The Church and the Homosexual

V. Rev. G. P. T. Paget King

It is unfortunately the fact that many homosexuals are deeply drawn to religion, but, on bringing their problems to the clergy, they are too often repelled with horror by men who know nothing of the subject and thus are not merely driven away from the Church, but have deep guilt feelings implanted within them.

In view of the number of homosexuals and bisexuals in the world, one would expect that this problem would be dealt with thoroughly in the seminaries and in books of pastoral theology; in fact it is ignored. I have no idea how many clergy are readers of ONE (it ought to be sent to as many clergy as possible), but I imagine there must be a number. Here is a very valuable contribution they can make to the work of ONE, Incorporated-get together and work out a rational pastoral theology in the whole sphere of homosexuality. This may probably involve a complete re-appraisement of traditional Christian teaching in the whole realm of sex, and a new evaluation of the writings of St. Paul.

The two historic facts on which the whole subject depends are, first, that Christianity depends on and grows out of the Judaic religion, and second, that it came to birth in a period of extreme sexual license. For purely historical reasons the propagation of children was vital to Jewish existence, and as a quite natural result any sexual act which did not lead to conception was felt to be a crime against the nation-and therefore a sin against God. The apostles of the new religion had this teaching deeply ingrained in them; and when they went forth to preach the Gospel

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of Love to a world given over to unbridled lust, it was natural that they should, like St. Paul, fulminate against immorality.

As a result of all this, it became a part of the Church's teaching (as it still is) that the sexual act is only lawfully performed between husband and wife, and then for the purpose of procreation only. (The Catholic theology of marriage, in which the union between husband and wife is a type of the union between Christ and His Church, is also important in this connection.)

Until the Reformation, while this remained the official teaching of the Church, the clergy were well versed in human nature and were too realistic to expect the average man always to live up to such austere teaching. It was the effort that counted

not how often one fell, but how hard one tried to do better. And there were far worse sins than the sexual

ones.

It was the Reformation which really bedevilled the subject. For a living, teaching Church there was substituted an infallible Book-in place of the Incarnate Word, the written word. At a time when Christian love was forgotten and un-Christian hate split the Church of God, it was natural that texts should become battlecries, and equally natural it should be the negative "Thou shalt nots" which became popular, rather than the positive "Thou shalts." But by now the religious leaders were going to war with their brethren, amassing wealth, claiming usury and generally committing most of the sins condemned by Christ. Lest their followers should criticize them for this, it was essential