| Anglicanism in Thin Slices – May 2008 |
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To have one’s unguarded comments of 17 years ago relayed to the entire nation would be a disconcerting experience for even the most cautious citizen. Yet Tom Lukiwski’s 1991 homophobic outburst, though a particularly rich specimen, did remind us just how far we have come.
The universal reaction of disgust owed nothing to political correctness, as might once have been the case. The country’s instant condemnation brought it home: the war is over.
Now that gays and lesbians are ‘out’ and about, and we can see that their love for one another is as natural and wholesome as between heterosexuals – and this is confirmed by clinical research – they are now viewed, rightly, as part of God’s scatter diagram.
The Zacchaeus Society, which aims to turn gays ‘back’ to ‘normal’ sexual orientation, and which might have been admired until recently, is now seen as gross manipulation of human behaviour. That both practitioners and subjects earnestly want this change, based on their belief that homosexuality is unnatural, does not alter what we now see as tinkering with God-given instincts.
The war may be over, but it will be a long time before peace is established. I don’t mean a rapprochement with the ‘breakaways’, but a task nearer to home than that. It’s always been accepted that my own generation, born pre-WWII, is largely homophobic, so it was a surprise to read psychiatrist Peter DeRoche’s Apr 8 letter to the Globe & Mail, in which he queried “. . the belief that any of us, including [Lukiwski’s] critics is free of homophobia. There is plenty of evidence that these kinds of attitudes are universal and that it is dishonest for anyone to say that he or she is completely free of them” – as ‘traditional Christians’ always protest (too much, methinks?).
Of course we’re not free of them. Though I would happily marry a gay/lesbian couple tomorrow if permitted, subject to the usual checks, I can recognize strong vestigial homophobia in myself: I cannot stand seeing men kissing one another passionately (not women – they are more kissy sort of people) and I have recoiled violently (inwardly) on the few times when a man has hit on me.
It’s not changing the subject to say that when I stepped over a branch on a Japanese hillside 55 years ago, and the 6ft ‘branch’ slithered off into the scrub, I literally gibbered with fright. Yet no snake had ever done me any harm. These deeply embedded phobias date back hundreds of thousands of years, to the time when any ‘odd’ person threatened the safety of the tribe and when snakes were a real and present danger.
So – and this is the point – homophobia, racism, fear of snakes, carry no moral/ immoral label at all. My fear of snakes is irrelevant in a Brandon habitat, but my vestigial homophobia and racism, though also ‘not my fault’, and useful in ancient times maybe, is positively unuseful now. It must be acknowledged and confronted.
In no circumstances must dodgy bible texts be wheeled in to justify primitive instincts.
I resigned my military chaplaincy in 1975 on conscience (not pacifist) grounds, with two school-age children to feed, nowhere to go and forfeiting a sizeable RAF pension. For anyone unable to stomach church-authorised same-sex unions, the way should be equally clear.