Shaun de Waal
ALIENS IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD: HOMOSEXUALITY AND CHRISTIAN FAITH IN SOUTH AFRICA edited by Paul Germond and Steve de Gruchy (David Philip, R74,95)
CHRISTIANITY has only recently begun to treat homosexuality as something other than a dire sin requiring, at worst, immolation, at best, conversion.
The South African synod of Anglican bishops recently apologised for the church’s discrimination against homosexuals; their former leader, Desmond Tutu, goes further. In his introduction to this pioneering book, he says the church should give its blessing to the physical expression of gay love. Moreover, he says, ringingly: “If the church, after victory over apartheid, is looking for a worthy moral crusade, then this is it: the fight against homophobia and heterosexism.”
Paul Germond and Steve de Gruchy’s book collects various pieces that bolster this call, and give it an often poignant resonance. There is the personal testimony of gay people, including clerics or would- be clerics, and the stories of communities of worship that accept homosexuals, and there are examinations of Biblical interpretations traditionally assumed to condemn homosexuality.
The theological position that emerges is an inclusive one, more concerned with love than sin, and closer to Jesus’s central message than that peddled by most Christians. Let’s hope those lost sheep catch up one day.