Radical Love. Patrick S. Cheng

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      Chapter Two

      How did queer theology come into being? Although the term “queer theology” is fairly new, LGBT-positive theological works actually have been in existence since the mid-1950s. This chapter will review the evolution of queer theology over the last half-century. Note that the term “queer” is being used here in a broad sense; that is, it is being used as an umbrella term to describe theology by and for LGBT people.

      In particular, this chapter will review four different strands in the evolution of queer theology: (1) apologetic theology, (2) liberation theology, (3) relational theology, and (4) queer theology. The first strand, apologetic theology, can be summarized by the phrase “gay is good.” Its primary purpose is to show that one can be both LGBT and Christian. The second strand, liberation theology, goes beyond mere acceptance and argues that liberation from the oppressions of heterosexism and homophobia is at the very heart of the gospel. The third strand, relational theology, centers upon the notion that God is found in the “erotic”—that is, in the midst of mutual relationship with another. The fourth and final strand, queer theology, challenges the notion that binary categories with respect to sexuality (for example, homosexuality vs. heterosexuality) or gender identity (for example, female vs. male) are fixed and impermeable.

      It is important to note that these four strands of queer theology are not intended to divide the history of queer theology into distinct theological “eras.” Rather, they are roughly chronological ways of describing certain trends in the development of queer theology over the last fifty years. Furthermore, these four strands are not mutually exclusive. That is, any given work of queer theology may contain one or more of these strands. For example, certain books relating to transgender theology might be considered queer theology because they challenge essentialist and binary conceptions of gender. However, such books might also be considered apologetic theology to the extent that they are arguing that “trans is good” and that one can be both a transgender person and a faithful Christian.

Four Strands of Queer Theology

      Apologetic Theology

      The first strand in the evolution of queer theology is apologetic theology. As noted above, this strand can be summarized by the slogan “gay is good.” That is, these early theologians were primarily concerned with showing how LGBT (or, more accurately, gay and lesbian) people can be faithful Christians without the need to hide or change their sexuality, and how the Christian church should accept gays and lesbians as full members.

      The first major work to rethink the traditionally negative relationship between Christianity and homosexuality was Derrick Sherwin Bailey’s Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, published in 1955 in the United Kingdom. Bailey, an Anglican priest, wrote the book because he wanted to “state as accurately and to examine as fully as possible” biblical and church attitudes toward homosexuality from the early church to the Middle Ages. Bailey concluded that the Western Christian tradition about homosexuality was both “erroneous” and “defective” because it had disregarded what Bailey called the “biological, psychological, or genetical” condition of “inversion,” which was a term used to describe people who had a gay sexual orientation. That is, Bailey argued that the condition of inversion is an “inherent” and “apparently unalterable” condition that is itself “morally neutral.” Because the invert is “impelled by his condition” to engage in same-sex acts, these acts should no longer be viewed as “acts of perversion.” As such, Bailey believed that the Western Christian tradition “can no longer be regarded as an adequate guide by the theologian, the legislator, the sociologist, and the magistrate.”¹

      Although it may seem surprising that a work such as Bailey’s was published as early as 1955, there have been lesbian and gay church communities in existence since the 1940s. For example, the LGBT church historian Heather White has documented the founding of the Eucharistic Catholic Church in 1946 in Atlanta by a group of Catholics who had been denied the Eucharist because they had self-identified as homosexual. The group was led by a former Catholic seminarian who had been dismissed from seminary for having sex with another man. The group advertised as early in 1954 in ONE Magazine, a publication of the nascent “homophile” movement.²

      In 1960, the openly gay Congregationalist minister Robert W. Wood published Christ and the Homosexual (Some Observations), which was a groundbreaking work of gay theology. Wood suggested that the church should be true to its “message of love” by initiating “positive acts of concern” for the homosexual. Some of these positive acts would include encouraging the “homosexual” to “participate in Church activities.” Wood also urged the church to “rethink[] the theological position on homosexuality” and the conditions under which same-sex acts might be moral. Wood concludes that homosexuality can in fact be moral if it “permits full expression” of one’s personality and allows oneself to bring forth all of one’s “redemptive love, mature СКАЧАТЬ