Colin Steer, Associate Editor
SEVERAL AMERICAN historians and sociologists trace the modern militancy in gay activism to a fight in a bar in New York City's Greenwich Village in June 1969. The police regularly would raid bars in the area patronised by gay men and lesbians and arrest them on indecency charges, sometimes beating them.
On June 27, 1969, in what turned out to be a bloody brawl and rioting, the gays fought back, throwing garbage bins and other missiles into police vehicles and engaging the police in fist fights. The protests continued over three days and for a while at least, the stereotypical image of the limp-wristed, lisping, swishing "fairy" was challenged, and the police were in retreat.
The riots and eruption marked a turning point in what historians say was a simmering frustration and anger over the beatings and harassment to which gays had been subjected and turned America's attention more fully to questions of individual rights and decency laws.
A CALL TO ARMS
The reports on that incident spurred a call to arms among gay activists, leading eventually to what many cities in different parts of the world now have as gay pride parades in which people flaunt their homosexuality in public to the disgust, shame, amusement or cheers of onlookers.
Since then there has been a steady and relentless clamour challenging traditional concepts of decency, and restrictions on the rights of consenting adults to engage in behaviour which the majority of the society considers wrong but which gays or civil libertarians contend is nobody's business.
The movie, Brokeback Mountain, about a love affair between two cowboys among the most macho of male iconic images in western culture is but one more phalanx in an advancing juggernaut.
According to the Rev. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, the real significance of Brokeback Mountain doesn't have anything to do with cinematography. Instead, it has everything to do with our culture and the breakdown of sexual order.
"Brokeback Mountain represents something new in mainstream America a celebration of homosexual romance on the big screen. It really will not matter that most Americans are not likely to see this film. Now that this cultural barrier has been broken down, depictions of similar relationships and romances are sure to filter down into popular entertainment--and quickly," he said in a recent column.
In our local churches recent moves to fight against what many see as the aggressive gay agenda being forced onto the Jamaican public's consciousness, it would appear that many of the leaders are either ignorant of, naïve about the society in which they live or are missing the boat entirely. The public push for homosexual rights is but one minor blimp on a radar challenging traditional Christian values - many of which are taking place in the open.
CONSIDER THESE FACTS:
Night clubs in which couples (men and women) engage in live sex on stage are attracting hundreds of patrons across Jamaica each week, from the Corporate Area to the south coast, from Ocho Rios to Negril.Prostitution, barely disguised as sensual massage services and advertised in our major newspapers, is thriving across Jamaica.Locally produced pornographic magazines are being sold in pharmacies right beside the grater cake, peanut brittle and coconut drops. They are being sold on newspaper stands along with the Gleaner, Observer, STAR and Sunday Herald. Videos offering similar fare are made available through various methods of distribution, including through the classified ads.Young men and women are being recruited from inner-city and rural communities to pose for pictures and movies to be later posted on internet sites, which are available to a worldwide audience. The name Jamaica is slowly becoming synonymous with pornography in much the same way one associates Brazil's Rio with carnival and wild sexual abandon.The advent of the Internet, developments in mobile phone technology with facilities for sending text messages and pictures and the availability of DVDs and VCRs have provided a smorgasbord of 'smut' from which people who are so inclined or tempted, can have a feast.
Additionally, many of our church leaders seemingly are failing to recognise the extent to which their members men and women across denominations - in older churches as well as those of the newer ones with their exuberant praise and worship are struggling with personal sins including their sexuality. They fail to appreciate that preaching against it and having the members shout Amen! is not the same as conquering it.BEYOND DENUNCIATION
If the church is to recapture or play its role more effectively as a place of refuge or a hospital treating spiritually and emotionally ailing people, it will have to address all of these matters fully and frankly moving beyond mere denunciation.
Nobody could denounce as strongly or point his finger as frequently as did Jimmy Swaggart at the height of his popularity. Yet, he too was secretly nursing a spiritual gangrene, as the world would later come to find out.
Too many Christians seem to have a fixation with sexual sins in general and homosexual relationships in particular that feeds into a delusional self-righteousness.
A few years ago, popular American preacher T.D. Jakes did a teaching conference in North Carolina which has become available on tape and has been rebroadcast on several cable channels throughout the Caribbean. It was entitled PMS it's a man's thing. The main thrust of his message was that PMS Power, Money and Sex and men's attitudes to them were serious issues undermining wholesome relationships in the society and even within the church.
As depicted in the tape, the men at that conference whooped, hollered and shouted as T.D. Jakes spoke to their hearts in an open and frank way that many seemed to appreciate. It had all the markings and evidence of a Spirit-filled, emotionally-charged service. But towards the end of his message, he cut to the chase and gave an invitation for all the men in the audience who had been molested as children to come forward for prayer and deliverance. It seemed somewhere between 15 and 20 per cent of the audience of about 40,000, by some later estimates, went forward. He then invited men who had themselves molested young children and it seemed another 15 to 20 per cent went forward for prayer. And then Jakes invited other men who were having struggles with issues of infidelity, anger, power and control in their relationships to come forward. It seems another 20 per cent moved forward. At the end of the service, easily 60 to 75 per cent of that audience was standing at that altar seeking divine intervention.
SERIOUS SPIRITUAL DYSFUNCTION
That tape opened my eyes to a serious spiritual dysfunction in the church community. We often mistake whooping, shouting and hollering for real worship, while all the time people are masking deep insecurities, struggles and fears. And what was true of those men in North Carolina is more than likely true of men and women across the globe.
Without a doubt, there is a serious battle being waged for people's hearts and minds. But controversies over movies and demonstrations over legislation are peripheral to the heart of the problem. As long as concerned Christians approach societal problems with an attitude that identifies a hierarchy of sins in which homosexual relationships are at the top, the foundational truths of Jesus' message to set at liberty those who are in bondage, will be missed in the noise of battle. Bondage comes in several forms, and many in the church are mummified.
In the final analysis the Gospel cannot be forced down people's throat. This does not mean that Christians should be forced into silence on the moral and social issues as they see them but morality cannot be legislated.
The extent of the work which the Christian community has to tackle requires a deep soul searching and a recognition that judgment must begin in the house of God.
