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Trigger Warning: This article contains sexually sensitive terms, harm done to LGBTQ persons and suicide.
Welcome back to A History of Incompatibility. We’re exploring the historical origins of the controversial language over homosexuality in The United Methodist Book of Discipline. This is Part 6, so if you’d like to start from the beginning, go to Part 1. In the first act, we explored the events of the 1972 General Conference, where The United Methodist Church introduced the Incompatibility Clause, stating: “We do not condone the practice of homosexuality, and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”
We’re now in the second act, which today is taking a broader look at some of the origins of Christianity and sexuality. Augustine (4th c.) and Aquinas (13th c.) were the prime influence in an ascetic approach to sexuality. Augustine created the concept of original sin as something that is biologically passed down from Adam and Eve through sex, an act which is inherently sinful, but necessary for procreation. Virgins and the celibate were therefore categorically holier than sexually active people. Thomas Aquinas later developed highly rational apologetics to explain that any and every sexual activity for pleasure that could not result in the possibility of procreation was categorically “sodomy,” the worst sin second only to murder. While this included same-sex acts, it also included self-pleasure, and the use of contraceptives and withdrawal between a man and woman.
The medieval church and state was highly interested in controlling society, all the way down to the bedroom. But for male-and-female couples, this level of enforcement could only rely on establishing guilt and shame, because they couldn’t be peeping into everybody’s houses every night. However, it was much easier to enforce legal action against same-sex couples, or any men even suspected of having a sexual relationship. Same-sex relationships became criminalized, making it easy to blackmail and extort this group of people.
By the 1800’s, with the rise of psychological studies, there was a new interest in understanding what causes same-sex relationships, with the underlying assumption that they were unnatural. However, some European reformers sought to end the criminalization of any sexual activity between consenting adults. Karoly-Maria Kertenby and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs became early advocates for the queer community, and looked for ways to challenge the stereotypes that these people are predatory criminals with unnatural and insatiable sexual appetites. They developed and popularized the terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” to broaden the public imagination that a person may fundamentally be oriented to a particular attraction. While these terms were originally designed to humanize, they were quickly adopted by the scientific community as a morally-neutral term for a mental disorder.
When we come back next week, we’ll see how the 20th century church adopted and still holds onto a Freudian explanation for homosexuality as a disorder. We’ll also see how Protestant Christians significantly transformed their beliefs around sex after the American Civil War.
I hope you’re finding this series helpful, even if it gets awkward and uncomfortable. My weekly disclaimer is a reminder that I am not trying to change hearts or debate the clobber passages. My goal is to present history in an accessible way that challenges the assumption that the church has “always” thought one way, and let you do your own investigation into the possibility that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in LGBTQ people, and that they belong in a church that fully affirms them. See you next Tuesday, friends!