Other Voices Other Worlds

The Global Church Speaks Out on Homosexuality

Terry Brown

• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN:
  9780898695199
• eBook ISBN:
  9780898697933
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Leading Anglican writers from around the world challenge the assumption that the communion is split between a liberal 'north' and an orthodox 'south'. Anglican churches worldwide are sharply divided on homosexuality. The dominant sterotype is that of a "global south" unanimously lined up against homosexuality as immoral and sinful, and of a liberal and decadent global north. The differences between the two sides are seen as fundamental, and irreconcilable. Nothing is further from the truth: homosexual behavior exists across the whole Anglican Communion, whether it is openly celebrated or quietly integrated into local churches and cultures. In this extraordinary book, in development for several years, this is exposed as a myth. Christians throughout Africa, Asia, and the developing world - bishops, priests and religious, academics and lay writers - open up dramatic new perspectives on familiar arguments and debates. Topics include biblical interpretation, sexuality and doctrine, local history, sexuality and personhood, the influence of other faiths, issues of colonialism and post-colonialism, homophobia, and the place of homosexual persons in the church. Other Voices, Other Worlds reveals the rich historical and cross-cultural complexity to same-sex relationships, and injects dramatic new perspectives into a debate that has become stale and predictable.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Lakota Hca
• 2. Theology and the Politics of Exclusion: An indigenous woman’s perspective
• 3. Moana Waves: Oceania and homosexuality
• 4. A Story of its own Name: Hong Kong’s Tongzhi culture and movement
• 5. The Mythic-Literalists in the Province of Southeast Asia
• 6. The Struggle to be Human: A reflection on homosexuality in India
• 7. A Spirituality in Christ that Humbles and Transforms
• 8. Sexuality and the Church’s Understanding of Authority: A response from Japan
• 9. Muslim Attitudes to Homosexuality
• 10. Marching or Stumbling towards a Christian Ethic? Homosexuality and African Anglicanism
• 11. Kenya Reflections
• 12. Homosexuality and the Churches in Nigeria
• 13. The Church of Uganda and the Problem of Human Sexuality: Responding to concerns from the Ugandan context
• 14. Putting Right a Great Wrong: A Southern African perspective
• 15. Dehumanisation from the Periphery
• 16. Do not Judge . . . only Comprehend: The Anglican Communion and human sexuality
• 17. Practising Sexual Theology: Undressing sex, pleasure, sin and guilt in colonised mentalities
• 18. Homosexuality and the Bible in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America
• 19. Global Intimacy: Money, sex and communion
• 20. Homosexuality and the Clarity of Scripture: Reflecting with the Archbishop of Sydney
• 21. The Only Thing that Counts: Faith active in love
• 22. Good and Gay?
• 23. The Church of England and Homosexuality: How did we get here? Where do we go now?
• 24. How shall we Know?
• Afterword Beyond Libertarianism and Repression: The Quest for an Anglican Theological Ascetics
• List of Contributors