Categories: uncategorized
Date: 11 June 2012 19:19:44
Gender and Law at Durham (GLAD) sponsored a seminar day at the Durham Uni today on the topic of sexuality, gender identity and faith. Due to the submissions made by contributors the day focused almost exclusively on sexuality and faith but it was an interesting day which went beyond the confines of your average academic conference containing traditional academic papers from a range of disciplines but also two interesting presentations from members of the MCCNewcastle.
The first set of papers were looking all looking at the experience of LGB young people of faith. The first paper from Yvette Taylor (of London South Bank University) was Making Space for Queer Identifying Religious Youth and discussed the work being done by that project which is a focused on looking at how the sociology of religion and sexuality can connect to the sociology of youth. It's a really interesting project which is producing some excellent ethnographic data. The second paper in this session was from Sarah-Jane Page (of Aston University) and was sharing some of the findings of the Religion, Youth and Sexuality: A Multi-Faith Exploration. This study has looked comparatively at the experience of participants from 6 different religions. The key findings are as expected - that there is a great deal of complexity with intra and inter-religious variations. It was interesting the views of heterosexual respondents appeared as complex as those of LGB participants in the study. The final study complimented the other two well and came from Rusi Jaspal(of Nottingham University) and was a paper on his social psychology research into Resisting Homophobic Social Representations: A social psychological Study of British South Asian Gay Men.
As my academic interests are located within the sociology of religion I found these papers particularly interesting. Personally what was most encouraging was the way that these papers were dispelling certain myths and explaining the real difficulties and choices that LGB young people of faith were facing and the strategies they were using. The common theme which emerged from these papers was that negotiation of meaning and identity within shared space is important for all young people, but particularly those who would self identify in some way either publicly or privately as LGB.
After lunch we moved into a session which was more applied in many ways. Helen Berry of the MCC Newcastle gave a presentation (as opposed to a paper) entitled Coming Out and Confessing Faith: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Personal Histories from MCC. Hers was a session of sharing stories and again reinforced the idea that faith and sexuality are not oppositional. This was followed by Charlotte Norton another member of MCC Newcastle sharing how the church planned worship and had developed their core values and bedrock beliefs. This process involves negotiating the expectations, experiences and theological understandings that predominantly churched people are bringing in to this environment from a vast range of traditions. This was the story of how a growing church was engaging in developing worship in a positive way. The key term used for the type of worship being produced was "blended". This meant that they, in line with the Spirit's leading, are using elements from a range of different denominations and worship styles to produce something distinctive and appropriate for their context. This is not a Fresh Expression for the sake of trying something as a last resort as many initiatives are; this is a fresh expression of worship emerging organically in an organised way.
The final part of the session was a paper given by theologian Gerard Loughlin (of Durham University) which was entitled Queering the Bible. It was similar in style and content in many ways to the work of James Alison explaining as it did the reasons why the use of scripture traditionally used by the established denominations to argue against homosexuality is based on wrong understandings of both what homosexuality is and of what the texts are referring to. What impressed me about this paper was the way that Loughlin pitched it at exactly the right level for the audience which was a mixture of academics, practitioners within the field and "ordinary" LGB people. I have heard him give papers before to post-grad audiences and know the way he can discuss things using incredibly technical language (which is appropriate for that context). This wasn't dumbing down but it was making relevant academic material accessible.
The final session moved from theology to law. The first of these papers came from Matthew Gibson (from Liverpool University) and was looking at Faith versus Sexuality in the Workplace: Legal Perspectives on Religious Accommodation. The second from Neil Cobb who is based at Durham was the convener of the conference was entitled Staying Faithful in Marriage: Religious Belief and the UK Same-sex Marriage Debates. These two papers were interesting, although by that time my mind was starting to hit overload and I have to admit Law doesn't grab me as much as Ecclesiology, Social History, Theology or Sociology of Religion. They highlighted in a way the other papers hadn't the conflict which does sometimes exist between faith and sexuality.
The latter focus on conflict was the exception to the day - which Cobb admitted in his introduction to the day had come as a surprise to him. What the majority of papers and presentations showed was that despite what the media would have us believe faith and sexuality are not oppositional - they are both important aspects of identity which many people are seeking to negotiate simultaneously.