The Church in the Closet

By Mario Ribas

[Ed. Note: This address was originally delivered at the "Halfway to Lambeth Conference" hosted by the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement in Manchester, England on October 25, 2003.]

I want to share with you some thoughts about the church, and about its resistance to include and recognise those who are out of the dominant system. The title is a claim that the church itself is locked inside of the closet. Lets us reflect what does it means for the church to be "in the closet," making a parallel with the experience of many gays and lesbians, and how they can help the church in the "outing" process.

Brazil, for example, has been slowly changing, but it is still difficult to be open and face all the stigma and rejection from a macho-dominant society. According to the gay group of Bahia, three hundred gays and lesbians have been killed in homophobic attacks over a period of three years.

To be "in" or "out of the closet" are expressions that are often used by the gay community in many parts of the world -- meaning to be open or not open about our sexual orientation. The cultural and religious environments where each one finds oneself influences greatly the decision to be "in" or "out." Brazil, for example, has been slowly changing, but it is still difficult to be open and face all the stigma and rejection from a macho-dominant society. According to the gay (activist) group of Bahia (Salvador state, Brazil), three hundred gays and lesbians have been killed in homophobic attacks over a period of three years; an average of one hundred deaths per year. However, Brazilian society has been vulnerable to change, and those changes have made life for gays and lesbians much better -- but this number of deaths shows that we still have a long way to go to find acceptance.

Most of the stigma that gay people find in Brazil is deeply rooted in our Roman Catholic heritage, and also in fundamentalist evangelical movements. On the other hand, the Anglican Church and also the Lutherans have been more open to discussing the issue and opening their doors to LGBT folks. However, it is important to state that changes do not happen until people come out of the closet. In order to challenge and change society and the church, it is necessary to face and recognise our own reality, even if in the beginning martyrdom becomes an inevitable fate.

Coming out of the closet, according to R. Cleaver, is an act of naming oneself as somebody out of the dominant system, which defines the social roles, in this case, from the biological gender. This is an act of untying secrets and silence, and feeling free.

But what does my title mean, claiming that the church itself is in the closet? To be in the closet is an attitude of conformity within the present system, or even conformity with one's own reality. For gay Brazilians, to be in the closet makes life to a large extent a lot easier; but on the other hand it maintains a life with feelings of non-wholeness. To be out of the closet in Latin America still means to face life threats, to lose jobs, to be forced out of home. To be thrown out of home in a strong family-oriented society is one of the biggest punishments one can receive. But, things do not change unless we break the silence, unless we give a name to our reality and ourselves. That is the only way to engender history, build identity, and create a counter culture movement.

The meaning of "church in the closet" is basically the same as what it means for gay people. It is a church that is afraid to exercise its prophetic role; it is a church that conforms to the socio-political reality, while it denies its vocation to be a counter-cultural movement. To give a recent example of this, we can look at the huge mobilization of many sectors of the Anglican Communion in favour or against the new developments on homosexuality. If huge mobilizations, like these, were done to tackle issues of human justice, poverty, or against wars and denials of human rights in many countries, surely the world would become a better place to live. But we do not see mobilization happening in the same way for those issues. We do see it when the issue is what somebody does in his or her private life, in his or her bedroom.

It is a comfortable situation to sacrifice beliefs of human justice in order to keep a comfortable position within society, trying to be part of the dominant system. In this way, we should ask, how faithful we are to Christ's teaching, as he himself would be "Out of the Closet", out of the dominant system . . .

Morals and moralism are two concepts that are often mixed up by the church, and as she creates a monastery to lock herself in, she is unable to tackle the real issues that go on in the real world. One of the main excuses I have heard for not accepting gay people in the church relates to the problem it would create for the church in many countries dominated by Muslims and other religious groups which have maintained a strong patriarchal-oriented culture. That is to be in the closet. It is a comfortable situation to sacrifice beliefs of human justice in order to keep a comfortable position within society, trying to be part of the dominant system. In this way, we should ask, how faithful we are to Christ's teaching, as he himself would be "Out of the Closet", out of the dominant system, otherwise he would not be able to challenge it. Things would have remained just as they were.

A church in the closet is a church that maintains the western negative attitude towards the body and sexuality. It is a church that maintains heterosexual paradigms, and gives legitimacy to its structure of power through the religious moralist discourse adopted throughout centuries. The roots of these paradigms lie mostly in the dualist concepts that were adopted by many theologians after the fifth century of the Christian era. Sexuality lost its 'pleasure-giver' identity, and became confined to a procreation purpose. Silence was imposed on women, in the same way as it is imposed on gay people, because they represent a danger for the established mentality that fragments our lives, and demonises pleasure. Pleasure becomes a sign of evil, and suffering becomes the path to holiness. The body denial, in order to make the spirit alive, is a concept that is indeed intrinsically part of our mentality, and the western sadistic attitude towards human sexuality.

Looking back at our Latin American reality, the Gospel brought by the Portuguese and Spanish colonisers to Latin America did not entirely mean Good News for the inhabitants of this part of the world who held a variety of attitudes towards human sexuality. They may well have worshipped their gods naked, engaged in tribal politics naked; there was no shame, no guilty feeling. Suddenly the Jesuit missionaries came and said to them: "You must dress up!" They taught them the Gospel, and gave them clothes to wear. Later came the Protestant missionaries, mainly from North America and Europe -- really over-dressed for that tropical climate! They worked in the same way: "You must dress up!" They also gave the locals clothes and taught them to be ashamed of their bodies, of their sexuality.

However, it was difficult for the church to maintain its moralist teaching in this context. It was indeed difficult for the clergy to keep an eye on what was going on in each one's bedrooms, they started the Inquisition, and many Jews as well as many accused of sodomy were burnt or hanged. It was a type of Christianity inside of the closet, which legitimised the socio-political structure, and did not dare to speak out against the power-abuse by those who governed our nation.

Soon, with the abolishment of the monarchy in Brazil, the church lost its position alongside the state, but the military junta that came afterwards just reaffirmed the male heterosexual system of thought and practices. Many people were silenced again, and unless they broke their silence their voices would not be heard. The church in this new situation was to some extent driven out of the closet, its silence and conformity were broken through liberation theology. Oppression was challenged, and the church played an important part in demolishing a system that the church itself had supported in the beginning, when communism was thought to be the main enemy. But this "coming out of the closet" did not endure for too long: soon the church turned back again to conformity. What was thought to be a big and permanent "outing" was actually just another act of keeping its trust in a nation that could no longer support so much oppression, but at the same time kept women and gay people silenced as well as maintained the structure of power, which is the main criteria responsible for so much imbalance in our society.

Gays and lesbians have an important part to play . . . to get the church out of the "monastery built in our minds" that makes us conform to a culture of death and destruction. For this to be possible, we need first to create an "outing theology." A theology born of our own reality, our own struggle . . .

Gays and lesbians represent indeed a testing case for the church. To accept those who are out of the dominant system means that the church itself will consequently be in the same position. However it is time for the silence to be broken in every sense. The world cannot wait any longer; those who are suffering cannot wait any longer. It is time for the church to exercise its prophetic calling and address the real issues that are going on in our society. Gays and lesbians have an important part to play in this "outing" process. They indeed have an important part to play to get the church out of the "monastery built in our minds" that makes us conform to a culture of death and destruction. For this to be possible, we need first to create an "outing theology." A theology born of our own reality, our own struggle, and questions deeply the old paradigms that proved to be just a way to legitimise the current system.

Again, things do not change unless silence is broken. It is necessary for an "outing" to happen in order for people to build their own history, and recover dignity. We must pay attention to the narratives of those who are oppressed, and those who are oppressed must break their silences and conquer their own liberation. Women and gays and lesbians cannot remain silent and marginalized, while the dominant class domesticates God and the Bible for the purposes and interests in their political and hegemonic economical projects.

It is necessary for our voices to be heard, and we should re-read the Bible from our own reality to build a theology of "outing" that might help the church to get itself out of the closet and face the true problems of the world today.

Outing is a difficult process and it is true that not everybody that fights against their conflicts of inadequacy, facing the models offered by society, gets to reach a conscious level of their differences, up to the point of building their identity based on new parameters still to be discovered. This conflict of inadequacy becomes even more difficult to deal with when it is the result of a religious system, where sexual pleasure is regarded as sinful and its only purpose is procreation. Therefore, to create an "outing" theology it is necessary to focus on the doctrine of the Grace of God, or a theology, as, of the "original blessing" rather than "original sin." The theology of original sin was good enough to create a society dominated by shame and guilt, and locked not only gays and lesbians, but also "straight" people inside of the closet.

Andre Musskopf, a young Brazilian theologian from a Lutheran background, points out the difficulties of the current theological establishment, where our spirituality is disassociated of corporeity or embodiment, mainly because it is a sign of weakness that goes against the principles of success laid upon the Latino male. In this, he points to the contradictions between the gay world and the religious world, mainly due to the difficulties caused by the dogmas of sin and grace, where sinfulness is often associated with sexual expression outside of the procreation purpose within a traditional marriage setting. Therefore, a need arises to look for a new hermeneutical methodology to address the reality experienced by those who find themselves alienated from the traditional marriage standards. This new hermeneutics focuses on the re-reading of the Bible by gay folks, who should interpret it within their own reality. This is not new, since re-reading the Bible from ones reality has already been encouraged by Latin American liberation theologians. Although it does not intend to focus on finding scriptural legitimacy for their way of live, it is at least intended to focus on healing of those traumas caused by oppression and exclusion.

Identity construction began with the process of naming oppression, and it is a way to define those who are out of the dominant system. To deny oneself identity is to deny the doctrine of salvation by grace.

To do this it is necessary to explore a theology of the "outing experience" or a theology that faces all the challenges of getting out of the closet. A theology that causes rupture between the lack of models, when the old ones are outdated or irrelevant to tackle oppression, and the construction of new ones. Identity construction began with the process of naming oppression, and it is a way to define those who are out of the dominant system. To deny oneself identity is to deny the doctrine of salvation by grace. The doctrine of salvation by the grace of God becomes, to Musskopf, fundamental to a "theology out of the closet," where acceptance is found regardless of one's identity, and creates a rupture with the socially institutionalised homophobia.

Marcella Althaus-Reid , an Argentinean theologian, in her book Indecent Theology presents the dominant systematic theology as an arbitrary sexual theory with divine implications (p. 88). Between the two ways of talking about "sex" -- either as a gender identity or as sexual activity -- the feminist liberation theologian usually prefers the first. However, sex as desire or concupiscence was the dominant preoccupation of official theology through the centuries; in reality, it held the intention of condemning the "concupiscent desires of the flesh." When theology addressed sin and grace it had its eyes constantly turned towards bed and bathrooms, and not a preoccupation with real moral issues; [this was] out of the established moralism that made the church lose the main focus or purpose of its existence in the world.

In all this transformation process, we should try to pay attention to the narratives of all those who are oppressed, and not just to our own -- although I believe that the gay and lesbian issue is indeed a testing case which can make the church reevaluate its own dogmas and its own position in the world. [If the decision is to be] "in" or "out" of the closet, I really hope it will be out, even it means a hard path to be followed, as it indeed can be, as it has been for many who lost their lives because they chose to be truly themselves and to not conform with the dominant system.

Finally, we should consider what Matthew Fox says to each one of us: "The gay who wants to make a spiritual contribution to society will do it the way all others do: by non-repressive sublimation of working for other's pleasure and service. In other words, prophecy will play just as important a role in the gay's life-style and consciousness as will the sensual. Because gays are so often excluded from society's institutions (like women are), we can hopefully depend on them to offer alternative institutions -- ones that are more sensual, more alive and quickening than those we have inherited." And he goes on to say that gays and lesbians should indeed get out of the closet "not only for their personal pride and sense of personal worth, but also for the sake of society's and churches" that have been dominated by a senseless, a-sensual and sadistic sense. If each one were to get out of the closet, we may be able to build a new theology where sexual pleasure is recovered, and the church will get out of the safety of the closet to exercise its ministry in the world and for the world.

The Rev. Mario Ribas is rector of All Saints' Church in Santos, Brazil. He may be reached by email at mribas@iron.com.br

Also by this author:

Christian Fundamentalism Is the Real Western Invention -- The Anglican Communion is making world headlines due to human sexuality debates. Mario Ribas says that the true source of this problem is U.S.-based Christian fundamentalism.