A conservative biblical scholar has changed his mind about LGBTQ folks.
I supposed I should be excited, but I find myself quite appreciative of Anna Sieges’ insightful and appropriately critical comments about Richard B. Hays’ (along with his son Christopher) book in Baptist News Global.
Susan Shaw
After all, reading the Bible for LGBTQ inclusion isn’t exactly new. Virginia Mollenott and Letha Scanzoni did it 45 years ago.
Better late than never, I suppose.
As Sieges aptly points out, the new book may help head off some of the harm Hays’ earlier book condemning LGBTQ folks has done, and I’m glad it will be there for an audience who needs to hear it from a straight white man and not queer folks, BIPOC and feminists who’ve been saying this quite a long time.
I’m not really that interested myself in a straight white guy telling us how to read the Bible for and about LGBTQ folks.
Instead, if he’s really changed his mind, he’s got some explaining to do, especially to us in the queer community who have been harmed physically, mentally, socially, materially and spiritually by biblical (mis)interpretations and theologies of exclusion and condemnation.
In other words, I don’t think a new book gets him off the hook for his responsibility for the harm and damage caused by his older book.
“Among evangelicals, there’s a tendency to think grace means never having to say you’re sorry to the actual people you harmed.”
Among evangelicals, there’s a tendency to think grace means never having to say you’re sorry to the actual people you harmed. It certainly doesn’t mean having to do something to make restitution or at least to try to make things as close to right as you can (see Southern Baptists’ response to sex abuse or Al Mohler’s response to Southern Seminary’s history of enslavement).
I don’t think Hays should simply be able to write a new book and hide out in an ivory tower. That is not the way toward LGBTQ inclusion. There’s much more needed on his part.
So, other than writing another bestselling book to widespread acclaim (with a likely good dose of pushback from the Right — but please don’t situate yourself as suffering at their hands), what’s a white guy who has changed his mind to do? I have some suggestions.
- Apologize to the LGBTQ community. Own the harm you caused. Your influential writing ensured LGBTQ people suffered when they were told they were abominations by their pastors, rejected by their families, kicked out of their churches. Your words caused harm. An apology is the least the community is owed and will only be authentic if it is accompanied by concrete actions.
- Learn about the LGBTQ community from the community. We’ve actually written quite a lot about ourselves. Check it out. Also, sit down with us and listen. Listen without making yourself the center of the conversation. Don’t expect the community to be responsible for your education, however. Do your own homework.
- Use your own notoriety to amplify the voices of LGBTQ scholars. Ask LGBTQ people to write and speak with you. Encourage presses and groups to invite LGBTQ scholars to write and speak instead of you — and not just on LGBTQ issues.
- Donate the proceeds from your new book to LGBTQ causes.
- Volunteer for local LGBTQ organizations.
- Speak out against laws that target LGBTQ people.
- Call out preachers and politicians who promote anti-LGBTQ bias, hate and discrimination.
- Walk in solidarity with the queer community in Pride parades.
- Oppose conversion therapy, exorcism and all the other torturous interventions Christians have tried to use to “pray the gay away.”
- Commemorate National Coming Out Day and the Trans Day of Remembrance.
I welcome Hays’ change of heart. I’m not thrilled about how he’s shown it. Let’s not make him now a hero of the Left. LGBTQ inclusion never was his to take or to give, and he isn’t the one who should be on center in this conversation or leading it. And he really shouldn’t benefit from finally doing the right thing 30 years too late.
“The biblical scholarship was there long before Hays’ first book if he’d chosen to listen to it.”
I’m trying hard to be gracious here, but the biblical scholarship was there long before Hays’ first book if he’d chosen to listen to it. And the thing is, this isn’t just an academic debate (and goodness knows, I love those). For LGBTQ people, this is a matter of life and death, and queer kids are dying at their own hands at much greater rates than their straight peers because of a culture deeply rooted in homophobia, transphobia, misogyny and racism informed by interpretations of the biblical text.
So I’m going to wait a bit to see what I think of this change of mind. I want to see if it will bring a change of behavior, the work of repentance and restitution, and the solidarity of an ally. That’s what we need much more than another book about the Bible and queer folks.
Susan M. Shaw is professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. She also is an ordained Baptist minister and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Her most recent book is Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors, co-authored with Grace Ji-Sun Kim.
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