The non-profit with which I work, Reflector Project, just hosted our first (hopefully annual) conference. Speakers included Dr. Hillary McBride, Dr. Rob James, Nelson Boschman, Curt Allison, Susan Alexander, and Sylvia Woodyard. The conference was convened with the intent of moving past some damaging theological and cultural understandings. This year, we were looking, in particular, at concepts of physicality, the body, and sexuality. These are among the many areas where religious trauma has had negative impact on self-perception and on ideas of morality and acceptability. We hope to present better ways forward.
With that in mind, I ask a question, “How did you get here?”
That is, how did you get to the place you are at now, in regards to how you view sexuality and the body? How you think of yourself and maybe judge yourself?
Many evangelical Christians grew up in a culture that condemned homosexuality. Some of our speakers at the conference pointed out that it was not only the church that issued such condemnation, but much of society as a whole. How did this happen? Where did the views come from?
There can be a sense, in religious circles and otherwise, that the views that are strongly held have always been part of what it means to be religious or to be a Christian. This type of thinking is demonstrated in the idea that there is a “Christian stance” on various issues.
So how did you get here?
Who told you what you were supposed to think?
What were you told that “the Bible says”?
Do you remember the Saturday Night Live sketch, The Californians? It used some heavyweight cast members (Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, etc.) in a spoof soap opera. There were the requisite hyper dramatic storylines; affairs, relational intrigue, illness, etc. However, when the characters were presented with dramatic questions relating to such drama, they would respond with driving directions.
Example; “Uhhhhhhh, Stuart! How did you get here?”
“I skipped Wiltshire and took Beverly all the way to Santa Monica.”
Some time ago in Evangelically Departed I wrote about coming up with a theological DNA test. What if you could find out where your particular religious understanding came from? If you were part of a church that said certain things about conversion, salvation, sexuality, and the end of the world, do you know what the theological ancestry of that church is? You might find that many of the things that you have been told are “Christian stances” are actually particular to a denomination, to a single church, or to a religious subculture. You might have been told that one way of interpreting scripture was the only way to interpret or that it was not interpretation at all.
There was a time in Christian history when significant groups taught that it was un-Christian to observe the Sabbath. They saw this as Old Testament ritual only. The ancestry of the Plymouth Brethren church that I was employed at includes an absolute condemnation of music in church services. This was so strong that the front of some of the churches in the tradition were actually designed so that the speaking area had a cut out that would fit only one person. This would ensure that there was not a way for any instruments to be included or played.
How did you get to particular views on the role of men and women in church?
How did you get to particular views of salvation or of the afterlife?
It might well be worth considering.
Some of the churches in my community that are most intent upon attracting young people to the congregation also happen to be most against LGBTQ inclusion. Some of these churches hold the view that only men ought to be in leadership. They refuse to include women on their leadership boards.
There can be a kind of tactic in such places to try to look the most up-to-date, to design programmes that appeal to young people. They want to attract young people and young families who will, in turn, attract more of the same. Many of these same young people are progressive on matters of sexuality and leadership.
If the people attracted to such places believe that women should be excluded from leadership and that those who are identify as LGBTQ are less than worthy as full participants, then I suppose they are in places that line up with their values.
Otherwise, it might be worth asking, “How did I get here?”