Paris, as a cultural anthropologist, approaches the subject at a starting point more fundamental than most current discussions. She questions the contemporary "sexual identity framework" and critiques the very categories of homosexual and heterosexual as being social-cultural constructs. I very much appreciate this approach as it considers personhood as primary to human being over and opposed to sexual desires, attractions, and behaviors. Paris rightly points out how recent and unhelpful it is for notions of personal identity and fulfillment to be defined by sexual attraction or experience.
Jamie Gates, director of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation at Point Loma Nazarene University, has this helpful commentary about The End of Sexual Identity.
Jenell Paris has produced a provocative and astute diagnosis of our situation in the U.S.--living in 'an oversexualized culture with an undersexualized spirituality.' She refuses to argue in broad generalizations and to remain content with the polarized categories that Christian reflections on sex and sexuality so often produce. As a Christian cultural anthropologist she digs below the surface and brings a sophisticated interpretation of the cultural complexity of out sexual lives. Her most piercing contribution is in challenging the 'sexual identity framework' itself that traps both Christian and non-Christian reflection on sexuality. She exposes just how paralyzed Christians become by the categories borrowed from the cultural waters we swim in, particularly the socially constructed and historically recent categories of 'heterosexual' and 'homosexual.' Dr. Paris' insights will surprise and challenge readers from seemingly incompatible perspectives on these issues.
Here are a few brief excerpts from the book:
Contemporary Christian dialogue about sexuality is limited because it is framed by contemporary Western notions of sexual identity. It seems virtually impossible to find fresh ways to move forward when our imaginations are bound by the culture that shaped them. For example, Christians often become absorbed in either affirming or negating the morality of same-sex sex and related issues such as ordination of gay and lesbians and same-sex marriage. While these issues certainly are important, we must also address the underlying problem that drives these disputes. These "fixed position" debates are binary: firs, framing the issue in terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality, and then asking for only affirmation or negation of same-sex sex, without more complex dialogue about human sexuality and Christian discipleship. [ p. 27]
...Christian theology about homosexuality, for example, borrows that sexual identity category from American culture and then interprets and evaluates it with Scripture (which was written in various cultural contexts), and with Christian theology from various places and times. We might like to believe that religion and culture are as separate as meat, potatoes and vegetables on a picky child's plate, but that's impossible. Culture provides the words, practices, sounds, buildings, musical instruments and so on, with which we make our religious lives. [p. 29]
...if we as Christians are going to abstain from linking sexual feelings directly to identity, then we need to generate new ways (or, better yet, rejuvenate old ways) of understanding desire, identity, and the relationship between them. Sexual holiness is an invitation to renew our stewardship of sexuality by first viewing human beings as beloved. This view of identity beckons us to treat sexual desire with care, instead of badgering it with judgment, repression, or cure. [p. 94]
Whether it is homosexuality, heterosexuality, LGBTQ or another variation, the sexual identity framework is always limited because it selects certain elements of sexuality as identity-constituting and downplays other important dimensions. [pp. 94] ... The rest of a person's desires--which are sometimes the stronger parts, such as religious devotion or marital commitment--are neglected. [p. 95]The next book up on my reading queue for this topic is TORN: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays vs. Christian Debate, by Justin Lee. I'll post about that once I've read it.
