COMMENTARY: Speaking Out for Sexual Morality, Healing and Justice

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Pamela K. Brubaker teaches Christian ethics at California Lutheran University.) (UNDATED) “Sexuality is God’s life-giving and life-fulfilling gift,” begins The Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Healing and Justice released on Jan. 18. More than 850 religious leaders from diverse religious communities endorsed the statement, which was published as a full-page […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Pamela K. Brubaker teaches Christian ethics at California Lutheran University.)

(UNDATED) “Sexuality is God’s life-giving and life-fulfilling gift,” begins The Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Healing and Justice released on Jan. 18. More than 850 religious leaders from diverse religious communities endorsed the statement, which was published as a full-page ad in The New York Times on Jan. 25.


I am one of those, a lifelong member of the Church of the Brethren who teaches Christian ethics at a Lutheran (ELCA) college. I endorsed the statement because of its affirmation of sexuality, its concern for those who suffer from our failure to adequately address sexuality, and its call for faith communities to “be truth seeking, courageous and just” and to “advocate for sexual and spiritual wholeness in society.”

Christian scholars like James B. Nelson, Rosemary Ruether and Beverly Harrison have insightfully analyzed the “sex-negative” stance of much of Christian tradition. This outlook is grounded in dualistic thinking: anti-body, anti-sex, anti-woman. Many early Christian theologians valued virginity and celibacy more highly than marriage. Augustine read _ some would say misread _ the Genesis creation story to mean original sin is transmitted through sexual intercourse.

Some continue to read the Genesis creation story through this sex-negative lens. But as biblical scholar Phyllis Trible writes, if Genesis is the story of relationships gone awry, the Song of Songs offers us a portrait of a redeemed garden, where sexuality is enjoyed, and male-female mutuality flourishes. Thus, the declaration affirms that “our faith traditions celebrate the goodness of creation, including our bodies and our sexuality.

We sin when this sacred gift is abused or exploited. However, the great promise of our traditions is love, healing and restored relationships.”

Sadly, this promise is not always met. God hears the cries of those who suffer, the declaration proclaims. It calls us “to see, hear and respond to the suffering caused by violence against women and sexual minorities, the HIV pandemic, unsustainable population growth and over-consumption, and the commercial exploitation of sexuality.”

My parents, particularly my mother, the more outspoken one, are a wonderful example of religious people who see, hear and respond. It was not easy for our family when my sister came out to us as a lesbian in the early 1970s. My parents have a strong faith, deeply rooted in the Bible. They studied, prayed, counseled with family, friends and clergy and concluded that we are commanded to love one another.

My mother was moved by the suffering of those lesbians and gays she learned to know through my sister’s involvement in the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/ Transgendered Concerns. Many are surprised when my mother _ an older, gray-haired woman wearing the prayer cap out of favor with most of us younger women _ speaks out for love, justice and inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life and leadership of the denomination.

It is not only Christians and Jews from liberal denominations who endorse the declaration’s call for “full inclusion of women and sexual minorities in congregational life, including their ordination and the blessing of same sex unions.” Some charge such positions are contrary to Scripture, as they believe all Scripture is binding. Those of us who take these positions believe the central biblical teachings of love and justice are binding, not isolated passages rooted in patriarchal, homophobic cultures.


We want “a sexual ethic focused on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts.” An ethic that takes “love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent and pleasure” as the guides for sexual expression can counter the “pain, brokenness, oppression and loss of meaning” many experience in relation to their sexuality. As a college educator, I know that the need for such an ethic is great.

I also endorse the declaration’s call for “age appropriate sexuality education in schools, seminaries and community settings.” Furthermore, a sexual ethic grounded in love and justice calls for “a faith-based commitment to sexual and reproductive rights, including access to voluntary contraception, abortion and HIV/STD prevention and treatment.”

The Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Healing and Justice was developed as part of the religion and sexuality initiative of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States and is available at http://www.religionproject.org.

My hope is the declaration, combined with the advocacy of people like my sister and mother, will encourage more faith communities to be “truth seeking, courageous and just.” Let us speak out together against sexual and social injustice and for healing and wholeness.

DEA END BRUBAKER

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