CHRISTIANITY & HOMOSEXUALITY
LESBIAN & GAY CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
OXFORD HOUSE, DERBYSHIRE STREET, LONDON E2 6HG
? & fax 020 7739 1249
Christian Homophobia HOTLINE 020 7613 1095
web www.lgcm.org.uk e lgcm@lgcm.org.uk
A Short Introduction
What Is Homosexuality? Can Homosexuality Be ‘Cured’ Or ‘Corrected’?
Some Facts About Homosexuality
Homosexuality is unusual but not unnatural. You could draw
a parallel with being left-handed. A hundred years ago you
would have been forced to be right-handed, but today it isn’t a cause of active discrimination against you. And about one person
in ten is predominantly homosexual in orientation. There are many
more gay people in Britain than the whole population of Wales.
There is no real evidence to suggest that homosexuality is caused
by emotional trauma, or a possessive mother, or an absent or
unsympathetic father. Some psychiatrists claim that all their
homosexual patients are neurotic; but so are their heterosexual
patients! Why else are they too on the couch?
High-minded moralists ask for strict laws to protect the young
from homosexuals. But no greater proportion of homosexual men and
women molest young children than do heterosexuals. The number is
small. Some think that young people can be made into homosexuals,
but no reputable psychiatrist would agree with this. What is more
often needed is a friend or a counsellor to help a person clear away
confusion about his or her sexual orientation. This can prevent the
years of suffering and agony that people may otherwise have to
endure before accepting the truth about themselves.
A disease? - No, it’s not, and you can’t catch it either!
Homosexuals do not need medical advice any more than heterosexuals
do.
A homosexual is indeed a person who is attracted physically to
another of the same sex. You may believe that sex has no other
dimension than producing children. But if you move beyond this
narrow vision of sex, you will know that it can give a richness and a
depth to relationships which are founded on love. So a lesbian or gay
man is not only a sexual being, but someone seeking to give love as
well as receive it.
Our understanding of many things has changed and our
understanding of sex is changing too.
Crime in the UK? No longer as long as you are over 16, don’t
live on the Isle of Man (21) or Channel Isles (18), and do it in
total privacy (but a recent court case makes this doubtful).
These restrictions only apply to males as lesbians have never
figured in the law of Britain.
Young people who show ‘homosexual tendencies’ are often
advised to get married and have a family; all will then be
well, they are told. But these ‘cure’ marriages rarely, if ever,
work and they often end in tragedy, especially for the heterosexual
partner and the children. A person needs to be sure that his or her
homosexual behaviour is only very superficial before even thinking
of marriage.
Rather, such young people need to be supported and respected in
the process of trying to work through their doubts and insecurities
about themselves. Without such acceptance and understanding, they
may feel so threatened as to undergo extreme ‘therapies’, or to be
‘exorcized’ by mis-guided, albeit well-intentioned, Christians.
This may temporarily change their behaviour, but dangerously blocks the
facing of uncertainty which alone can lead to self-acceptance and the
encouragement of responsible decisions about themselves. [These
organisations are often called 'ex-gay', but they frequently avoid this
term in the face of critical publicity.]
It is the conviction of the members of the Lesbian & Gay
Christian Movement that human sexuality in all its richness
is a gift of God gladly to be accepted, enjoyed and honoured
as a way of both expressing and growing in love, in
accordance with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Therefore it is their conviction that it is entirely compatible
with the Christian faith not only to love another person of
the same sex but also to express that love fully in a personal
sexual relationship.
Registered Charity No.1048842
LGCM is a non profit Company Limited by guarantee
registered in England and Wales No 3092197
Homosexuality & The Church
The Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement is not selling out on
Christian truth. It is working for the very love and freedom that Christ
brings to his people through his life, death and resurrection. Our
Movement is working for love, for peace, for justice, and for the
promotion of the Christian faith. God’s work is always a struggle. Let
us try to be at the heart of it.
Homosexuality Today
Aims
Most Christians have believed and most churches have taught
that you cannot be a Christian and express your love for
another person of the same sex in a sexual relationship.
Y ou may have heard that somebody in your family or among
your friends or at work is homosexual. Maybe it was just a
whisper at a family gathering or in the canteen. Perhaps you
The logo of the
Movement combines two
symbols:
The Cross: The central
symbol of the Christian
faith.
The Circle: the symbol of
that wholeness and
completion towards
which we strive and
yearn through our living
and our relationships.
were surprised. You might be even more astonished if the person
concerned had actually told you face to face - and that is happening
quite often these days.
More and more lesbian and gay people are proud to be out!
Our sexuality has far more to do with the kind of people we are
and how we love others than it has to do with what happens in bed.
We are no more responsible or irresponsible than anyone else. Sexual
orientation has been described as ‘an innocent accident’. And yet there
are sections of society and the Church which either refuse to
acknowledge lesbian and gay people or (perhaps worse) ignore them.
Both of these attitudes are based on prejudice or lack of information, or
both. Few people stop to think what it’s like to be homosexual. Have
you ever asked a new acquaintance ‘are you married?’ and received
the answer, ‘No, I’m gay’? Are you aware that a quarter of a million
homosexuals died in Hitler’s concentration camps because they were
gay - and that many who survived received no compensation after the
War? Do you know enough to understand homosexuality?
Do you know any lesbian and gay people?
If you think you don’t, you’re mistaken - their numbers are such
that most people know many lesbian and gay people without realizing
what their sexual orientation is, and of course they include members of
your family and married people.
They believe that God has condemned this through the Bible.
We must remind ourselves of the world the people of the Bible
actually lived in. Life was hard, and survival was a nation’s first
concern. Today, in the West, we may find it hard to comprehend the
emphasis placed on child-bearing in ancient societies. In biblical times
people were faced every day with basic threats to their individual and
communal survival. Therefore, forms of sexuality which seemed to be
at odds with the institution of the family were rejected and
condemned. The law of the Jews in Christ’s time illustrated this
general pattern, though in other respects it represented for its day a
more careful and merciful code than the traditions of neighbouring
peoples.
Christianity began as a Jewish sect; Christ was a Jew and so were
all his apostles. Though the new Christian faith replaced the old Jewish
law in the eyes of the early Christians, both are intimately and
inextricably linked. Ancient fears about homosexuality were deeply
founded in the consciousness of early Christians, whether Jewish or
not, and Christianity itself certainly did not remove them.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often quoted; but the real
point of it is an understandable condemnation of what amounts to
gang rape. It is not a condemnation of homosexual relationships as we
would understand them today. It is significant that when Jesus used
the story of Sodom he said that the people of that city would find the
Day of Judgement easier to bear than those who refused to welcome
his disciples and give them hospitality (Luke 10:11-12). And whenever
else the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is referred to in the Bible,
homosexuality isn’t even mentioned.
Jesus himself said nothing about homosexuality as such, but he
did teach the importance of love and commitment in relationships. He
condemned the Pharisees for keeping only to the letter of the law and
for ignoring the fact that the law served a higher purpose. The Sabbath,
like all of God’s gifts to us, was made for us to use - with
responsibility. And our sexuality is one such gift.
Paul in his letters condemned the practice of heterosexual men
having intercourse with male prostitutes in pagan temples. He thought
this idolatrous because human beings were used as objects of worship
rather than honour being given to God. It was all destructive of love,
and Paul then showed how Christ’s power can rescue us from such a
pattern of life if we commit ourselves to him in trust. God wants us,
through Jesus, to love one another as he loved us (John 13:34).
In many respects the Church was limited by the social outlook of
the times and places where the Gospel was preached. Attitudes have
always changed, however slowly. Only in the last century was slavery
abolished, but Paul accepted it without question. And it is only in
recent times that the churches have started to examine the position of
women in their own organizations and in society in general. The time
is now right to have a critical look at homosexuality in a Christian
context.
The aims of the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement are:
1. To encourage fellowship, friendship, and support among
individual lesbian and gay Christians through prayer, study
and action, wherever possible in local groups, and especially to
support those lesbian and gay Christians subjected to
discrimination.
2. To help the whole Church re-examine its understanding of
human sexuality, and to work for a positive acceptance of
lesbian and gay relationships within the framework outlined in
the Statement of Conviction overleaf, so that all homosexuals
may be able to live without fear of rejection or recrimination,
and that lesbian and gay Christians may be able to contribute
fully to the life and ministry of the Church.
3. To encourage members to witness to their Christian faith and
experience within the lesbian and gay community, and to
witness to their convictions about human sexuality within the
Church.
4. To maintain and strengthen links with other lesbian and gay
Christian groups, both in Britain and elsewhere.
We offer a national network of Local Groups, Counselling
HELPLINE, PenFriends, Publications, Conferences, Mail Order Service,
Lesbian and Gay Christians (our magazine - free to members). Groups for Under 30s, Evangelicals; Anglican Matters, Roman Catholic Caucus,
Methodist Caucus, United Reformed Church Caucus, and separate
newsletter and meetings for Lesbians. Membership is open to all who
subscribe to the Statement of Conviction and Aims irrespective of
sexual orientation or Christian tradition.
Copyright on this leaflet does not exist. It may be reproduced, with credit to LGCM.
LGCM, Oxford House, Derbyshire St, London, E2 6HG, UK
?
Hi!
This thread was referred to on IIDG and I thought the above may be of value!