Synopses & Reviews
Why has the Right's anti-gay agenda been so successful in galvanizing a broad spectrum of Christians to political action? Why have the issues of gay ordination and gay marriage come to dominate liberal Christian discussions of sexuality? What questions about sexual orientation, sexual ethics, and Christian community are not being asked as a result?
Sex and the Church is a groundbreaking book that brings lesbian and gay theory and experience to bear on questions of sexuality and its relationship to Christian life. Ethicist Kathy Rudy begins by showing how the Christian right's campaign for "family values" has profoundly shaped American debates about gender and sexuality, and how mainline Protestant denominations have responded by focusing narrowly on questions of inclusion and exclusion, rights and privileges for lesbians and gay men. She then moves the debate onto a new level, drawing on queer theory and the lives of gay and lesbian Christians to answer new questions: Are gender and sexual orientation categories by which we should define ourselves and judge each other? Is the nuclear family the best site for Christian commitment? What is the purpose of sex, and what does it have to do with God? And what kind of intimate relationships best contribute to the formation of Christian community? Rudy concludes by proposing a new Christian sexual ethic that adapts the ancient notions of unitivity and procreativity to the church of today.
This provocative work offers a powerful vision of a renewed Christian community, open to all.
Synopsis
This groundbreaking book argues that lesbian and gay theory and experience can be valuable resources as the church faces issues of sexuality and Christian life.
Synopsis
A PROVOCATIVE REEXAMINATION OF THE ETHICS OF FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND SEX
Sex and the Church brings new clarity to contemporary Christian debates about homosexuality, marriage, and the family. Ethicist Kathy Rudy begins by showing that the Christian right's campaign against homosexuality has come to limit the agenda for American Christianity as a whole. Rudy argues that by asking whether gay and lesbian couples should marry, whether homosexuality is a matter of nature or nurture, and whether lesbians and gay men should be ordained, we avoid the more important questions. Instead, Rudy asserts, liberals and conservatives alike should be learning--especially from the lives and work of gay and lesbian Christians--to ask new questions: Should we define ourselves and judge each other according to gender? What makes sex ethical or unethical? What kind of intimate relationships best contribute to the formation of a Christian community? In Rudy's words: "We should be asking not whether gay people should be allowed to fit in, but rather which historically gay practices can help transform the schismatic, failing church today."
A significant contribution to the field of ethics, American cultural studies, and gay/lesbian theology.
--ROBERT GOSS author of Jesus Acted Up
About the Author
KATHY RUDY is an assistant professor of ethics and women's studies at Duke University. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.