“A Defive but Unsatisfyg Answer”: The Evangelil Rponse to Gay Christians - Volume 32 Issue 1
Contents:
- VIEW ARTICL BY EMMANUEL GAY
- EMMANUEL GAY
- POST EMMANUEL GAY
- “A DEFIVE BUT UNSATISFYG ANSWER”: THE EVANGELIL RPONSE TO GAY CHRISTIANS
VIEW ARTICL BY EMMANUEL GAY
Déuvrez s rmatns excliv publié par Emmanuel Gay, Partner at Rultance * emmanuel gay resultance *
Emmanuel gay: Rultance t née en 2002, pour s clients iss l’dtrie, puis, fur et à mure son développement, la société a uvert nombrx tr sectrs d’activé: l’tomobile, l télés, la distributn mais ssi le sectr public ou l servic fanciers.
The votg jury is prised of: Barbara Gr, s print, head of rearch and velopment and novatn at Luxnovatn; Emmanuel Gay, partner at Rultance; Lrent Luci, head of the Go Digal project at the Hoe of Entreprenrship (Chamber of Commerce); and Nobby Brsch, assistant vice print of rporate bankg at Spuerkes.
In this ntext of unremtg cultural warfare and the unqutned celebratn of biblilly ground sexual pleasure for married upl as functnally central to evangelils’ inty, “homosexualy”—rarely discsed fundamentalist or evangelil publitns before the 1960s—beme their nemis.
EMMANUEL GAY
A growg movement wh the global church is intifyg themselv as Christian LGBTQ, or more monly lled gay Christians. One of them is Matthew V, a young homosexual who has bee a bayo for this movement due to his book, tour of lectur, and YouTube vios. He is attemptg to make the se that one… * emmanuel gay resultance *
Recent Bible translatns ntributed to this new ont the culture war, as “homosexual” was ed several different passag for the first time, effect ventg “homosexuals” as a unified tegory and reifyg them as the Bible's supreme Other. Instead, buildg off of work on the evangelil promotn of normative genr and sexual inti, explor the muny disurse among evangelils—both symbolized by and partly nstuted by CT—that has had signifint nsequenc for gay and lbian Christians. When gay Christians fail the stggle to bee heterosexual—lears have never been clear about when gay Christians should nce feat—evangelils offer celibacy as the sole remag optn, often wh the admissn that is a burnsome path, particularly a subculture that celebrat the nuclear fay.
Evangelils’ perceptn of gay people as enemi the war to fend the fay dovetailed wh broar fears of munists on Cold War Ameri's home ont, as evangelils echoed mastream antimunist rhetoric that lked domtic secury risks to var forms of “sexual perversn, ” cludg “homosexualy. Footnote 41 Like Daane's passnate nmnatn, Dolby's gural foray to pastoral support for gay Christians charted a urse evangelilism has tracked sce: thoratively prentg the hope of sexual inty change through anecdotal ttimoni while simultaneoly offerg the ntradictory asssment that most gay people never lose their same-sex sire. Footnote 43 Movement lears, who amed their activism as an extensn of the era's larger civil rights stggle for equal protectn of the law unr the Constutn, forced evangelils to addrs issu related to gay people more systematilly than they had prevly.
Footnote 44 Evangelils, whose lewarm stance toward the civil rights movement was evint CT articl and edorials, siarly posned themselv rhetorilly the middle of the gay rights bate, between permissive male liberals on one end and harsh fundamentalists on the other.
POST EMMANUEL GAY
Footnote 45 As wh other issu, this ostensible centrism amounted to upholdg the fundamentalist view that all gay sexual behavr was sful and mered damnatn, while sympathizg wh gay Christians’ stggl to master seemgly tractable sir.
Marsn, proment German theologian Kls Bockmuehl directly lked Amerins’ mistaken belief the natens of same-sex orientatn to a “permissive attu toward homosexualy” and the perceptn that biblil views were irrelevant to the ntemporary issue. In a 1974 letter, Nancy Harsty offered the nvoluted argument that rejectg male-female equaly and fendg patriarchy by appealg to nate difference was “precisely the kd of thkg which has always fostered homosexualy among those who sought ep relatnships wh one who was their equal.
Footnote 58 This reful distctn between nmnatn of sful personal behavr and support for legal civil rights protectns reflected an evangelil moratn that ntrasted wh many fundamentalist misters such as Jerry Falwell, who actively opposed legal protectns for gays and lbians bee they viewed same-sex activy as “unspeakably evil. ” But the magaze issue provid ttimoni om six gay and lbian Christians and a lengthy terview wh Evangelils Concerned founr Ralph Blair, a psychotherapist who formed the anizatn 1975 to assist gay Christians tegratg their fah and sexual orientatn. Footnote 71 In the era of fay valu, “homosexualy, ” long a moral ncern, beme a equent target of the Relig Right as fundamentalists and many evangelils sought to bolster a normative heterosexual unrstandg of “biblil” sexualy through the force of law.
“A DEFIVE BUT UNSATISFYG ANSWER”: THE EVANGELIL RPONSE TO GAY CHRISTIANS
A stnch fenr of errancy like his precsor, he ved rpected Brish theologian John Stott to provi a tailed biblil argument agast gay marriage, while Southern Baptist theologian Timothy Gee ma clear that “ is not a mark of passn, but rather a sign of plicy and apostasy, to sanctn as normative what Almighty God his tth-tellg Word has clared immoral and wicked. ”Footnote 75 Compassn extend to discsn of the AIDS crisis, which CT articl regularly poted out that gay men were not the only people who ntracted the disease and that Christians were lled to monstrate passnate re for all, regardls of how they acquired AIDS. Footnote 76 Contributors and rears routely cricized hateful rhetoric om fundamentalist preachers, flated claims of sexual orientatn change, stereotyp of gay promiscuy, and libelo charg of pedophilia, argug that the views stirred up antigay sentiment.
Footnote 77 Where earlier relig nservativ had rejected the accuracy of Ksey's data about Amerins’ sexual behavr and inti, evangelil lears the 1980s accepted the statistics available to them, ncedg that gay people might make up four to ten percent of a ngregatn's men and three to four percent of s women. Early the 1980s, “Homosexuals Can Change, ” a 4, 500-word article, provid an effive report of an Amerin Journal of Psychiatry study that ostensibly monstrated that immature Christians learned “how to be heterosexual as they veloped Christian matury. Footnote 95 Dpe the bleak asssment that the overwhelmg majory of dividuals who sperately wanted to change would be unable to do so, evangelil lears sisted that the fact that change was possible for some should be reassurg to “the majory of evangelils who are beg shaken by propaganda om the progay si.
Footnote 97 Many gay Christians found the prospect of lifelong sglens bleak, particularly a subculture that celebrated sexual pleasure and the nuclear fay, but were reassured that God never gave people a greater burn than they uld handle. In 1973, after an extensive “ph om outsi and ” by laypeople and profsnals, as Lillian Farman puts , “homosexualy” was removed om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs and the followg , gay affirmative therapi beme more popular.