Categories: sexuality
Date: 18 March 2010 07:59:30
So I got to Sheffield to do this talk yesterday and was chatting to a couple of the guys before hand and worked out that my audience were going to be slightly different to that which Durham had gotten for their faith and sexuality talk during Q week. I was going to have a predominantly non-Christian audience. This meant it was quickly over to a corner to rework what I was going to say. The testimony part obviously remained the same, although I went into a bit of depth explaining what I meant when I said, "I heard God tell me I was how he made me" and about how I had encountered him that evening when I had prayed to be straight and at one point my language got a bit more "earthy" when I was talking about how the realisation what God thought and the church thought weren't necessarily thought had messed with my head. The ending changed though and I was careful to drop the jargon.
All the material from the EA quote onwards basically got cut. The alternative ending went like this:
"As I finish I want to make clear that what the media and others put forward as a polarised debate is often much more complex. Alot of the people I know in churches are of the view, "I don't know what the correct interpretation of scripture on this issue is."
Finally, I know the church has messed up and that alot of hurt has been caused by what's been done and said by churches. However, as I say it's not all like that and I know it is the church not God that has messed up. If you read the bible you will read stories of Jesus upsetting the religious authorities of the time by treating women, foreigners and the marginalised with respect. I don't think he'd be much more popular with the "nice" people in churches today. They ended up arresting and killing him because he said loving God and loving people is more important than obeying the rules of what you do and don't do."
The q&a was really productive because it wasn't the questions about interpretations of certain texts, rather it was questions people had about Christianity and sexuality and stuff more generally. Things like "does the bible need to be updated regularly because it is now out of date?" To answer that one I took the example of Hagars story and single parenting to show how you can read ancient texts with a contemporary view and they can work. Also I pointed out that where the context has changed and so with sexuality we now have committed same sex relationships we can look at the timeless principles which are contained about how relationships generally should work, and they don't go out of date.
Another question related to the reaction we had recieved from "Christians" and from "the gay community". The answers to these questions showed that with both communities there are elements of fear and misunderstanding, in part, gained from believing the media, but a willingness to engage on a respectful level with individuals. I told the story of how my coming out to somebody had profoundly changed some of their perceptions, even if it didn't change their views of the the "rightness" of gay sexual activity, because they went from thinking they didn't know anyone who was gay and Christian to seeing that somebody whose faith they knew was.
All in all a really useful day and I think a small group of about 8 or 9 young lads who were willing to engage with what was being said were worth far more than a larger group who wanted to points score based on intrenched prejudices. Finally thanks to those who were supporting me in prayer through this one, God was there working particularly in one case that I'm not going into on here. Would appreciate it if you continue to pray for the LGBT guys at Hallam and Sheffield uni's, they're a great bunch, as they journey with faith, study and sexuality.