 'There is no sin of homosexuality,' gay author tells Presbyterians By Angela R. Treadway The Layman Online Monday, June 28, 2004
"Gay is morally neutral," Dr. Marvin Ellison said. "You don't lose points if you are gay, and you don't gain points if you are straight." What matters, he said, is "right character and conduct, right relationship." Ellison, an ethics professor at Bangor Theological Seminary in Portland, Maine, presented the keynote address at the dinner hosted by the Shower of Stoles Project, That All May Freely Serve and More Light Presbyterians – three gay advocacy organizations in the Presbyterian Church (USA) pushing for gay ordination and same-sex marriages. He titled his speech "Queer Eye on the PC(USA): Marriage, Morals and Other Makeovers," borrowing from the popular TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, in which five gay men do total makeovers on nerdy heterosexuals and model for them ways in which they can be hip, stylish, gracious hosts, and good listeners – telling them that the change is "You – only better!" "Queer," Ellison said, "is not another word for gay. Not every 'queer' is LGBT. Queer means something like, 'God is calling us to engage in creative deviance.'" Expanding on the analogy, he said, "Queer folk have fantasies. My recurring fantasy is that the Fab 5 (the stars of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) would make a surprise visit to the Presbyterian Church and do a complete makeover." What would happen, he asked, "if the PC(USA) opened its doors to the Fab 5? 'Be Presbyterian – only better!' " Ellison noted what he called the politicization of marriage – not just gay marriage, but also heterosexual marriage. "Washington has embraced [heterosexual] marriage as a privatized way to reduce poverty . . . ," he said, 'but unless the effort is accompanied by jobs, housing and drug rehabilitation, it is a waste of effort." Ellison said the movement for marriage equality by legalizing same-sex marriage is only the latest effort for social justice and that, at the center of every social justice effort, is the need to recognize basic humanity. "Marriage is the mark of first-class citizenship," he said. "Marriage is ever-changing, and it should change to reflect the deepening respect for individuals." He said the "troublemakers are those who continue to split society based on sexuality." The role of the church is not to protect the sanctity of marriage, Ellison maintained, but to protect the sanctity of all persons. "The church should not promote marriage," he said, but "encourage egalitarian partnerships. Justice-love – a very queer virtue – should be the normative expectation of all our relationships." Ellison described what he termed a societal process of "reverse assimilation," saying that "many straights are acting more and more queer." As an illustration, he said that, for most heterosexual couples, the norm is contraceptive sex, not procreative sex. "How gay," he said. The trend in that process, Ellison added, has shifted to overcoming traditional gender roles in favor of fairness, and to alternative forms of family through extended networks of friends – which he called "very queer." "God – a lover of justice – never lets go," he said. "With persistent grace, he insists on transformation, not reformation. God is the consummate makeover artist." Quoting novelist Flannery O'Connor, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you odd," Ellison said: "Our queer God forever extends to us a transformative invitation – an invitation to be bold, to be odd." In his closing remarks, he told the audience to "keep a queer eye on the church and beyond. Stay in the struggle. Party with justice-loving friends. Be prepared for a divine makeover. After all, don't you and I believe that the best is yet to come?" Ellison was a principal author of a denominational task force report – "Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice" – that approved homosexual behavior, adultery and premarital sex. It overwhelmingly was rejected by the 1991 General Assembly. |
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