A Question of Truth: Christianity and Homosexuality

by Gareth Moore*

Many Christians accept that 'homosexual acts are wrong' on the authority of the Church. For many others such teaching contradicts what they know to be the obvious truth. In this book Gareth Moore closely and dispassionately examines the bases of Christian 'anti-gay' arguments. Moore critically explores the language that we use to describe and define human sexuality and what this means for what we think we know about sex, identity and morality.At the centre of this work is a thorough and revolutionary analysis of the Bible on homosexuality posing such questions as: Is there a unified biblical teaching on sex or homosexuality? Are we misreading the Bible by applying modern thinking and terms? Must Christians accept Paul's supposed rejection of homosexuality when they do not follow all of his teaching (for example his low estimation of marriage - 1, Cor, 7)?For Moore the criticism that gay practice is remote from Christian values is just as true of straight life. Gay Christians are often responsible and thoughtful moral agents and to propose otherwise is both unreasonable and deeply disrespectful. It is a precondition of being heard that we listen and in the end the gospel can only be preached effectively by those who listen.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christianity, Christian, LGBT, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 19, 2003

Reviews

[cristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the past year (2023), Christian denominations like The Church of England and the Catholic Church have taken, what by some are still very little steps towards the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people, by allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. Their official position on the issue of homosexuality has remained, however, unchanged. Same-sex activity is immoral or sinful and marriage is exclusively heterosexual. To uphold this traditional view of sexuality, the Church refers to a collection of arguments based on Scripture or tradition. But are these arguments cogent? Are they relevant and most importantly, are they true?

Enter the stage Gareth Moore O.P., Dominican friar, member of an Order whose motto is Veritas. Aptly titled, A Question of Truth is an inquest into the legitimacy of the Church’s doctrine of human sexuality concerning non-traditional sexual orientations and sexual activity. The thesis of the book “is that there are no good arguments, from either Scripture or natural law, against what have come to be known as homosexual relationships. The arguments put forward to show that such relationships are immoral are bad. Either their premisses are false or the argument by means of which the conclusion is drawn from them itself contains errors.”

Gareth Moore examines in this book a series of the most important and best arguments put forward to support a traditional view of homosexuality, including the clobber passages. For obvious reasons, the arguments are drawn from the debate on the issue within the Roman Catholic Church. Still, there is wisdom in this book for people of all faith traditions.

To support his thesis, he uses thorough analysis and rigorous reasoning to show the faults of the arguments he is evaluating. I highly appreciated his commitment to Truth and his trying to be as unbiased as possible. This approach made his arguments more convincing to me personally. While it may be difficult to follow at times, I think it is still an accessible book.

In his approach, he is charitable towards his opponents, seeking the best in their arguments. Toward the people whom all these arguments and teachings concern, he is understanding and empathetic, something that I highly appreciated, having grown tired of debates that fail to consider their lived experience and essentially, their humanity.

Concluding, if the Church insists on keeping her current position on the issue, she needs to develop better arguments; a highly improbable thing to happen considering that centuries past and crowds of bright minds have failed to put forward a cogent argument. A different path has to be considered.

I would like to end this by quoting his final conclusion from the book:

“The conclusion of this book is, therefore, not that it is good to be gay, but that it is irrational for serious, reflective [queer Christians] to accept church teaching on homosexuality. This is in itself a serious conclusion, for there are clearly many such Christians; that is why the debate exists within the churches in the first place. The only rational course at the moment for such Christians is to continue to believe in the possible goodness of homosexual relationships. This is not a matter of dissent or materialism; it is simply that the church at the moment produces no good arguments to assent to. Regrettably, in this area, the church teaches badly.”

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very genuine exposition by a catholic priest of the Church's stance on homosexuality. In his clear and very readable dissection of the arguments used by the Church he examines the oft quoted passages from the scriptures, he looks at Thomas Acquinas, he reflects on some modern approaches, he examines philosophical questions . In all of these he argues with respect and honour but in all his arguments you encounter the cool gaze of an intelligent and deeply thought man.

He puts into practice his own challenge to the Church in terms of discussion and debate
' ....the humility to listen carefully to others and always to seek the best in what they say, to speak without aggression, respecting the intelligence and integrity of those from whom we differ '

or again

' if unanimity fails that is a pity; if charity fails, if we no longer listen and speak in love, that is a disaster '

He argues cogently, firmly but gently. He does not belittle, he challenges but does not assume his opponents are evil or stupid or disingenuous. Some of his arguments are ones that involve knowledge, though not necessarily in-depth knowledge, of philosophical concepts and expressions but he is a clear and understanding tutor.

His is not a book seeking to give a rubber stamp of approval or justification for homosexuality; he does not purport to be doing so but instead he takes arguments and positions of debate and analyses them in careful sincerity. He is trying to see whether the Church's stance is justifiable, believable and therefore followable ( if there is such a word). As a result his last paragraph is an interesting one which, if not exactly setting off fireworks or launching a ticker tape parade, does say something of encouragment to gay catholics seeking to understand their own strange relationship with their Church.

'The conclusion of this book is therefore not that it is good to be gay, but that it is irrational for serious, reflective Christians to accept church teaching on homosexuality. .......the only rational course at the moment for such Christians is to continue to believe in the possible goodness of homosexual relationships. This is not a matter of dissent or materialism; it is simply that the church at the moment produces no good arguments to assent to. Regrettably, in this area, the church teaches badly '

[Sans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought on the whole this was a quite good book on the topic and I'm honestly surprised I'd never heard of it before! I suppose the fact it's a bit older and that the author died shortly after its writing probably explains why; the reason Matthew Vines and Justin Lee's (or, on the other side of the argument, Preston Sprinkle or Sam Allberry's) books get traction is because they're still quite involved in activism for LGBTQ affirmation.

I think where this book excels is its very philosophical approach - the author's argument isn't even necessarily that homosexuality is good, so much as that the Catholic church's negative position is totally baseless. His core thesis is that whatever teaching authority the Catholic Church has, it's still fundamentally based on teaching things that are true - the Church's authority means its reliable in the same way that a doctor is a more reliable source on medicine than an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist - and hence if the Church teaches something that simply is demonstrably false its teaching can be rejected.

Therefore he doesn't really try to deal with the issues of church tradition, authority etc, but rather tackles three main points: our current knowledge and experience of homosexuality, the Bible, and natural law. I think his approach to the Bible is probably the weakest (and I felt like there were lots of places he could have drawn on Scripture more deeply to support his point), but it wasn't bad, and certainly better than stuff like 'homosexuality wasn't in the Bible til 1947'. On the other hand I think he provides one of the best arguments I've seen about how experience and natural law inform theology.

Most notably he argues that the Catholic teaching that homosexuality is wrong because it is intrinsically disordered and that gay relationships are not truly loving is a demonstrably false claim; it is one thing for the church to claim that having a heretical understanding of the Trinity is sinful because it denies divine truth, as this ultimately isn't falsifiable either way. But if the church wants to claim that homosexuality is wrong because it is not truly loving, being able to put forward even a single loving and faithful gay couple destroys the argument. This doesn't mean the church can't still condemn homosexuality, but it has to do so on the basis it's wrong just because the Bible or natural law says so, not because it somehow damages love.

One argument he does make which I found quite novel was noting that far from Eve being imposed upon Adam as a partner in Genesis 2, she is chosen by him by his own free choice. God sees it is not good for man to be alone and initially provides him with countless animals as companions, but Adam finds none of these to be enough. Finally, God presents Eve to Adam and he recognises her as the companion he desires. This, Moore argues, undercuts the old 'God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve' narrative; Adam and Eve's relationship is not an abstract divine design imposed from above, but of God helping Adam find the one whom he truly loves. God meets Adam's need for companionship here; he does not force Adam to submit to God's idea of the right relationship.

I see other reviews found the writing style a bit dry, but on the whole I thought his philosophical style of steadily, logically mounting and dismantling arguments was quite clear - and honestly felt a bit amusingly sassy at times. I couldn't help but chuckle a few times reading it, which is more than I can say for most books on the topic.

Generally a good book on gay affirmation; probably the best Catholic-specific one I've read, certainly the best on natural law/experience I've read (I think Brownson's Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex Relationships remains the best treatment of the Scriptural arguments and logic, but I also haven't read it for 5 years so YMMV). After a while gay-affirming Christian arguments all tend to blur together and you see the same ones repeated again and again, but I think this book remains fairly fresh without becoming suspiciously novel.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book primarily concerns the 1986 document Homosexualitatis problema and secondarily the 1975 Persona humana both authored by the CDF. Moore, who was a Dominican friar in good standing, provides a critical analysis of the arguments presented in these documents by the Catholic Church to justify their description of homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered" which "can in no case be approved of" (PH n. 8). These arguments mainly consist of supposed biblical condemnations of homosexuality, the supposed biblical framework of human sexuality (which does not include homosexuality), and natural law. Moore's conclusion is reached through impartially examining the logic and evidence of the arguments, and he concludes that the arguments the Catholic Church furnishes are not cogent; he notes that his conclusion does not necessarily prove that homosexuality is good, but rather that the Church hasyet to provide any cogent arguments to the contrary. It was an interesting read especially as the issue is rarely discussed by more conservative theologians who are usually content to simply repeat the same arguments as Homosexualitatis problema ad nauseam, and many, though not all, of Moore's counterarguments are worth consideration.

It should go without saying that the book was published some 20 years ago, so there is no treatment of more recent declarations, but I would expect at least some of Moore's points to be relevant today.

[graceofgod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-argued.

[Robin Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

He knows his stuff, but it is presented in a rather tedious way. This was not easy reading.



That said, there are a number of good points made, and he takes time to get to grips with the text which have been used as an anti-gay argument for far too long

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this rather quickly. More of a cursory flipping though. Much of the Catholic exposition was enlightening but not relevant to my experience. Good stuff.