Fuel for the Homosexuality Debate

by Michael Hare Duke

"Religion is to a large extent what people do with their lunacy; their phobias, their will to power, their sexual frustration." The words come from the autobiography of Harry Williams, an Anglican monk, theologian and spiritual writer. He was writing out of his own personal hurt and disappointment, but much of what is currently reported of the churches seems to bear this out, not least in the present controversy over homosexuality.

There is something in the religious mind which is aroused by the notion of gay relationships and immediately is led to fantasies about genital sexual activities, making the assumption that these are practised by a uniquely depraved minority of the human race.

This has been a smouldering powder keg since the campaign about the teaching of homosexuality in schools in Scotland and England. The bishops of the Anglican Church gathered worldwide for the Lambeth Conference in 1998 were predictably deeply divided. The Church of England was threatened with the appointment of a gay bishop and persuaded him to back down. The U.S. Episcopal Church is the focus of hostility from many African churches and others who want to find God against gays on the evidence of selected Bible texts. The Moderator of the Church of Scotland has been found unacceptable in the country's northwest for his liberal views over the ordination of gay ministers.

There is something in the religious mind which is aroused by the notion of gay relationships and immediately is led to fantasies about genital sexual activities, making the assumption that these are practised by a uniquely depraved minority of the human race.

Some quarters have countered this by arguments of how heterosexual husbands abuse their wives or instances of brutal aspects of African society. However this should not be an opportunity to score moral points but needs a serious study of sexuality. A model for such reflection is the serious work undertaken in the U.S. by Professor Kinsey in 1948 and published as The Sexual Behaviour of the Human Male. Working in the United States with a sample of more than 3,000 males he discovered that sexual orientation and behaviour extended along a continuous line. At one end were males totally orientated to same-sex relationships, at the other were those who were totally heterosexual. In the middle ground stood those who had at some time had a homosexual experience with varying levels of involvement. Those totally identified with the two extremes represented around 40% of the sample, 10% gay and 30% straight. Therefore statistically one in ten of any random group of males was likely to be homosexual with others sharing some of his experience.

It is not impossible to examine the 12 Apostles and the four Gospel writers and wonder if at least one might not have had a totally homosexual orientation. Immediately the most plausible candidate is Luke.

The research applies directly to males in Western society and in the Twentieth Century, but there is at least a possibility that its findings could shed light on the life of the Early Church, making due allowance for the cultural conditioning of the Jewish input. Hence it is not impossible to examine the 12 Apostles and the four Gospel writers and wonder if at least one might not have had a totally homosexual orientation.

Immediately the most plausible candidate is Luke. We are in a better position to evaluate the character of so prolific a writer than some of the almost faceless Apostles. From the evidence of Paul we know Luke as "the beloved physician" and also the solitary faithful friend who stays with Paul in his imprisonment. Luke's own writings demonstrate him as committed to a gospel of forgiveness, he alone tells the story of the Prodigal Son who is forgiven by his father after a time of rebellion. This matches with the account of the penitent thief who is forgiven by the dying Jesus. For Luke, outsiders were made welcome, he alone records the story of the Good Samaritan. Perhaps most telling of all is his empathy with the women in his story. So often marginalised by the macho culture, he seems to understand their contribution, especially the story of Mary the Mother.

Is it impossible that these characteristics add up to a portrait of a sensitive artist and poet who brought his gay personality to serve a church which he recognised as having a message for an otherwise divided world and which he was especially qualified to expound?

Might the arguments take on a different flavour if a personality at the centre of the life of the Early Church could be appreciated as contributing from his own minority culture? Why is Paul always quoted as the infallible guide? He was wrong about the role of women, he was arguably wrong about the acceptability of slavery. If these blind spots are excused by the culture of his day, might this not also be the case about homosexuality? Could his violent denunciations be a cover to deny his own orientation that he feared?

Before we get deeper into the irrationality of the debate, all the churches need the discipline of serious reflection as to whether there is any connection between what they present as their orthodoxy and their lunacy.

Michael Hare Duke is the retired Bishop of St. Andrews in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He may be reached by email at bishmick@aol.com