversity a LGBTQ officers.

In her sermon, Dr Beardsley said, “Some Christians seem to treat the Bible exactly like a rule book, especially when it comes to matters of sexuality and gender. Texts and verses are ripped from their context and misused as sticks with which to beat lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as women.

Full report here

On the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme on Sunday, the Conservative Defence Secretary, Phillip Hammond, said marriage equality was “clearly not the number one priority” in England and Wales, because it was not included in the Queen’s Speech plans for new laws this session of Parliament. This is hardly surprising when the public consultation doesn’t end until 14th June. However the coalition Equalities Minister has reassured campaigners in England and Wales that the government is still firmly behind the proposals for marriage equality.

Have your say on the England and Wales marriage equality consultation here.

Scotland takes the marriage equality lead

GayStarNews has just published a major feature on the lead Scotland is taking on marriage equality. Scotland’s lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender marriage proposals are ahead of England and Wales in several ways, most especially because Scotland plans to allow religious ceremonies to be offered by any faith-based organisations which chooses this, while faiths that disagree won’t be forced to provide LGBT weddings. Scottish same-sex marriage campaigners are therefore calling on the Scottish government to show it means what it says now, and lead the way on marriage equality for the UK.

If Scotland does what it plans and allows churches and faiths to offer LGBT marriages, that would make it harder for Westminster to prevent faiths in England and Wales from offering this.

Some Christian opposition, but broad Christian support for equality

The opposition to marriage equality in Scotland is led by the Scotland For Marriage campaign made up of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, The Christian Institute, Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), Destiny Churches, and The Evangelical Alliance. The Anglican Church of Scotland is not a formal part of this opposition, unlike in England and Wales where the Church of England is defending ‘traditional’ marriage.

In response a large coalition of multi-faith groups launched a pro-equality campaign called Faith in Marriage at the end of April, asking the Scottish Parliament to fully support marriage equality and lift the ban on religious same-sex marriages in Scotland.

Dispelling the myth that the fight for gay marriage is a fight between LGBT people and believers, the new group contains an impressive list of faith groups. Members of the Faith in Marriage coalition include the

• United Reformed Church
• Quakers
• Unitarians
• Liberal Judaism
• Humanists
• Iona Community
• Buddhists
• Open Episcopal Church
• Metropolitan Community Church
• Pagan Federation

In addition, ministers from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church are also backing it.

Freedom of religion means freedom to offer LGBT marriages

The Faith in Marriage coalition agrees that religious bodies that do not wish to conduct same-sex marriages should not have to but it argues that opponents of same-sex marriage are actually attempting to ‘impose their views on all other faith groups and the rest of society’, pointing to recent lobbying by the Scottish Catholic Bishops Conference and the Council of Glasgow Imams as evidence. That’s not allowing religious freedom to other faiths and people who disagree with the official position of their faith leaders.

‘protect and extend’ freedom of religion and belief by allowing faiths to marry LGB couples

In a joint-letter to Scottish Parliament, the Faith in Marriage coalition warns that it would ‘strongly oppose’ any attempt to restrict same-sex marriage to just civil ceremonies. Instead they want assurances from Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) that any proposed legislation will

‘protect and extend’ freedom of religion and belief by ‘giving those religious and humanist bodies that do want to conduct same-sex marriage the right to do so.’

Scottish Christian Churches speak out for LGBT marriage

Speaking to Gay Star News, Bishop Richard Holloway, former Primus (head bishop) of the Scottish Episcopal Church said:

‘I am somewhat upset that fellow Christians state the Bible is against same-sex relationship, it says nothing of that sort at all, it only talks about abusive heterosexual and homosexual relationships. It’s not true that Christian faith groups are in particular against same marriage but rather a minority.’

And Reverend David Coleman, Convenor of the United Reformed Church in Scotland’s Church and Society Committee said:

‘I am in favour of marriage equality, marriage is a good thing. We really look forward to the day when Scotland will not ban individuals from celebrating their marriage and bringing their faith into it, we want an end to the double discrimination which LGBT people face.’

Reverend Scott McKenna, Church of Scotland Minister for the Edinburgh parish of Mayfield Salisbury, stated that while the Church of Scotland’s official position is undecided, he

‘very much supports equality. If you don’t support equality, you are saying that somehow heterosexual people are better, and LGBT people are somehow not as good. That’s just pure discrimination and homophobia which sanctions personal pain, low self-esteem and ultimately violence against individuals and self. This is a cycle that needs to be broken!’ He also added that his congregation ‘is very supportive of marriage and don’t see what the problem is.’

Other religious leaders have expressed their support of marriage equality to Gay Star News, all affirming that their congregations fully back same-sex marriage and wish to solemnise and bless LGBT people who wish to get married.

Commenting on the contrasting Faith in Marriage and the opposing Scotland for Marriage campaigns, Tim Hopkins, director of the Equality Network, the Scottish campaign for marriage equality said:

‘The Faith in Marriage campaign demonstrates that many people of faith and religious organisations support marriage equality, which contradicts the impression that Scotland for Marriage wants to convey. That is, after all, what 61% of the public agree on and all political parties in Scotland agree on.’

Weeding the grassroots: Catholic laity not consulted

As for Scotland for Marriage‘s claim that they represent the grassroots, Hopkins said:

‘They did not consult Catholics. They told Catholics what to think about the issue, rather than ask them. So for example, when the campaign offered their contribution to the government consultation, campaigners handed out postcards at Catholic Churches during mass for attendees to sign that they are against same-sex marriage. However they were not given the choice to express their opinion if they support same-sex marriage. We know from independent surveys that have been done that the majority of Catholics support same-sex marriage. So one can dispute the campaigns’ claim that it is a grass-roots driven.

Real Scottish grassroots supports marriage equality

‘The equality network, by contrast, is a grassroots campaign which asked Scottish LGBT people if they wanted marriage equality, with 85% of respondents in favor. The Scottish Youth Parliament, consulted 48,000 young people in Scotland, and same-sex marriage equality came out as one of the top priorities. So there you have a genuine grassroots campaign.’

Muslim SMPs support equality too

Hanzala Malik (Labour) and Humza Yousaf (SNP), are two Scottish Muslim MSPs who have pledged their support for marriage equality, as did Anas Serwar, MP, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party and a Muslim. This according to Hopkins shows among Scottish Muslims there is a broad range of opinions as well.

59 SMPs and all 5 political parties support marriage equality

Already 59 MSPs (47%) of the 129 Scottish Parliament members, according to Hopkins, have pledged their support by signing the Equality Pledge of the Equality Network, and many more have expressed their support in public, including First Minister Alex Salmond and the Second Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Thus in addition to grassroots support, all the five political parties in Scotland, including leaders of Scottish government ‘fully support marriage equality.’

Consultation results in June, then the draft law out in the autumn, made law by the end of 2013

Hopkins added that after the results of the consultation are published in June he

‘fully expects the Scottish Government to introduce a draft bill for same-sex marriage in the autumn and then complete the consultation on the draft bill by the end of this year. So the actual bill can be introduced for a vote in the Scottish Parliament by early next year and pass, at the latest by the end of it. So it is perfectly feasible expect marriage equality by the end of 2013.’

Scares on ‘inferior relationships’, ‘harmful to partners and children’ dismissed

Commenting Scotland for Marriage’s claim that same-sex relationships are inferior to mixed sex relationships and that they can be harmful both to partners and children, Hopkins said:

‘There was a very good broad review published about two years ago in Journal of Marriage and Family entitled “Does the gender of parents matter?” which concluded that there is no evidence that children do better if their parents are married and no evidence that children do better if parents are of a mixed-sex relationship, or biological parents of the child.

What mattered most were the love, commitment and quality of care that the parents show, and actually, if you look at all the evidence published statistically, two women do a better job than a mixed-sex parents in bringing up children. Thus same-sex partners are just as good as parenting as mixed-sex parents and that is the kind of evidence that clearly refutes the misinformation and negative language used by the Scotland for Marriage for campaign.’

‘Since they know they have lost the argument in public opinion, they are now trying to run a campaign of scaremongering about what will happen if marriage equality becomes law; saying, for example, that Catholic churches and mosques will be forced to conduct same sex weddings. That is not true.

‘There are seven neighbouring countries who introduced same-sex marriage over 11 years and in none has this been the case. The government of Scotland said it would ensure that via legislation and we agree with that.

‘More misinformation was distributed in Glasgow printed on leaflets which stated that Catholic schools will not be able to tell pupils what the Catholic view of marriage is, that is nonsense. There are three issues which are legal in Scotland, contraception, divorce and abortion, which the Catholic schools are entitled to voice their opinions on. It will be exactly the same. The Catholic Schools would be able to tell pupils that they think a marriage should be between a man and a woman, just as they are able to say that the Catholic Church thinks sex should be only conducted between married couples, even though the law in Scotland legalizes sex between consenting people from the age of 16.’

Call for political leaders to speak out publicly for equality

Hopkins is critical that the political leadership in Scotland is not ‘speaking against the very hurtful language used by opponents of equality, with the exception of the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.’

His views are echoed by the Director of Stonewall Scotland, Colin Macfarlane.

‘While it is fantastic that all the major party leaders support marriage equality, we need our leaders to do is to stand up against homophobia in general,’ he told Gay Star News. ‘I think our politicians can be a bit bolder to stand against homophobia.’

Following the recent lead of President Obama, Scottish political leaders may now feel emboldened to champion marriage equality.

Out gay Scottish Nationalist MSP speaks out

Speaking with Gay Star News, Marco Biagi, the out gay MSP for the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party in Edinburgh Central said:

‘Scotland for Marriage attempt to portray this issue as religion versus equality, when there are a number of diverse religious organisations that want to offer same-sex marriage and have come out in support of it. The fact the Scotland for Marriage hasn’t managed to rouse a broad range of range of denominations in their support shows there is a great diversity of opinion on same-sex marriage and it is not as clear cut as they attempt to portray.’

Asked about the criticism of the lack of party leadership speaking out for equality, Biagi carefully responded:

‘In any debate there are helpful and unhelpful contributions, and all indications are that the equal marriage campaign is enjoying wide grassroots support; it’s a vision of a more equal, inclusive, more accepting Scotland and that’s the kind of country that people want to live in, not a Scotland that is divided or separated on the grounds of sexuality or anything else.

‘Alex Salmond [SNP’s leader and Scotland’s First Minister] was very clear he is for equality provided that no religious organisations are going to be compelled to carry same-sex marriage, which is exactly the position of the Equality Network.

‘Any opportunity I get, any platform, any microphone, any interview, I will talk until I am blue in the face about the vision for Scotland, that is inclusive, tolerant, accepting, where we have marriage equality for all minorities. I think talking relentlessly about what we do want, the kind of Scotland we do want to live in, is for me more productive then getting into a battle with a religious leader, where all indications clearly show the majority of Catholic population of Scotland are in favor of marriage equality.

Religious leaders alienating the faithful

‘I would rather not alienate them, when, to be frank, their religious leaders are doing quite a good job of that themselves. It’s how we campaign in the SNP, what talk relentlessly about what we believe in, we don’t get dragged into battles that will lead people to switch off, or some slagging match. I think the [pro-gay marriage] campaigns have been visionary in their approaches, talking about what they want rather than being dragged into conflict.

‘When the politics of fear is confronted, the politics of hope will always win. This is a classic situation when a vision of hope of a better country is presented against a vision of fear and hate, and the better vision will always win out.’

Election campaign failures of Scotland for Marriage

It is clear the Scotland for Marriage campaign failed to affect the May Scottish local elections. They leafleted widely and toured pro-traditional marriage advertising vans around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Garry Otton, an LGBT advocate from the Secular Scotland group told Gay Star News:

‘The Scotland for Marriage coalition wanted to see everyone vote for candidates from parties that oppose same-sex marriage. That’ll be the Scottish Christian Party or BNP. Well, they’ve lost. Not just the fair, young-minded people who do not share their bigoted views; but also their deposits.’

Additionally the Labour party recaptured Glasgow Council, one of the strongest supporters of marriage equality in Scotland, and the SNP also increased its total number of councillors in the local elections.

Tim Hopkins, director of the Equality Network adds:

‘Scotland for Marriage is using scare tactics, effectively trying to bully and scare MSPs that they will run a big single issue campaign that will cause them to lose their seats in the next general election, setting the local elections as an example. Clearly they have lost.’

Regarding the threat that Scotland for Marriage has made against the SNP, to oppose plans for Scottish independence if the SNP legislates for marriage equality, Hopkins says:

‘That’s a bit of strange one, the UK government is in favour of same-sex marriage, so that argument is irrelevant. I think one of the reasons that people are going to vote for independence is because they have a vision of Scotland as a modern, progressive forward-looking nation like our neighbors Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands – small and highly successful countries that have full equality. So if Scotland for Marriage were to campaign against independence it would have no effect, if anything it may encourage young people to vote even more strongly for independence.’

The Equality Network say that delaying legislation until after the independence referendum would be a mistake:

‘Delaying a decision on same-sex marriage would put the issue centre-stage during the referendum campaign, and would undermine any goodwill that the Scottish government secured when they brought forward their equal marriage proposals.’

Scotland, be a Progressive Beacon

Tom French, policy coordinator for the Equality Network, added:

‘The Scottish government now has the perfect opportunity to prove that Scotland is capable of being the progressive beacon that our political leaders want it to be, by leading the way on equal marriage rights.’

More information and comment

Gay Star News      Scotland: winning the gay marriage fight

The Guardian ‘Comment is Free’      Christianity does not sit in opposition to progressive equality legislation

The Church of England’s new Bishop of Salisbury, fresh from St Martin-in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square, London, speaking about  marriage equality    Making Space for an Honest Conversation

The Independent    Same-sex couples who want to embrace marriage should be a cause for rejoicing in the Christian Church

Cutting Edge Consortium: working to eliminate faith-based homophobia, transphobia and institutionalised prejudice towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people

Gay Rights USA, State by State – interactive graphic from The Guardian

Related articles

• Scottish Faith Groups want to offer Same-Sex Weddings(queeringthechurch.com)

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• Scottish Catholic Education Service opposes gay marriage(queeringthechurch.com)

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• Pope’s envoy tells Bishops: ‘get tough on gay marriage’(queeringthechurch.com)

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• Catholic Schools Told to Oppose Gay Marriage – Pupils say ‘No Way’(queeringthechurch.com)

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• Now you have your say on plans for Gay Civil Marriage Equality(queeringthechurch.com)

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Sounds radical?  Sure is.  But I heard basically the same message from Joseph Ratzinger when he was a promising young theologian serving as a “peritus” (an expert advisor to the bishops) during the Second Vatican Council.  At a press conference during the 1963 session (the exact year is fuzzy in my aging memory), he told us that throughout the history of the RC Church it has happened that the Bishops so lost touch with the message of Jesus that it became incumbent upon the laity to exercise their prophetic role given in Baptism and to stand up and refuse to obey!

Joseph Ratzinger, Peritus

That was Joseph Ratzinger in 1963….Quite different from Benedict XVI in 2011

Kung & Ratzinger vs Benedict XVI

Different, indeed.

Independently of this, I have been forcibly struck in recent weeks by how often I have been seeing references by bishops and in Vatican documents to the importance of seeking and passing on “Truth” – always in a context which implies that the passing of truth is a one-way process, from bishops to the rest of us. So, I was intrigued by this very different perspective reported by Knitter, in which he reports on an address at a theological conference, comparing this trickle down conception of Truth with the trickle down of wealth postulated by Reaganomics:

A  Reaganomics of spiritual truth and beliefs, the two speakers pointed out,  claims that truth is delivered from above – from God’s revelation and then through the bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome.   It then is to “trickle down” to the ordinary faith.  In this understanding, the primary role of theologians is to help it trickle.Such an understanding of how things work, Clifford and Gaillardetz made clear, does not conform to the nature of the Catholic Church, especially as the church as been understood in the Second Vatican Council. In their lecture, which they presented as a verbally danced duet, they gathered, refocused, and recharged what has been the pretty standard “ecclesiology’ (understanding of the church) that Catholic theologians have advanced since the explosive breakthroughs of the Second Vatican Council:

• That the beliefs of the Catholic Church are to be worked out through the collaborative and dialogical mining of three sources: the people of God (or the sensus fidelium – the sense of the faithful), the bishops (with the Bishop of Rome providing the unifying center), and theologians.
• While each of these sources of Catholic belief have different roles within the Church, none of them can be placed “above” the other.
• Each of these sources – bishops, theologians, people — has to “receive” (that means, listen to) what the others are saying.
• If any of the three sources has a certain “primacy” it is the “the people of God.” Therefore, as Clifford and Gaillardetz stressed, the exercise of the bishops’ and Pope’s teaching office must begin with listening carefully and respectfully to the “sense of the faithful.”   The role of the theologians is “to help the bishops listen carefully.”

via A “Spiritual Reaganomics” in the Catholic Church?

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• Religious Women, and Vatican Control: Some History
• “The Ire of Eire”: Catholic Rebellion Gathers Steam

• Fr. Tom Reese on Need for Preferential Option for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• How We Must Respond to the Inquisition of the Twenty-First Century (opentabernacle.wordpress.com)
• The sexual-abuse crisis: unfinished business. (commonwealmagazine.org)
• Fintan O’Toole on Vatican Bullying of Irish Priests: “Loud on Liberals, but Silent on Abuse” (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
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Bishop Kamau of the Trinity Methodist Church – Kenya considers that Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexuals and Intersex (LGBTI) Christian’s persons are entitled to fellowship with their fellow Christians and should not be discriminated against. He recently paid a heavy price for this. Three days ago, a group of four heavily armed young men in a four wheel drive vehicle, trailed his small saloon car and brutally attacked him as he slowed down at a muddy stretch near an Orphanage/School for socially disadvantaged especially HIV/AIDS and Internally Displaced Persons IDP’S children affected in 2007/08 general election that the Trinity Methodist Church – Kenya runs in Rift Valley Province.

They told him that they had been sent to “finish” (Kill) him in relation to his stand, as the only openly responsive bishop to LGBTI persons in East Africa. During the attack, the Bishop was roughed up, hit with gun butts, and threatened with AK 47 assault rifles with which the assailants were armed. They then bundled him into their car, drove him to the school and purported to search for evidence of his transgressions; welcoming and ministering to LGBTI persons and seminars he has be holding with pastors and bishops in Kenya. The assailants occasioned damages to the orphanage/school estimated at over $187,000 in which they trashed the office, classes, and dormitory and finally made away with computers and school supplies.

The attack put the bishop in hospital for three days. He sustained injuries to his torso, a dislocated arm and still feels pain on his chest and back. In retrospect, the attack has been the culmination of a sustained campaign of threats and intimidations that the bishop has been subjected to in the last one year since he openly stated that Jesus does not discriminate and affirmed that all persons, regardless of their sexual orientation, who profess Jesus Christ as their savior, and obedience to Him, were welcome to be or become full members of the Church and that all members of the Church were eligible to be considered for the Ordered Ministry. This is a stand that is at logger heads with most Christian churches in Kenya who continue to oppose LGBTI in the places of worship.

- via Trinity Methodist Church

This vicious attack, like the murder of David Kato a year ago, is a sad reminder of the difficulties faced by LGBT Africans in the face of violent homophobia, whipped up in the name of religion – but it is also an important reminder that there are groups inside Africa, religious and secular, gay and straight allies, that are actively working towards improvement.

For example, Trinity Methodist itself includes on its website a page describing its own specific LGBT ministry – in which, they are way ahead of many congregations in Europe and North America. Here’s an extract, describing the activities:

Trinity Methodist Church believes the church should be open to ALL PEOPLE. Jesus Christ came to save the sinners. He never discriminated anyone. Trinity Methodist Church LGBT Ministry is geared towards –

-  Conducting Bible Study with the LGBTI ( currently we have Bible study classes in Nairobi and Mombasa) more classes  and  fellowships opening up in Kisumu,Nakuru,Eldoret ,Kampala,Kigali,Bujumbula and Darsesalaam soon.

-  Counseling the LGBTI

-  Engage church leaders to open doors to LGBTI in their churches

-  Christian literature distribution to LGBTI

-  Facilitate spiritual dialogues and discussion with LGBTI

-  Health and HIV/AIDS program with LGBTI communities

For more information contact the through program coordinator 

The “program coordinator” referred to, is precisely Bishop Joe Kamau, who has been attacked for his work. In responding to the virulent homophobia that is so often visible in Africa, we must never forget that it is not homosexuality that was imported by the colonial missionaries and administrators, but homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality. Sexual and gender diversity was commonplace right across pre-colonial Africa, and the only eight countries in the world that have never criminalized same -sex relationships, are in Africa.

There has recently been increasing interest in the rich Western countries in offering help to boost progress towards LGBT rights and equality in Africa and the rest of the developing world, but this needs to be done with care: any suggestion by the rich countries of neo-colonial bullying of the poor countries into compliance, can backfire badly. It is better by far, to channel our good intentions into support for domestic initiatives – like those of Trinity Methodist Church, and its LGBTI ministry. Read the full report of the attack at their website, to see how you can help.

Books:

• Murray, Stephen O: Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities
• Aldrich, Robert: Colonialism and Homosexuality
• Greenberg, David: The Construction of Homosexuality

• David Kato: A New Ugandan Martyr
• Uganda Martyrs: Charles Lwangwa and Companions
• Nzinga (1583-1663), Female King of the Mbundu. 
• Natural Families: Africa’s Female Kings and Husbands
• Natural Law, Natural Sex, Natural Families 
• Natural Families: Acquiring Manly Virtue