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By The
Rev Dr. Busangokwakhe Dlamini
Introduction
There has been a lot of noise in African church circles
about gays and their place in the community of faith.
Besides the recent noise, it is an established fact
that there is a lot of silence around the question
of homosexuality in the indigenous society of Africa.
Equally established is the fact that, unlike in the
western society, silence in Africa cannot be taken
for consent. Because silence does not necessarily
mean consent, many have taken it to mean hostility.
Because of this silence, gays are accorded a very
low status in society. This makes it still difficult
to come out and declare oneself as gay in the indigenous
society of Africa. Those who have braved the storm
and come out have brought rejection and isolation
upon themselves, to the extent of being the scorn
as well as the scum of society. For this reason, African
gays have been forced to live two lives that are completely
separate. They are different people when they are
together in private gay settings and have to be different
people when they are among the non-gay public.
Church's Role
If Christian discipleship is to be taken seriously,
life cannot be separated off in parts labelled private
or public. For life to be whole - to become whole
- our lives must be all of a piece. I am struck by
the homophone between holiness and wholeness. It strikes
me as ringing true that a life lived in wholeness
can be equated to, or at least is close to becoming,
a life lived in holiness. A life fragmented into aspects
labelled as private and public is not whole and, therefore,
can never be holy. The Latin roots of the word "religion"
have to do with "binding." A church, which
wants to be true to its calling will never promote
fragmentation.
Not for nothing have all the world's major religious
teachers stressed the need to protect and cherish
the stranger, the one who is unfamiliar or different.
For all too easily can that one person or group become
the target for irrational fear, persecution or expulsion.
The church as an institution in the indigenous society
of Africa grew out of the early efforts by missionaries
to evangelise and christianise the indigenous peoples
and was a means of organizing the new religionists
into a community and giving them uniform goals and
a sense of belonging. It was a concrete and visible
expression of the identity and solidarity of the new
group and it soon took upon itself most of the functions
which had traditionally belonged to the family and
the kinship.
An important function of the church from its very
beginning was that of being an integrating force,
binding together the individual Christians who, having
broken away from their families and kindred, found
themselves in the position of outcasts. The new basis
of cohesion in the Christian group was the new concept
of the spiritual bond. The church is still called
to instil this sense of belonging to all its members.
Church as Prophet
The church does seem to have, in many respects, turned
the values of a people upside down from its very beginnings.
This is nowhere more evident than in the life of its
founder. The cross, in precise historical context
a thieves' gallows, became filled with new meaning
because of one man's relationship with it. From being
a sign of contradiction and slander in a local context,
it has emerged with a fresh significance a symbol
of healing and wholeness.
If the church cannot afford to move ahead of society,
what then is its relevance? Where would the church
be today, if there was no event like the Council of
Jerusalem? What would the church look like, if there
never was the Second Vatican Council? The problem
is that the church now seems to have fallen under
the sway of the dominant and ruling groups, and so
has ceased to be the revolutionary ferment, the yeast
in the lump of dough! The dominating trend and the
general portrait of the church seems to be that of
a custodian of tradition, without relating that tradition
to its origins.
This is certainly the case when it comes to the question
of homosexuality. The church has not lived its vocation
when it comes to the issue of gays. In the case of
gays, the church has rendered itself irrelevant. Many
understand that this is not God speaking, but people
limited by their own prejudices and worldview. Many
gays realise that their relationship with God is much
more fundamental than the pronouncements and utterances
of external authorities. They experience their orientation
as a gift from God. They are convinced that they have
been created this way, and that all that God creates
is good. They are able to see the positive resource
that their orientation is, often experienced as sensitivity,
compassion and creativity.
The church, in order to fulfil its prophetic mission:
must destroy the common consciousness that seeks to
maintain the status quo. It must get rid of the numbness
that is common in society and propose, in word and
deed, an alternative way of life. That is the prophetic
role of the church and of each and every Christian:
"to be the salt and light" of the world
(Mt. 5:13-16). The task of prophetic ministry is to
nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception
which is an alternative to the consciousness and perception
of the dominant culture around us.
In its role as prophet, the church must reach beyond
sexual differentiation. The church, particularly during
the apartheid era in South Africa, often defended
the rights of the poor to an equal share in the world's
goods. In a similar vein the church is called upon
to influence public opinion and policy in order to
advocate for a comprehensive and non-discriminatory
response to gay people and their needs.
Servant of Truth
The church is called to be the servant of Truth, God's
truth. The church has a responsibility to discern
it, explore it and proclaim it. That truth emerges
not so much from the study or library but from the
struggle, suffering and crisis of living people. It
is to that truth that the church is called to be servant.
A common belief is that people are all born heterosexual
and become influenced or "recruited" into
homosexuality. This somehow translates into a concern
among the clergy and other church personnel that if
they are talking about homosexuality, they may be
encouraging it in their congregations and parishes.
This mystification clouds the fact that talking about
sexual orientation in ways that acknowledge and affirm
all people will only influence the youth's self-acceptance
and their comfort with others who are similar to and
/ or different from themselves.
Another concern of the clergy and church personnel
about breaking the silence is that to do so is seen
as "imposing values" and this is not considered
to be the role of the church. To presume that discussing
homosexuality in church is to impose values is not
to notice that when we do not talk about the subject,
we are also imposing a set of values.
Another important function of the church is that
of being an agency of salvation. Salvation here is
not to be interpreted narrowly to mean just the winning
of souls but means the quality of life found within
the Christian fellowship. Worship is not merely an
outward ceremony or a ritual which has no particular
meaning outside of the service. The general idea is
the presentation of one's whole life as an offering
to God.
No doubt, the church as a social institution has
exercised, and continues to exercise, a great deal
of control over the lives of people. It is regarded
as an embodiment of all the value systems which Christianity
introduced. In this sense, it is the keeper of consciences.
Its teachings, its rules and regulations are regarded
as normative by many Christians.
If homosexuality is as deeply and fundamentally integrated
as studies suggest, then God cannot be left out of
how the homosexual comes into being. If this orientation
is viewed as part of the creation process, there should
be no reason to reject anyone because of their orientation.
The Church as Teacher
The very calling of the church places upon it the
demand for pastoral care to sexual minorities. Many
of those struggling with homosexuality are the youth
and the teenagers. These often need assistance in
searching the deeper meaning and the worth of their
lives despite the psycho-social pains they are experiencing.
One of the major problems facing young gays is the
need to find meaning in their experience which has
value and usefulness for them.
Conclusion
What is needed is space where everyone is not constantly
confronted with disparaging attitudes that bring hopelessness.
It is time to build!
* The Rev Dr. Busangokwakhe Dlamini is a member
of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)
and head of the Working Party on Homophobia, Ideology
and Religion in Africa.
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