Changing Attitude, UK, hosted a book launch party for the Rev. James Alison, the brilliant gay Catholic theologian recently. Colin Coward reports that Alison responded to questions:
What has changed?
James said what has changed for Catholics is that being gay has been taken out of the field of doctrine into the human sciences. An anthropological breakthrough has taken place and it is now a grave mistake to think about homosexuality as a theological problem. The basic question is now – Is there such a thing as being gay or lesbian? Is it a form or vice or a pathology? Only in the last 50 years has it been possible to say there is a regularly occurring minority variant which is not pathological, and this is now a real piece of human knowledge which is having big effects in the theological sphere. But we are talking about it in the anthropological sphere now – talking about who are these lesbian and gay humans who are undergoing grace.
and
Gay activism
Is there a place in his theology for gay activism and if there is, should we be focussing on gay pride or gay marriage? – yes, attend to both was his answer. We wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for the early activists, GLF, Stonewall, Gay Pride, etc, they opened the doors for us. He was concerned that too much attention might be focussed on gay activism in the church and the amount of emotional and mental energy that goes into trying to change the church. Let’s invest our time and energy where it can make a difference and not invest in fighting a paper tiger – the church will catch up eventually.
Different Christianity
We should be investing our time and energy now in creating a new Christianity that is going to look so different in one hundred years time. So much is up for grabs and we should be trying to get people to re-imagine themselves and their faith. To quote the book again, “We have to be sitting alongside our brother frauds and working out, with their help, and with fear and trembling, what it looks like to be hoiked off into the new Creation.”