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Last Thursday and Friday I went to a conference about human sexuality. It was meant to be an interdisciplinary meeting to talk about biology, psychology, history, politics, art, religion, and so on, and I was there to talk about the Greeks and Romans. But the whole meeting turned into a discussion about religion, and specifically about attitudes to homosexuality, with particular reference to the Anglican Church.
For those of you who have been spared this debate so far, there is sharp disagreement at the moment between Anglicans who think that homosexuality is wrong and those who think it’s just a fact. And in the middle of this conference, somebody raised their voice in despair, and said, ‘Here we all are wrangling about texts and doctrines, but what are we saying to the world? What are we saying to the young?’ And I thought, blimey, I’m preaching in College on Sunday. So I scrapped the sermon I was going to preach on St. Paul, and decided it was time to talk about sex.
To sketch in a bit of the background: there are various reasons why some people think homosexuality is wrong, but the one Christians usually cite is that the Bible says so. Specifically, the Book of Leviticus and St. Paul say so. Even if we leave out Leviticus, which is part of the Jewish Law, which Christians don’t keep, there are still three references in Paul which are widely discussed. The most substantial one is a passage towards the beginning of the Letter to the Romans. Paul is criticizing gentiles for not honouring the one true God. They’ve always known about God, he says; they just chose not to worship him. So God punished them in various ways, including: ‘Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameful acts with men, and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.’ (1:26-7)
The other two references are briefer and both occur in lists of wrongdoers, in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy.[1] 1 Corinthians 6:9 mentions malakoi, soft or effeminate men, and arsenokoitoi, men who have sex with men. 1 Timothy 1:10 just mentions arsenokoitoi.
I’m not going to rehearse the debate these passages have generated in any detail. But broadly, what one might call the ‘anti-gay’ position is quite straightforward: it is that Paul doesn’t approve of same-sex sex (which is true).
What one might broadly call the ‘pro-gay’ position is a bit more complicated. Some people say, yes, Paul disapproves of same-sex sex. But he speaks a Jew who keeps the Law. And he repeatedly tells his new Christian communities that they don’t need to keep the Law, so his comments as an observant Jew are irrelevant to them.
Others say, that’s not the whole story, because there are things in the Law that Paul thinks Christians should do - like not murdering people - even though they don’t keep the Law as such. But Paul is also, morally, a product of his time and place, and though some of his views - like the one about murder - we still share, others we don’t. For example, Paul (and indeed the whole Bible) has no problem with slavery, but now we do, so when it comes to slavery, we know we have to look beyond the Bible for guidance, and the same is true of sexuality.
Others again say that Paul’s ideas are not helpful for us, because at the most he’s talking about same-sex sex - not about sexuality as a given and stable orientation - because the world he lived in didn’t have that concept of sexuality (which is true). But now we do, so we can’t use Paul as a guide.
Meanwhile, some people point out that talking endlessly about male-male sex or male-female sex is so far behind the curve it’s absurd. What about bisexuality, intersexuality, transexuality, queer, lesbian separatism, metrosexuality, polyandry... There’s a lot going on out there, as I’m sure you know.
I could go on, but you get the idea. There is always room for debate about the meaning of biblical texts. And there is always room for debate about the role particular texts play in modern ethics. All Christians accept that: I doubt that anyone who believes that we have to follow Paul’s views on sex, believes we have to follow his views on slavery.
And Anglican tradition - like most Christian traditions - allows for this. We depend for our ideas not only on the Bible, but also on tradition - the accumulated experience and reflection of 2000 years - and on our own reflection and experience here and now.
Which brings us back to the here and now, and the question: given the state of Christian debate about sex and sexuality, is it worth even trying to say something that might speak to all sides?
I hope it is. And I would begin, not from three disputed biblical texts, but from somewhere else entirely. Somewhere much more fundamental.
The whole meaning of life for Christians is life itself. Life which is so incredibly beautiful and infinitely precious. Life which is endlessly interconnected, because it all arises from one inexhaustible source which we call God. Life which is holy in every part of itself because God is in every part of it.
It seems that the God who forms, and informs and reforms the world, loves pouring life into finite material beings. So every created thing, with all our limitations, embodies something divine, and the meaning of every life is the meaning of everything. And God is always involved in our shared life, even when we can’t feel it - even when we are determined to ignore it and do our own thing our own way.
God is always looking for ways to remind us of our shared life - through everything from our desire to procreate to the discoveries of particle physics. Above all, through the life of Jesus Christ. ‘In him was life,’ says St. John’s gospel, ‘and this life was the light of humanity…’ And ‘I came that they should have life, and have it more abundantly.’ (1:4, 10:10)
That involvement of the divine in our shared life, that insistence on reminding us of it, is what we call love - a very parental kind of love, but also a lover’s love - which says, we belong together; we are part of one another. Live that truth and you will live most abundantly.
There seem to be almost infinitely many ways that life can work - as chemicals or organisms or communities. But experience also tells us - at least for human beings - that some ways of conducting our lives tend to work better than others. For instance: being greedy, aggressive, arrogant, or indifferent to other people, doesn’t tend to enhance life. Being faithful, generous, honest, open to ideas and relationships, tends to work better.
But while those things may tell us something about how to live, they don’t tell us much about specific actions. So, do I think I know what specifically God wants us to do - for instance in our sex lives - or who to do it with? No, I don’t.
But I do think that what we need to ask ourselves is,
‘Am I prepared for this relationship - this action - to mean everything, because it’s part of the interconnectedness of all life?’
‘Am I prepared for this action or relationship to be holy?’
‘Am I prepared for God to be part of this - and perhaps to use it, in his infinite creativity, to take my life in directions I never dreamt of?’
Well, all human societies are complex, and people will never agree about everything, including sexual behaviour or sexuality. That’s not a disaster.
What is a disaster is if we can’t sustain communities where everyone can live life to the full. One of my favourite passages from Matthew’s gospel sums it up perfectly: ‘You have heard it said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in Heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.’ (5:43-5)
Whatever we think of our neighbours, we belong together. We must find ways to live together, in such a way that everyone can flourish, because we are - every single one of us - one holy creation. And it’s only when we live that truth that we have life, and have it most abundantly.
Amen
Oriel College Chapel 23/1/11
copryright. Teresa Morgan 2011
[1]1 Cor. 6:9-10, 1 Tim. 1:8-11.
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