Book Review: Queer Holiness (and two others)
Queer Holiness the gift of LGBTQI people to the Church by Charlie Bell.
It’s a brilliant title for a book. This was a birthday present.
I like Charlie. He was one of my students and I’ve marked a couple of his church history essays. He has a passionate energetic style so that within a few pages you will feel that your vocabulary has inexorably grown. It might even be that you yourself start speaking with an amplified verbosity.
Charlie is a gay man, a priest, and his book is about the importance of stopping the fruitless discrimination that he sees in the CofE. He decries the lack of engagement with science (as we failed with Darwin) and with the experiences of disciples (as we did with Divorce). He appeals to Richard Hooker (a key person during Elizabeth 1st reign) who really created the CofE more than Henry 8th by whittling an ecclesial stool made of Scripture, Reason and Tradition. But Bell would like to add a 4th leg to this: a Wesleyan emphasis on the inner witness of the Spirit by which he means the worship-filled experience and fruit of gay Christians.
He’s angry at the damage that has been done to LGBTQI Christians. The CofE still hasn’t woken up to the world that now presumes we are homophobic until proved otherwise. Meanwhile LGBTQI Christians are keen to make commitments to each other before God and to live lives serving their church.
He doesn’t unpack particular scriptures, though he does unpick the metaphor of marriage as betwixt Christ (male) and the Church (female) as being a necessary argument for disallowing same sex marriages. He has a good chapter debunking the presumption that if something is cultural it must be ungodly.
He approves the Church of Wales who have moved ahead with blessings of gay couples without changing their doctrine on marriage. It will be interesting to see how that develops. What we can’t do is say ‘I’m alright Jack’- that is not the way of the Kingdom.
The Plausibility Problem the church and same sex attraction, by Ed Shaw. (2015)
As with Charlie Bell, this book has also been written by a gay man though he prefers the phrase ‘same-sex attracted’ because it enables him to explain what that means to him. Shaw writes simply and clearly. He is quick to explain that he is gay, but that is not his identity, that isn’t the core of who he is. His identity is in Christ so he knows he is loved by Jesus, his sins are forgiven through the sacrifice of the cross, and he is empowered through the Holy Spirit at work in his life. He is godfather to 12 children, he is an evangelical vicar, … so being gay comes someway down his list of who he is. He accepts that he is gay, that this is not a choice, that this is not something that needs curing.
He is bravely honest about the struggles and difficulties he has in retaining his celibate lifestyle. His friends all think it would be great if he could find a nice fella to settle down with, society says the same thing, Hollywood movies show good looking men without their shirts on, and like all of us he needs intimacy. His solution to his celibate commitment is to find intimacy in groups of friends and seeing his church as his family.
He doesn’t unpack any particular scriptures. He rather presumes you know them and so you understand why for him he concludes that to live a life that pleases God his must be a celibate one.
Shaw disagrees with the cultural presumption that if something makes you happy that it must okay. and with the notion that sex is where intimacy is to be found. He also disagrees with the idea that men and women are equal and interchangeable. His prayer is that you would agree with him and support him in shaping a church that helps him and others like him.
Affirmative Why you can say yes to the bible and yes to people who are LGBTQI+. Jonathan Tallon
This is a brilliant book, clear succinct, and does what it says on the tin. Tallon is heterosexual, married, a vicar, with children.
Before unpacking the well-known scriptures that Shaw(above) presumes you know, Tallon gives two chapters that set the tone. The first explores the culture of abusive sex in ancient Roman times. Not a pleasant read. The second chapter explores Usury. Prior to the Reformation (1517), the idea of taking out a loan to buy a house, invest in a business, would have been greeted with horrific gasps. It was a mortal sin. You could not be buried on consecrated grounds. But Calvin (1545) put forward a case for lending with interest where both borrower and lender might be mutually blessed. And we have not looked back since, though perhaps a case could be made for not burying loan sharks in hallowed grounds.
You may be surprised to discover that the sin of Sodom was not sodomy.
Unlike the above books, Tallon looks beyond LG to the BTQI+ and with the help of some science and bible explains how he sees these as people in need of love and inclusion.
The issue of slavery comes up quite a lot both in terms of power and abuse and sex in ancient times, and also regarding the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Church, including good bible reading evangelicals started initially defending the status quo, not least because a plain reading of scripture supported it, and many early abolitionists were atheists even communists. He uses this as a gentle call to the reader to be open to allowing yourself to become affirming as his title.
If you only read one of these books, I would commend this one.
(Photo is of me about 4 years old, note the book in my hand, alas the book review for this lady bird book has been lost).