Why a Special Issue on Sexuality and Covenant?
By Patrick Anderson, editor
I know something about the sensitivity some readers of Christian Ethics Today have concerning the subject of sexuality. I published an article in 2011 by a 93-year-old retired Southern Baptist minister, Bruce Lowe, which expressed a view of Scripture in which he claimed that denouncements of homosexuality were not the proper interpretation of certain verses generally understood to be denouncements of homosexuality. In the very next issue I published a rejoinder by Howard Batson, a prominent active Baptist pastor who took strong exception to Brother Lowe’s interpretation of the passages. Some readers praised the inclusion of the articles, others objected, a few even cancelled their “subscriptions.”
So, as editor of this journal, I thought long and hard about publishing these papers. I attended the conference and participated in the discussions as a small group convener, even though I was not involved in the planning for the conference and in some ways had been lukewarm about the event. But during the conference, it became very clear to me that what was happening was not only historic, but also very important to the church. Prior speculation and news stories wrongly claimed the conference was focused on homosexuality exclusively, or was a first step in the total affirmation of diverse sexual behaviors and lifestyles as normative for the Christian. Some observers believed that any discussions about sexuality were toxic for the church, too
politically charged, too controversial, too this and too that.
The conference itself, as the papers herein show, focused not only on titillating issues surrounding sexuality, but the deeper matters of covenant between followers of Jesus. These papers express deep feelings, serious reflections, important interpretations of spirituality and covenant. When I learned that the original sponsors of the conference had decided not to pursue the publication of the papers, I ask for and received permission to do so on behalf of Christian Ethics Today.
I consulted with the board of directors of Christian Ethics Today and together we discussed whether, how, and when to publish the papers. The final conclusion was to publish the papers as they were presented, as a special volume of “proceedings” from the conference. In addition we will publish the papers along with some other materials in book form. We concluded that it would be wrong for us to ignore the subject of sexuality in a journal called Christian Ethics Today, that our purpose statement calls us to address all issues of importance to followers of Jesus, that although other ethics journals or organizations avoid the subject we would do this to fill a void in Baptist ethics literature.
Sometimes we followers of Jesus have a tendency to talk about everything except what is important or, better said, we tend to talk about everything with each other except what is on everybody’s mind. Even in high theological discussions we tend to keep it either simple or esoteric, attempting to avoid direct engagement with the topics.
During the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, while I was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, I remember the chosen ethics topics of professorial and chapel speaker presentations to be whether girls should wear off-the-shoulder gowns during GA coronations and the propriety or impropriety of glossolalia. This, while the planes could be heard flying overhead from Carswell Air Force Base taking materiel to Guam to support the war and returning with body bags containing the remains of the fallen, and while American cities burned with racial hatred.
Indeed, even today we tend to shy away from thorny issues either by lumping them in categories which are easily bifurcated or by choosing not to address them at all in the name of being non-divisive. Abortion, capital punishment, and same-sex marriage are usually presented as point-counterpoint questions, for instance. This makes the issues seem simpler than they are by limiting discussion to “are you fer it or agin’ it?” debates. The role of women in the church or choices of denominational affiliations are avoided by many congregations in an attempt to avoid divisiveness, as though the decision to avoid the subjects is not in itself divisive.
This is where many of us Jesus-followers and congregations have left issues regarding human sexuality. The subject scares some of us to death, unless or until we are confronted with the issues within our own families or friendship circles. So, we avoid the subject. Out of sight and out of mind or head in the sand, that’s us. “Are you fer it or agin’ it?” some ask. “Let’s not talk about divisive subjects like that,” others say. If someone wishes to bring up subjects regarding sexuality for serious consideration within our communities of faith, often it is like trying to argue with a deaf person. Arguing deaf persons get agitated and use dramatic sign language, dramatic facial expressions, lots of shaking of heads and pointing of fingers, strong gestures of strong opinions. But when one of the disputants wishes to make the last final point, or just shut off the conversation, all she has to do is finish her gestured statement and then shut her eyes and turn away. It is very frustrating to the other. It is impossible to converse with a deaf person who will not open his or her eyes.
But just because we close our eyes to issues regarding sexuality and shut out the discomforting subject does not mean the issues are not real. Sexuality pervades every aspect of modern living. No one escapes it. Popular culture is saturated with sex. Advertisers, newscasters, and cheerleaders all know that more skin means more audience. Prepubescent children, geriatric adults, and everyone in between are very interested in sex according to every scientific study. There is no escape from the influence of sexuality in culture.
Sexuality is placed before us in flamboyant public displays by persons like Lady Gaga or Britney Spears or Kim Kardashian. Old timers remember Mae West or Marilyn Monroe or Miss Kitty; but how tame they seem by today’s standards. If you are old enough to remember Playboy bunnies or Muriel cigar girls you know this is not new. But still you also recognize the extreme to which we have evolved since those simpler examples of titillation. Early television depicted married couples sleeping in separate single beds. Later, we thought manly Rock Hudson and beautiful Doris Day were an ideal couple, until Hudson died of AIDS and was mourned publicly by his live-in male lover.
Those illusions were nowhere more prevalent than in the churches of my youth. Professor Bill Leonard has rightly taught us that Baptist churches did not acknowledge homosexual
ity in the church until many of our organists began to die of AIDS. Rather than whispers of sexual orientation, I remember church debates about whether divorced men could serve as deacons. Those were the days.
In today’s church, grown-up Sunday School class members frequently tell of granddaughters or nephews who have “come out” and are living in loving relationships with partners of the same gender. Many of our children and grandchildren see no impediment to ordained ministry merely because of sexual orientation. Sexual activity outside of marriage is a norm even among many of the most conservative Christians, young and old. Research on the sexual activity of kids signing pledges of “true love waits” demonstrate little difference in sexual behaviors from kids who do not share the pledge. Christian denominations from the Roman Catholic Church to fundamentalist Baptists and Pentecostals attempt to tamp down the tendency toward “affirming and embracing” open same sex orientation, while others like United Churches of Christ join the parade of acceptance.
Still, back in our Sunday School classes, we learn in honest conversation that widows and widowers struggle with their own sexuality. Many of us are intimately connected with loved ones, truly loved ones, who just a short time ago would have been disowned as deviants or perverts. Meanwhile, down the hall, the teenager Sunday School class members look at homosexuality as Eskimos look at snow, and large numbers are on birth control. Times, they are a’changing.
All of this is fodder for serious Christian discussion and deserving of ethical attention. We need a renewed emphasis on covenant relationships. We have learned the heavy toll of suicide, depression, mental illness, violence… so much hurt…resulting from the struggles of our young with sexual orientation. Unplanned pregnancies outside of marriage have troubling aspects. Abortion is only one of myriad issues related to childbearing. We know the terrible hurt associated with infidelity
in marriage, public shame and embarrassment heaped on sexual sinners, disappointment with political and moral leaders who have publicly been exposed because of irresponsible, inappropriate sex. Baptist churches have long dealt with ministers who fall and the Catholic Church deals with pedophilia. Can anyone claim that the church is not a proper venue for serious discussion about all topics related to sexuality?
The conclusion of Christian Ethics Today is that we must include sexuality among the moral and ethical issues that are of concern to contemporary Christians, to the church, and to society. That is our mission. Sexuality is not the only such issue, but it is one.
Therefore, we are publishing the papers which were first presented at “A Baptist Conference on Sexuality and Covenant” convened at First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia, in April of 2012. The conference was designed and sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. Over a three-day period, the papers contained herein were presented and discussed. Several topics of sexuality were included: divorce, homosexuality, dating, geriatric sexual activity…all with an eye on the implications for the church, especially the Baptist church, and another eye closely focused on the teachings of Scripture. The persistent context was the importance of covenant in all relationships.
We are presenting these proceedings from that conference with the strong hope that they will provide laypersons, educators, and ministers with a resource for understanding and responding in a faithful Christian manner to issues regarding sexuality, again, as our mission statement says.
We hope these papers will be a framework for further discussion and exploration of the subject. We invite others to write on the subject for our journal to express additional or reflective thoughts on the subject. We hope you find these papers timely, instructive, and helpful.
