The Bible, Sex, And Ideological Fundamentalism
A DIALOGUE WITH JACQUES ELLUL
JACQUES ELLUL AND SEXUAL "ETHICS": A CRITIQUE
Rev. Dr. Thomas Hanks

Part 3:  
Queer Theology for 14 Sexual Minorities - Controversial Sexual Areas

14. Virgins: Vanishing Species or Spiritual Elite
14. Virgins: Vanishing Species or Spiritual Elite?

"Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were 144,000 who
had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads....It is these who have not defiled
themselves with women, for they are male virgins/celibate; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes."
(Revelation 14:1,4)
To see how far even contemporary Ideological Fundamentalism has strayed from traditional
Christian sexual ideology, nothing is more revealing than a brief study of virginity and other
expressions of sexual abstinence in the history of the church. Virgin women and (purportedly)
celibate priests once occupied the idolatrous place in dominant sexual ideology now taken over by
the nuclear family--and appropriate Biblical prooftexts were easily found to perpetuate the ideology
and make marriage as miserable an experience as possible (sex only on Tueday with all thoughts
concentrated on the purpose to procreate).

Jesus sent out same-sex couples on missionary journeys and commended those who became
"eunuchs" for the sake of God's imminent kingdom (Mat. 19:12). Paul was quite emphatic about the
advantages of having all Christians remain unmarried (1 Cor. 7). The expected nearness of the 2d
Coming eliminated any mundane concerns about the propagation of the species--an ideological
deficiency Augustine corrected with a vengeance! John, in a text that kept the hearts of the sexually
abstinent spinning for centuries during the Middle Ages, envisioned (only) 144,000 redeemed, who
were not Jehovah's Witnesses, but "those who did not defile themselves with women"--and were free
to travel (14:1-5).

Today, however, many a bachelor missionary volunteer, undefiled by women and free to travel, has
been required by a Fundamentalist mission board to encumber himself with wife and children. Single
women are accepted, but commonly maintained as 2d-class citizens--especially when on furlough.
Paul's chapter that supplied so many favorite proof texts for virginity and sexual abstinence in the
Middle Ages (1 Cor. 7:1,7-8,25-26,32-38,40, beginning and ending with that emphasis), is
ideologically mistitled "Marriage" in the NIV (cf. "Marriage and Virginity," in the Jerusalem Bible).

The notion that sexual abstinence brings one closer to the divine has ancient pagan roots
(Deschner 1974/89) and may occasionally be reflected in the Bible (the prophet Jeremiah
understood that Genesis commands to procreate did not apply to him and remained unmarried;
Philip the evangelist had 4 virgin daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9; cf. 1 Cor. 7:5 for temporary
abstinence as an aid to prayer). Uta Ranke-Heinemann has shown how the drive toward priestly
celibacy in Medieval Catholicism served "first and foremost to repress women" (1988/90:91).

In his study of sexual renunciation in the early centuries, however, Peter Brown gives us a much
more sympathetic portrayal. Like the just (socialist) society in much (almost) contemporary Liberation
theology, virginity became the inspiring "historical project" for many in the patristic period. Thus for
Methodius (ca. 300 A.D.), human history is "the story of the slow but sure taming of the raw sexual
drive. Humanity had begun with brutish incest and had slowly progressed to polygamy. But now that
the earth was fully populated, even stolid marital restraint...had given way to ...the uncorrupted
stability of the virgin state" (Brown 1988:185). Virgins determined not to become a vanished species
will find much to inspire them in Brown's impressive study, and much to lament in the works of
Deschner and Ranke-Heineman.

Finally, we should note the relationship between the oppressed sexual minorities of virgins and
homosexuals. One of the modern media myths is that there is only one "Gay lifestyle" (most
everyone would be indignant at the notion of only one "heterosexual lifestyle," but for the
persecution of minorities, slanderous caricatures and stereotypes play a key propagandistic role).
While reliable statistics are hard to come by, it is probable that the number of Gay men with multiple
sex partners exceeds proportionately the number "promiscuous" heterosexual males. What often is
forgotten, however, is that the number of sexually abstinent homosexuals is probably also much
higher than the number of sexually abstinent heterosexuals. This also is a fundamental part of the
"Gay lifestyle"--although many Gays themselves encourage the public and the media to forget about
it.

Within a very few years working with Gay men in Buenos Aires, I was rather shocked to learn that
one sexually active young man had decided to retire to a Catholic monastery (after 2 years he
returned, having decided that sexual temptations were considerably worse there than in the Big
City!). Then another man, after living 5 years with a lover, decided to become a priest (with chastity
vows which he struggles to keep). An experienced MCC pastor told me of one member who took a
chastity vow for one year, renewed it for another year, and then decided that he was spiritually and
psychologically better off in a same-sex relationship. Such vows, limited to a year, obviously can
have theological as well as personal benefits. Traditional Catholic theology can be criticized for
attempting sexual theology without any basis in praxis--but some Gay/Lesbian Christian groups
might be falted for being up to their ears in "praxis" with little or no "critical reflection in the light of
Scripture."

Standard Roman Catholic and traditional Protestant works often insist that total sexual abstinence is
the only acceptable Christian lifestyle for persons of homosexual orientation (Harvey 1987; Stott
1984/85; White 1977). While recognizing that offers to "cure" homosexual orientation (by everything
from exorcism to Oat Bran) are scientific quackery, such works do not face up to the disasters
commonly resulting when persons who do not have Paul's "gift of continence" are assured on the
authority of Holy Scripture that they do. We would do well to study Paul more closely and note that
for all his enthusiasm for the celibate state, he never presumes to assure anyone else that they had
that gift.

Roman Catholic theologian and pychotherapist John McNeil, after more than 20 years ministry to
homosexuals in New York, explains in the new edition of his classic work why he stopped pushing
sexual abstinence on homosexual clients and began to emphasize stable, loving same-sex
relationships (1988:201-206). In an age of AIDS, to have bigoted clerics, ignorant of the most basic
facts of psychology and Biblical interpretation, presuming to write sexual prescriptions for Gay men,
is itself a prescription for disaster. Especially in the present context, protestant urban "evangelism"
that demands the breaking up of stable Gay couples as a condition of "repentance" is nothing short
of criminal.

Happily married heterosexuals who presume they have a pipeline to Heaven and a monopoly on
proper Biblical interpretation need to remember that sexual expression is related to love and the
common human search for intimacy (Blair 1981). Their determination to eradicate homosexual
genital activity commonly involves an amputation of human capacity for love and intimacy, producing
alienated, neurotic individuals--people who can make no pretense of having Paul's spiritual "gift of
continence." Long-term studies and experienced psychologists confirm that eventually explosions of
irreponsible sexual behavior commonly result. In an age of AIDS, those who think to detect in a few
texts from Leviticus or Paul an ethical abslolute against same-sex behavior, might do well to listen to
the great Biblical imperative that thunders from Genesis to Revelation: THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
Jesus even felt free to set aside one of the 10 Commandments (Sabbath rest) when human life was
at stake!


Bibliography

Goergen, Donald (1975). The Sexual Celibate. New York: Seabury.
 
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