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Channel 4 in the UK has been running a fascinating series of programmes marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Crimes Act which legalised gay sex (sodomy to be specific) for consenting adults over the age of 21. Probably the best of the programmes so far was “40 Years Out“, a fascinating panel discussion which explored various aspects of ‘gay’ life and culture since the Act. This was much better then the shameful “Clapham Junction” which was just an orgy of promiscuous activity.One of the subjects raised in the studio debate was whether there is in any sense a homogeneous gay culture in the UK. The answer of course is no -Simon Fanshawe put it well when he said “Some gay men like to go out cottaging, some want to stay in and have a nice cup of tea”. People who identify as homosexual lead a myriad of lives and experiences and not all are in any sense predatory or just interested in sex. If those of us involved in ministries of healing and wholeness, or those in the church who want to reach out to those who identify as homosexual, need to learn anything it’s to stop stereotyping. I still remember doing a talk at Spring Harvest a few years ago, and one of the stewards, on my asking “Is this the place where the gay seminar is happening?”, answered back, “Yes it is” in the campest voice possible. No, this wasn’t his proper voice - he was making fun of gay stereotypes.
But stereotypes go back the other way. One gay blogger in this country recently wrote about post-gay bloggers like myself, that we:
“like to festoon their blogs with pictures of Wifey, if indeed, their self-deception has reached those remarkable levels. I suppose its a way of convincing themselves and creating the necessarily heterosexual image! One of them even wrote ‘isn’t heterosexuality great’ as a blog entry. He must really need to convince himself.”
Actually Mike, it’s more to do with really, really, really liking heterosexuality!! But I digress. The point is this - the stereotyping and demonisation is something that happens in both directions. A lot of the stick I get daily (I love hate email - it’s so entertaining) comes from people who simply refuse to accept that someone’s sexual orientation can change. Often that comes from an underlying teleological objection - “If your orientation changed then mine could also”. Therefore, to deny someone’s change in sexual orientation is to protect one’s own choices of sexual practice and response to one’s orientation, for if orientation is fixed then it cannot be intrinsically immoral. If it’s not then we can’t base our human rights in “what is natural”.
I guess that’s why I was disappointed that the “40 Years On” debate didn’t address the issue of causation of sexual orientation. Instead, despite the absent scientific evidence, there was an implicit assumption that people were “born with” a homosexual orientation. 40 years after the legalisation of gay sex in this country, we’re only just starting to get to grips with why homosexual people are homosexual. Forget Hamer’s gay gene - the truth is we don’t have a direct biological link to homosexuality and if that’s so, a lot of our societal assumptions need to continue to be graciously, but firmly, challenged. I continue to interrupt anybody I talk to who claims that people are born gay with the simple question, “Which scientific paper are you referencing? What exactly is the evidence?” Fundamentally this is the issue that we still need to sort out because so much else, our and others’ attitudes, stems from it.
And it strikes me that there’s some irony in people claiming that I’m “faking it”. If that were so, then I’m really gay, so why isn’t my voice allowed to be heard amongst other “gay voices”? It seems kinda bizarre that those who reject my story and others like me won’t at the same time let me have voice in the gay debate. Where was my invitation to the Channel 4 Panel?
If you’re in the UK or ROI you can download the 4onDemand video player here to watch the “40 years” programmes on your PC.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
The sheer MISOGYNY in Merseymike’s comment about ‘wifey’ on your blog speaks volumes to me about why the Anglican church is so stubbornly disobedient to Scripture about homosexuality. I’ve come to believe that the background issue is that there is a very deep shame among a lot of Christians about being heterosexual and wanting marriage. It’s interesting that Genesis talks about man and woman *before* the Fall being ‘naked and unashamed’, and that Paul in Romans 1 [show]Romans 1
says he is ‘not ashamed of the gospel’, then goes on to explain that the proliferation of homosexuality is due to idolatry and then men and women rejecting each other. What Paul is doing here surely is giving an overview of Genesis 1-3 [show]Genesis 1-3
. I’ve noticed over the years that people in the church who agitate in favour of accepting homosexuality are straight people with sexual problems they are unwilling or unable to deal with through pastoral care, mentoring, discipling, etc. Again Paul can help here. I Corinthians unfortunately describes the contemporary churches rather well. There is a culture of narcissism, of trusting in our own supposed power, and not being truly vulnerable about weakness and sin before God and other believers. Straight Christians want homosexuality to be normalised because they don’t want their own sexual sins to be counted as sins and challenged.
Paul, a servant(1) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David(2) according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you-- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers,(3) that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians,(4) both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,(5) as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."(6)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (ESV)
Footnotes
1. [1:1] Or 'slave'; Greek 'bondservant'
2. [1:3] Or 'who came from the offspring of David'
3. [1:13] Or 'brothers and sisters'. The plural Greek word 'adelphoi' (translated "brothers") refers to siblings in a family. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, 'adelphoi' may refer either to men or to both men and women who are siblings (brothers and sisters) in God's family, the church
4. [1:14] That is, non-Greeks
5. [1:17] Or 'beginning and ending in faith'
6. [1:17] Or 'The one who by faith is righteous shall live'
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, "Let there be an expanse(1) in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made(2) the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.(3) And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth,(4) and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants(5) yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,(6) and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds(7) fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds--livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let us make man(8) in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field(9) was yet in the land(10) and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist(11) was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground-- then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat(12) of it you shall surely die."
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for(13) him." Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed(14) every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam(15) there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made(16) into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
"This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man."(17)
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You(18) shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,(19) she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool(20) of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"(21) And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
The LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring(22) and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel."
To the woman he said,
"I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for(23) your husband,
and he shall rule over you."
And to Adam he said,
"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."
The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.(24) And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--" therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (ESV)
Footnotes
1. [1:6] Or 'a canopy'; also verses 7, 8, 14, 15, 17, 20
2. [1:7] Or 'fashioned'; also verse 16
3. [1:8] Or 'Sky'; also verses 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30; 2:1
4. [1:10] Or 'Land'; also verses 11, 12, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30; 2:1
5. [1:11] Or 'small plants'; also verses 12, 29
6. [1:14] Or 'appointed times'
7. [1:20] Or 'flying things'; see Leviticus 11:19-20
8. [1:26] The Hebrew word for 'man' ('adam') is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name 'Adam'
9. [2:5] Or 'open country'
10. [2:5] Or 'earth'; also verse 6
11. [2:6] Or 'spring'
12. [2:17] Or 'when you eat'
13. [2:18] Or 'corresponding to'; also verse 20
14. [2:19] Or 'And out of the ground the LORD God formed'
15. [2:20] Or 'the man'
16. [2:22] Hebrew 'built'
17. [2:23] The Hebrew words for 'woman' ('ishshah') and 'man' ('ish') sound alike
18. [3:1] In Hebrew 'you' is plural in verses 1-5
19. [3:6] Or 'to give insight'
20. [3:8] Hebrew 'wind'
21. [3:9] In Hebrew 'you' is singular in verses 9 and 11
22. [3:15] Hebrew 'seed'; so throughout Genesis
23. [3:16] Or 'against'
24. [3:20] 'Eve' sounds like the Hebrew for 'life-giver' and resembles the word for 'living'
August 7th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for your comments CM. I wasn’t going to name the blogger involved, but I guess Google is useful in these circumstances!