Abstract
In this chapter, Jo Henderson-Merrygold discusses the historic significance of the church as arbiter of morality and decency, influencing the creation and perpetuation of what Michel Foucault calls epistemes and discourses: the network of beliefs, ideologies, social practices, and power relations that shape people’s understanding of their world. Henderson-Merrygold considers Christian heteronormative discourses of gender and sexuality, which prescribe the recognition of others’ humanity in light of their gender identities and sexual preferences. Building on Gayatri Spivak’s work on epistemic violence and Judith Butler’s notion of “undoing” humanity, she explores how these Christian discourses render queer lives and experiences unintelligible and not human, and the implications of this for the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans(gender) (LGBT) people. Specifically, she argues that these discourses may sustain certain forms of epistemic violence against LGBT people, denying recognition to their full humanity and thereby rendering them increasingly marginalized and vulnerable.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
While “queer” has historically been used as a term of abuse and denigration, it has also been reclaimed by LGBT people as a term of self-description and self-articulation. As an academic discipline, queer theory emerged from lesbian and gay studies, and focuses predominantly on studies of sexuality. While trans(gender) studies emerged at a similar time to queer theory, it has taken longer to establish and has a complex relationship with its sibling discipline due to the different focus of each. While distinctions can rightly be made between the two disciplines, in this chapter, “queer” is used to cover analysis attentive to diversity of sex, gender, and sexuality outside the heteronormative paradigm. Throughout this chapter, I use “queer” as a synonymous and inclusive term to describe LGBT people, lives, and experiences. “Queer” also functions as a descriptor of the unquantifiable aspect of LGBT bodies and identities which mark an individual as outside the dominant norms of sexuality and gender.
- 2.
See Hornsby (2016, p. 2) for further discussion of the social construction and ubiquity of heteronormativity.
- 3.
The Bishops’ Guidelines comprise a number of Church of England publications and statements. Issues in Human Sexuality (The House of Bishops 1991) was later referenced and updated in the 2003 publication, Some Issues in Human Sexuality: A Guide to the Debate (House of Bishops 2003), and most recently in Working Group on Human Sexuality (House of Bishops 2013, especially pp. 28–36), which also covers intervening debates held at the church Synod. Further clarifications were made in a pastoral statement by the Church of England (2005) to reiterate the need for sexual abstinence within civil partnerships. While there have been significant developments between each publication, the linguistic framework is consistent throughout, with the language of “homosexual genital acts” and “homophilia” remaining unchanged (see e.g. House of Bishops 1991, p. 28; 2013, pp. 33, 36).
- 4.
Designed for self-proclaimed evangelical Christians, the statement is a response to the perceived rise of post-Christian discourses which have “embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being” (Coalition for Biblical Sexuality n.d.). The statement reasserts a biblically inspired, heteronormative, and complementarian model of gender and sexuality, and at the time of its launch had been endorsed by over 150 evangelical Christian leaders. Complementarianism is described by Katelyn Beaty as “The belief that men and women have distinct, God-given roles in the church and home” (2017). The statement was released during the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, on 29 August 2017.
References
Althaus-Reid, Marcella. 2000. Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics. London: Routledge.
———. 2003. The Queer God. London: Routledge.
———. 2004. From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology. London: SCM Press.
Beaty, Katelyn. 2017. Why Even Conservative Evangelicals are Unhappy with the Anti-LGBT Nashville Statement. The Washington Post, August 31. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/31/why-even-conservative-evangelicals-are-unhappy-with-the-anti-lgbt-nashville-statement/?utm_term=.ef6137dceb25. Accessed 4 Sep 2017.
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that Matter. New York: Routledge.
———. 1999. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.
———. 2004. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge.
Church of England. 2005. House of Bishops Issues Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships. July 25. https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2005/07/pr5605.aspx. Accessed 31 Oct 2017.
Coalition for Biblical Sexuality. n.d. Nashville Statement. https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement. Accessed 4 Sep 2017.
Farley, Harry. 2017. Vicky Beeching Tells of the Vile Abuse by Fellow-Christians that Forced Her off Social Media. Christian Today, April 21. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/vicky.beeching.tells.of.vile.abuse.by.fellow.christians.that.forced.her.off.social.media/107726.htm. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Foucault, Michel. 1979. The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction. London: Penguin.
Hornsby, Teresa J. 2016. Introduction: The Body as Decoy. In Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Teresa J. Hornsby and Deryn Guest, 1–12. Atlanta: SBL Press.
Jackman, Josh. 2017. Shaving Your Beard Makes You Gay, Says Russian Religious Leader Backed by Putin. Pink News, June 19. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/06/19/shaving-your-beard-makes-you-gay-says-russian-religious-leader-backed-by-putin/. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Keating, Fiona. 2017. Ramzan Kadyrov Says There Are No Gay Men in Chechnya—But If There Are They Should Be Deported to Canada. Independent, July 16. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ramzan-kadyrov-says-there-are-no-gay-men-in-chechnya-but-if-there-are-take-them-to-canada-a7843466.html. Accessed 8 Sep 2017.
Lewis, Daniel K. 2015. The History of Argentina. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.
Merritt, Jonathan. 2017. Eugene Peterson on Changing His Mind About Same-Sex Issues and Marriage. Religious News Service, July 12. http://religionnews.com/2017/07/12/eugene-peterson-on-changing-his-mind-about-same-sex-issues-and-marriage/. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Shellnut, Kate. 2017. Lifeway Prepared to Stop Selling the Message over Eugene Peterson’s LGBT Comments. Christianity Today, July 12. http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/july/lifeway-prepared-to-stop-selling-message-over-eugene-peters.html. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Sherwood, Harriet. 2016. Bishop of Grantham First C of E Bishop to Declare He Is in a Gay Relationship. The Guardian, September 2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/02/nicholas-chamberlain-bishop-of-grantham-c-of-e-gay-relationship. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 2010. Can the Subaltern Speak? In Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea, ed. Rosalind Morris, 26–76. New York: Columbia University Press.
Strudwick, Patrick. 2014. Vicky Beeching, Christian Rock Star: ‘I’m Gay. God Loves Me Just the Way I Am.’ The Independent, August 13. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/vicky-beeching-star-of-the-christian-rock-scene-im-gay-god-loves-me-just-the-way-i-am-9667566.html. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
The House of Bishops. 1991. Issues in Human Sexuality. London: Church House Publishing. https://www.churchofengland.org/media/445118/humansexualitych5.pdf. Accessed 17 Oct 2017.
———. 2003. Some Issues in Human Sexuality: A Guide to the Debate. London: Church House Publishing.
———. 2013. Working Group on Human Sexuality. London: Church House Publishing.
Thiem, Yannik [Annika]. 2007. No Gendered Bodies without Queer Desire: Judith Butler and Biblical Gender Trouble. Old Testament Essays 20 (2): 456–470.
———. 2014. The Art of Queer Rejections: The Everyday Life of Biblical Discourse. Neotestamentica 48 (1): 33–56.
Tornielli, Andrea, and Giacomo Galeazzi. 2015. This Economy Kills: Pope Francis on Capitalism and Social Justice. Collegeville, MN: Order of Saint Benedict.
Vorster, Johannes N. 2012. The Queering of Biblical Discourse. Scriptura 111 (3): 602–620.
Walker, Shaun. 2017. Russia Investigates ‘Gay Purge’ in Chechnya. The Guardian, May 26. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/russia-investigates-gay-purge-in-chechnya. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Weedon, Chris. 1987. Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Westen, John-Henry. 2015. Pope Francis Condemns Gender Theory for a Third Time: ‘The Family Is Under Attack.’ LifeSite, March 23. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-condemns-gender-theory-a-third-time-the-family-is-under-attack. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Williams, Janice. 2017. Russian Religious Leader Wants Men to ‘Protect Themselves from Homosexuality’ by Not Shaving Their Beard. Newsweek, July 17. http://www.newsweek.com/russian-religious-leader-protect-homosexuality-shaving-beards-627328. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Wooden, Cindy. 2016. Pope Francis Criticises Gender Theory ‘Indoctrination.’ Catholic Herald, October 3. http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/10/03/pope-criticises-indoctrination-of-gender-theory/. Accessed 9 Sep 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Henderson-Merrygold, J. (2018). Queer(y)ing the Epistemic Violence of Christian Gender Discourses. In: Blyth, C., Colgan, E., Edwards, K. (eds) Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion. Religion and Radicalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72685-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72685-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72684-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72685-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)