October, 2003

The Challenge of Homosexuality for the Christian Community

Rose Wu

In order to provide a platform for the different voices and positions toward same-sex marriages within the Christian community in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Christian Institute (HKCI) and the Mission Enhancement Project of the Theology Division of Chung Chi College co-organised a seminar on Sept. 17. Speakers included two representatives from the Christian Tongzhi communities—the Blessed Christian Minority Fellowship and the Rainbow Cell Group—Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen, Prof. Kwan Kai-man from the Truth and Light Association, Joseph Kaung from Chung Chi Theology Division and myself. The following is a summary of my reflections at the seminar.

As we look at the reality of our world and our church, we must admit that there are brothers and sisters who have different sexual orientations than heterosexuals. Because of the mainstream position of the Christian churches that condemn homosexual acts as sin, many sexual minorities either continue to hide themselves in the closet, try to change their sexual orientations, leave the Church and join other Christian communities-in-exile or even give up their faith. However, I want to point out that, no matter what positions we take, we are still one family in Christ. As Paul told the Corinthians, ''All of you are Christ's body, and each one is a part of it. We cannot do without the parts of the body that seem to be weaker, and those parts that we think are not worth very much are the ones which we treat with greater care. . . . God has put the body together in such a way as to give greater honour to those parts that need it. And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another.'' The purpose of God's Creation is not to mould everyone into being the same; rather, God's purpose is to teach us to love and care for one another and to appreciate our differences.

If we embrace our homosexual brothers and sisters as one family and relate with them with genuine care at this initial stage of Hong Kong's development, we must then ask how we can transform our church as a safe place for all of them even though we may take a different position on homosexuality. Thus, I suggest that our church open our space and our heart to allow our brothers and sisters who have other sexual orientations to become a part of our community and to have the same equal rights to participate in all of our religious rituals and activities, including attending worship services and Sunday school, receiving Holy Communion and accepting lay leadership roles. Moreover, we also have to support sexual minorities to fight for their equal rights in society, such as their rights to employment, education, housing, etc.

Secondly, before we condemn homosexuality as sin, we must acknowledge that this stance is not the only or the final and absolute truth. In the past few decades, there have been other alternative interpretations of the Bible that use a hermeneutical approach and theological reflection about human sexuality which are more inclusive and liberating. We need to change the present top-down approach of moral teaching and transform it into a more inclusive and open dialogical approach of theological reflection. More importantly, we must respect and include minority voices and experiences as our primary source of theological input in our process of theologising. The purpose is not to seek absolute authority; rather, it is to explore an inclusive and empowering approach for enhancing our mutual understanding and solidarity among all parties of the Christian community.

Regarding same-sex marriages, based on the principles of human rights and justice, I personally support same-sex marriages to have the same equal rights as heterosexual marriages. However, I also understand and accept that there are churches which take the opposite view based on their interpretation of the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality and treat homosexuality as a violation of God's procreation. To me though, the challenge that God puts to us is not whether homosexuality is a sin but rather how we treat each other even though we bear a different image of God.

To conclude this message, I would like to share with you some inspiration which I gained from Nancy Eisland's recent book The Disabled God in which she refuses to render disability as if it were an ontological category. Rather, the stories of the two disabled women which she uses in her book as illustrations offer a plurality of definitions of mobility, impairment and body image. She also reminds us that disability does not mean incomplete and that difference is not threatening. She suggests that for the Christian Church to express our solidarity with those who are unnamed and repressed, like the disabled, we must adopt a hermeneutic in which alterity, or otherness, difference and the retrieval of ''stories seldom heard'' are privileged and have theologically disclosive authority. From her insightful message, I want to remind us that when our existing world uses the heterosexual experience as the universal criteria for all human beings our task is to make room for those who have other orientations as brothers and sisters in God's one family and to respect their equal rights.

While the Church expends so much energy and resources on seeking the correctness of human sexuality, which, in fact, is beyond our human comprehension, I sincerely urge us to shift our focus to explore new ways of caring for each other, especially those who are living in exile in our community and churches.