Unlocking Orthodoxies for Inclusive Theologies

Queer Alternatives

Robert E. Shore-Goss, Joseph N. Goh, Robert E. Shore-Goss, Joseph N. Goh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000025866
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Sexuality & Gender in Religion

This book enters a new liminal space between the LGBTQ and denominational Christian communities. It simultaneously explores how those who identify as queer can find a home in church and how those leading welcoming, or indeed unwelcoming, congregations can better serve both communities. The primary argument is that queer inclusion must not merely mean an assimilation into existing heteronormative respectability and approval.

Chapters are written by a diverse collection of Asian, Latin American, and U.S. theologians, religious studies scholars and activists. Each of them writes from their own social context to address the notion of LGBTQ alternative orthodoxies and praxes pertaining to God, the saints, failure of the church, queer eschatologies, and erotic economies. Engaging with issues that are not only faced by those in the theological academy, but also by clergy and congregants, the book addresses those impacted by a history of Christian hostility and violence who have become suspicious of attempts at "acceptance". It also sets out an encouragement for queer theologians and clergy think deeply about how they form communities where queer perspectives are proactively included.

This is a forward-looking and positive vision of a more inclusive theology and ecclesiology. It will, therefore, appeal to scholars of Queer Theology and Religious Studies as well as practitioners seeking a fresh perspective on church and the LGBTQ community.

Part I
Provoking church

1
Toward radical inclusion

Yap Kim Hao

Let me preface my keynote address on the Conference theme “reNEW” this morning with expressing my amazement with what Free Community Church (FCC) in Singapore has thus far accomplished in this comparatively short space of time, going on to only ten years. We started from Ground Zero and now we have purchased this space as sacred ground for our congregation. About six years ago Rev. Miak Siew responded to the challenge and accepted the calling to be the pastor. He left his comfortable job, sold his apartment, completed his theological training, received his ordination and returned to serve as the first and only fully ordained, full-time, openly gay pastor, thus making history. I have a great appreciation of FCC under his leadership.

It is with reluctance that I appear before you and especially in the presence of two distinguished leaders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement from the United States. But Miak insisted and he is hard to resist. I am but an accidental activist in the LGBT community here. As an outsider who was privileged to be around from the inception of Free Community Church, Miak felt that my observations and insights are of some value for the life of this Church and its future in Singapore. Let me take you on my personal journey with FCC.

Allow me first to share a little bit about my early background. I was baptized as a Christian when I finished my secondary school education in a Methodist Mission school. The missionary pastor, Ralph Kesselring, was a graduate from the liberal Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. I find it strange that the one sermon that was etched in my mind is his sermon on Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream” (Amos 5.24). A colleague later presented me with his Chinese calligraphy work of that Biblical verse. What was stranger is that when the daughter of this missionary was rummaging through his archives, she found the original sermon with his hand-written notations. She made a copy and sent it to me. That was the theological foundation brick that I built upon subsequently in Boston University School of Theology, and which developed into progressive and queer theologies.

I began my ministry serving in three local churches. In 1961, I was appointed pastor of the Kuala Lumpur Wesley Methodist Church with the tag line: “Witnessing for Christ in the Heart of the Nation’s Capital.” In the congregation were Cabinet Ministers of the government. In 1968, at the age of 39, I was elected the first Asian Bishop of The Methodist Church in Malaysia and Singapore. I resigned in 1972, as I was drafted to serve for the next 12 years as the General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, a regional ecumenical organization of all the mainline churches and National Council of Churches in Asia, including Australia and New Zealand. After retirement and before I had time to smell the roses, I found myself in the “gay scene,” which was only ten years ago.

In 2003, the Prime Minister of Singapore made a public announcement through the influential international Time magazine that although homosexual acts remained illegal in Singapore, his government would not discriminate against gays for employment in the civil service. In opposition, the National Council of Churches of Singapore immediately declared that homosexuality is a sin. A few years prior to these events, some gay Christians had been meeting secretly as Safehaven, the precursor of FCC. I was not aware of its existence. In the course of my ministry I had personal encounters with only one gay person who came out to me. Gays were tightly closeted then. The question of homosexuality was settled in the churches. With my passion for social justice, I wrote a letter to the local press in support of this new government policy. Immediately the leadership of Safehaven contacted me, and without any hesitation I volunteered to support them in their struggle, and journeyed with them.

My address will explore the nature of the ministry and mission of the Church with reference to FCC, and I will explicate my understanding of the principle of inclusivity. What is the shape of a truly inclusive Singaporean Church that I project?

1 The inclusivity of membership

The religious affiliation of most of the LGBT people who formed FCC was from the conservative and charismatic churches that were more openly homophobic than the mainline churches. For a long time, churches were silent on this issue and LGBT people were isolated and stayed closeted. Open public condemnation came mainly from conservative pulpits. Known gays who were serving in such churches were rejected and expelled.

As soon as FCC was established, we were sinned against by being the target of anti-gay attacks. Yet, the only real difference that FCC makes in relationship to all other churches is that LGBT people are welcomed and fully accepted. We flash our Welcome Home sign prominently, and even composed an original song called “Welcome.” We recite the mantra of welcoming all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status.

However, the culture of FCC is for the most part charismatic, with its emphasis on praise and worship and personal salvation. We are able to attract members who were rejected by their former churches which disapprove of homosexual relations. They find acceptance and feel at home at FCC. Slowly but surely, there is a quiet reconciliation of their faith with their sexuality in spite of their baggage of conservative theology.

I have watched transformations taking place before my eyes. “J” is one of those who initially appeared as sheepish, but eventually became a confident leader. She wore a baseball cap to hide herself and avoid relating to others. I intentionally reached out to her. Today she is a church leader and regularly preaches the sermon, and many times preaches a better one than I do. But I must also admit that after a few years not a small number do not find it meaningful to remain as part of the congregation. We do have a wide open door to welcome them, but unfortunately as wide a back door for them to depart. For a number of years we stayed at the plateau of around one hundred attendees at our Sunday services. More than half of the present congregation were not with us when we began. Each Sunday we have a number of first-time visitors. It has therefore a fluid membership and a transient one without long-term commitment. Critically we may say we are more like a hotel/hospital than a home.

I must also recognize that a much larger number of LGBT and other outsiders appreciate what we are doing, but do not feel compelled to take an active part in the daily life of FCC.

2 Inclusivity must include lesbians on an equal basis

Safehaven and subsequently FCC was initiated by a small number of gays. It was later when FCC was organized that lesbians came to their worship services. Lesbians feel the male domination and I hear the terms “patriarchal” and “misogynist” being tossed around. Cells or support groups along gender lines exist and only one support group has mixed gender representation. Incidentally, we have now structured our toilets to be unisex, or toilets that transcend strict gender categories. It is helpful especially to the transgender people. Last month we held our annual Women’s Event planned by an all-women group with the deliberate exclusion of the males. Our lesbian pastor Pauline Ong reported that of late, more and more women find a sense of belonging and involvement in our church. She was encouraged by the changing attitude of the men of FCC. The women were so touched when they received an anonymous donation from one of the guys for the women’s event because he wanted them to “have better food or flowers or whatever we needed to make this event special.” What a sweet and loving gesture!

FCC is overcoming this gender divide and the lesbians are well on parity with the gays. It is not just a sexual orientation issue that we have to address but a gender issue as well, and allied with it is the ministry to the transgender people. We had sessions to acquaint the gays and lesbians with the issue of the transgender people. A few transgender people attend our services regularly.

3 Inclusivity includes the straight community

From the very beginning FCC did not want to be labelled a gay Church, and it tries to welcome straight people, but not always successfully. The culture is still predominantly that of LGBT people. When I started to stand in solidarity with the people in FCC there were some straight people who came to visit; some out of curiosity and some with sincere interest to find a congregation which is different from their own. They too did not discover what they needed. Only a few remain to lend their support to the LGBT cause.

What the Church must realize is that there are others out there who have questions with the prevailing forms of church life. Whether it is a fundamentalist, evangelical, conservative or mainline church, there is a growing disenchantment with established religious institutions. Many are looking for alternatives and not all of them are secular or atheists. Of late we have in Singapore a fairly active Humanist Society.

Those who have chosen to belong to no religion have risen from 14.3 percent in 1900 to 17.0 percent in 2010. The Christian population increased from 12.7 percent to 18.3 percent in the same period. I suspect there is a majority of people in our country who are spiritual but not religious. Traditional religious beliefs do not “sell,” and that is a world-wide phenomenon.

In the United States, the 2012 survey by the Pew Religion and Public Life Project reported that nearly a fifth of those who were polled said that they were not religiously affiliated. Nearly 37 percent of that group said they were “spiritual” but not “religious,” 37 percent of all Americans, a bigger group than atheists, and way bigger than Jews, Muslims or Episcopalians.

This rising phenomenon views “religious” as associated with the public realm of membership in religious institutions, participation in formal rituals, and adherence to official religious doctrines. And “spiritual” is regarded as associated with the private realm of religious thought and experience. This affects the status of religion in our multi-religious society in Singapore.

As much as our conservative Christians hold on to the supremacy of Christianity and the hope of converting all people to Christ with the belief that Christ is the only way to salvation, they are not reaping the wishful harvests of their evangelistic efforts. This is true also for those in the other traditional faith communities. Many are abandoning their ties to their faith communities. Being a secular state, Singapore has pushed religion to the margins yet looks toward faith communities to support government policies and prevent religious conflicts.

I sense that there is an increasing number of people, especially the young, who are spiritual but not religious. They gather around issues that affect the lives of the people. Faith communities for the most part are only engaged in welfare services, and are unwilling to take the important advocacy role to remove the root causes of social problems.

With this religious and cultural backdrop, what then is the ministry of the Church like FCC? We should try to be inclusive where everyone, including heterosexuals feel welcomed and ministered to.

4 Moving on beyond ministry, we must engage in mission

There is always a continuing work of helping the LGBT to reconcile their Christian faith to their sexuality. We will be deemed exclusive if we are only doing this essential and important mission.

When we look at the LGBT community outside of FCC, w...