Ethics and Sexuality

1. Ethics and Sexuality Dr Susannah Cornwall Department of Theology and Religion University of Exeter

2. AQA specification • 3.2.1.1 Theme A: Relationships and families • Students should study religious teachings, and religious, philosophical and ethical arguments, relating to the issues that follow, and their impact and influence in the modern world. They should be aware of contrasting perspectives in contemporary British society on all of these issues. They must be able to explain contrasting beliefs on the following three issues with reference to the main religious tradition in Britain (Christianity) and one or more other religious traditions: • • Contraception. • • Sexual relationships before marriage. • • Homosexual relationships.

3. AQA specification Sex, marriage and divorce • Human sexuality including: heterosexual and homosexual relationships. • Sexual relationships before and outside of marriage. • Contraception and family planning. • The nature and purpose of marriage. • Same-sex marriage and cohabitation. • Divorce, including reasons for divorce, and remarrying. • Ethical arguments related to divorce, including those based on the sanctity of marriage vows and compassion.

4. AQA specification Families and gender equality The nature of families, including: • the role of parents and children • extended families and the nuclear family. The purpose of families, including: • procreation • stability and the protection of children • educating children in a faith. Contemporary family issues including: • same-sex parents • polygamy. • The roles of men and women. • Gender equality. • Gender prejudice and discrimination, including examples.

5. Eduqas specification Relationships • Christian beliefs, attitudes and teachings about the nature and purpose of relationships in the twenty first century: families, roles of women and men, marriage outside the religious tradition and cohabitation. • The nature and purpose of marriage as expressed through Christian marriage ceremonies in Britain and teachings: Mark 10:6-8 and the Church of England Synod. • Varying Christian attitudes towards adultery, divorce and annulment and separation and re-marriage. Interpretations of Matthew 19:8-9, Mark 10:9.

6. Eduqas specification Sexual relationships • Christian teachings about the nature and purpose of sex and the use of contraception including varied interpretations of the Natural Law/Absolutist approach of Thomas Aquinas' Five Primary Precepts with reference to the second Primary Precept. • Diverse attitudes within and across Christian traditions towards same sex relationships, including varied interpretations of: Leviticus 20:13 and 1 Timothy 1: 8-10.

7. Eduqas specification Issues of equality: gender prejudice and discrimination • Diverse attitudes within Christianity toward the roles of women and men in worship and authority with reference to Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican views on this issue • Interpretations of teachings: 1 Timothy 2:11-12, Galatians 3:27- 29

8. Christian theology and sexuality • Leviticus 20:13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. • 1 Timothy 1:8-10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. 9 This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, 10 fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching.

9. Key themes for today • Hermeneutics, translation, interpretation. • Varieties of hermeneutical approach. • Case study: arsenokoites and malakoi. • Case study: the “sin of Sodom”.

10. Natural Law • Natural Law arguments are based in the thought of Aristotle as mediated by the Catholic philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), and are still the basis for much present-day Roman Catholic ethical pronouncement.

12. Natural Law: primary precepts • These precepts are revealed to us by God. If we do not follow them, then either we are deliberately rebelling against God, or our reason is not working properly. • Secondary precepts follow from the primary precepts.

13. Natural Law: primary precepts • To preserve life • To continue the species through reproduction • To educate children • To live in an ordered and stable society • To worship God

14. Natural Law reading of homosexuality • Same-sex relationships might seem to go against, in particular, the second precept (to continue the species through reproduction). • Some people have argued that same-sex relationships also go against the fourth precept, since, they claim, an ordered and stable society is built on (heterosexual) marriage.

15. Natural Law reading of homosexuality • Same-sex activity “frustrates” (gets in the way of) the natural purpose of the genitals and of human sexual relationship. • Humans’ genital organs are designed to generate new human life, so anything which gets in the way of this goes against reason.

16. Natural Law reading of homosexuality • Aquinas: every sexual act should be open to creating new life. • A couple in a sexual relationship should not just be thinking about themselves, but about the wider community their relationship affected, including the children who might be conceived. • Putting something in the way of conceiving a child is committing the sin of inhospitality.

17. Natural Law reading of homosexuality • If there is no chance of a child being conceived as a result of this sexual act, the act is fundamentally selfish and exclusive. • It isn’t open to broadening the family community, to having a new person or people brought into the relationship to be loved. • By this logic, homosexual acts are selfish and exclusive.

18. How persuasive are these Natural Law objections to same-sex relationships? • Can you identify any counter-arguments to them?

19. Problematizing the NL Approach 1 Even between heterosexual couples, the conception of a child is not always possible. How is sex between same-sex couples different from sex between heterosexual people who could not have children?

21. Problematizing the NL Approach 2 • Is conceiving a child really the only or most important “natural” purpose for the genitals? • Surely physical pleasure is also a natural purpose of sex, as well as the emotional closeness it often brings about between the partners. • Even if same-sex couples can’t conceive children, surely their sexual relationships can bring about these other natural ends, physical pleasure and emotional bonding.

23. Problematizing the NL Approach 3 Is it really the case that the only way a sexual relationship can be hospitable and build up the community is through the generation of biological children?

25. Problematizing the NL Approach 3 Some lesbian and gay theologians, e.g.Kathy RudyandElizabeth Stuart, have argued that same-sex relationships can build up the community in other ways. Families are not just about your biological relations, but also those whom you bring into your circle. We might call these “non-kinship families”.

26. Elizabeth Stuart • If human relationships are supposed to be modelled on the relationships of the Trinity, it is important to remember that these relationships are metaphorical ones (God is not really a father). • Not every human relationship needs to be biologically procreative in order to mirror God. • “Reproduction” in God’s new order is about more than biology. It is about reproducing ideas and loving relationships. Jesus preached hospitality to strangers, rather than care only for biological children and “insiders” (Stuart 2003: 95).

27. Elizabeth Stuart • In the Bible, in e.g. Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus is shown as going beyond biological relationships. • He himself does not, as far as we know, marry or have biological children; he creates a new kind of “family” and says that whoever loves and follows him is his mother or sister or brother.

28. Elizabeth Stuart • In Romans 11:24, even God is portrayed as going beyond what is “natural” by admitting non-Jews into the new Christian family. This seemed very odd (and “unnatural”) to people who believed that the Jews were God’s chosen people. • Christians are called to imitate God in going “beyond nature” – in being so loving and hospitable that it seems unnatural! • Whether an action or event is “natural” isn’t the be-all and end-all of whether it is legitimate.

29. Problematizing the NL Approach 4 1 in 2,500 children can’t easily be classified as a boy or a girl. These intersex conditions sometimes mean a person has unusual genitals. They almost always mean a person is infertile. This raises questions about what the “natural” purpose of their genitals could be. We return to the idea that the genitals’ purpose is not just reproduction, but also physical pleasure and emotional closeness.

31. Hermeneutics (interpretation) • Almost all Christians today read the Bible in translation rather than in its original languages. • All translation is an act of interpretation. • There is no such thing as a “neutral” or unbiased translation. • The meanings of texts are therefore contested.

32. Re-reading the Bible • Do the texts which appear to outlaw homosexuality (or same-sex activity) really mean what they seem to mean? • If so, so what? How far are they still binding on Christians (and/or other readers) today?

33. Different approaches • Take texts at face value: the Bible clearly condemns same-sex practice, and today’s readers of the Bible are not at liberty to deny this even if they find it distasteful. • Take texts at face value BUT consider that they are not binding on today’s readers: the Bible is a set of ancient and primitive texts, and today we know better than the writers did. • Retranslate texts: hold that words which have been translated “homosexuality” actually mean something different. • Wrestle with the texts: don’t throw them out or deny their difficulty, but find ways to live with the tension they create.

34. Can you “map” each kind of approach onto a particular group of readers?

35. Different approaches • Take texts at face value: the Bible clearly condemns same-sex practice, and today’s readers of the Bible are not at liberty to deny this even if they find it distasteful. • Take texts at face value BUT consider that they are not binding on today’s readers: the Bible is a set of ancient and primitive texts, and today we know better than the writers did. • Retranslate texts: hold that words which have been translated “homosexuality” actually mean something different. • Wrestle with the texts: don’t throw them out or deny their difficulty, but find ways to live with the tension they create.

37. Arsenokoites and malakoi • Look up 1 Timothy 1:8-10. How is the second term in verse 10 translated (the term immediately after something like “fornicators” or “the sexual immoral”)? • Look up 1 Corinthians 6:9. How is the last term in the list translated (the term or terms after something like “adulterers”?)

38. Arsenokoites: 1 Timothy 1:10 • “Sodomites” (NKJV, 1982) • “Perverts” (NIV, 1984) • “Homosexuals” (NASB, 1985) • “Sodomites” (NRSV, 1989) • “Sexual perverts” (GNT, 1992) • “Those practicing homosexuality” (NIV, 2011)

39. Arsenokoites: 1 Timothy 1:10 • “Them that defile them selves with mankynde” (Tyndale Bible, 1500s) • “Abusers of themselves with men” (English Revised Version, 1885)

40. Arsenokoites and malakoi: 1 Corinthians 6:9 • “Nor effeminate, nor homosexuals” (NASB, 1977) • “Nor homosexuals, nor sodomites” (NKJV, 1982) • “The self-indulgent, sodomites” (NJB, 1985) • “Male prostitutes, sodomites” (NRSV, 1989) • “Homosexual perverts” (GNT, 1992) • “Men who practice homosexuality” (ESV, 2001) • “Men who have sex with men” (NIV, 2011)

41. Arsenokoites and malakoi: 1 Corinthians 6:9 • Footnote to NIV text: “The words men who have sex with men translate two Greek words that refer to the passive and active participants in homosexual acts.” • Footnote to ESV text: “The two Greek terms translated by this phrase refer to the passive and active partners in consensual homosexual acts.”

42. Arsenokoites and malakoi: 1 Corinthians 6:9 • “Nether weaklinges nether abusars of them selves with the mankynde” (Tyndale Bible, 1526) • “Wa[n]tons and bouggerers” (Geneva Bible, 1557) • “The effeminate, the brutal” (Daniel Mace, 1729) • “Any who are guilty of unnatural crime” (Richard Weymouth, 1903) • “Catamites, sodomites” (James Moffatt, 1913)

43. Revised Standard Version in 1946 was the first English translation to use the term “homosexuals”. • John Boswell 2015 [1980]: 107 argues that until the Reformation most interpreters understood “malakoi” to mean “masturbators”.

44. The term arsenokoites is known as a “dis legomenon” – that is, we only have very few instances of this word within the canon, so we have to try to work out what it might mean from its context. • It seems to come literally from a joining together of two words meaning “male” and “beds”. • The term “malakos” seems literally to mean “soft”. • NB had Paul wanted in 1 Corinthians 6 to condemn all male-male sexual activity, he could have used the term “paiderraste” (pederast), but did not.

45. Dale Martin • Professor of Religious Studies at Yale. • Author of Sex and the Single Savior. • Argues that it’s simply not possible to be sure what words like arsenokoites and malakoi originally meant. • They have recently been translated as referring to homosexuals (or particular types of homosexual activity), but this is a matter of interpretation.

46. What is the “sin of Sodom”? • How would you define the term “sodomy”? • How else have you encountered the term “sodomy” being used?

47. The “sin of Sodom” • “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49)

48. The “sin of Sodom” • “Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they [the angels], indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude 7)

49. The “sin of Sodom” • “Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they [the angels], indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude 7) • NB the closest literal translation from the Greek ἀπέρχομαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας (aperchomai opiso sarkos heteras) is “went after other/strange flesh”.

50. Martti Nissinen • Professor of Old Testament Studies, University of Helsinki • “Applying the biblical texts to our time … is always a hermeneutical event, in which the differences between the biblical and the contemporary worlds are in some way smoothed out. In practice, the tradition of biblical interpretation, several thousand years old, serves as the bridge, whether this is acknowledged or not. Internalized reading guided by this tradition is often unconscious to the point that the readers of the Bible do not even notice that they are constantly interpreting what they are reading.” (Nissinen 1998: 4)