Scholar preps seminar on sexuality and pastoral care

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This article was published 03/03/2017 (2609 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An incoming guest lecturer at Providence Theological Seminary is readying a week-long module and one-day public seminar that will advance a novel approach to seemingly intractable debates over same-sex attraction in the church.

Dr. Wesley Hill, assistant professor of biblical studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., will spend Mar. 6-10 educating students, pastors, and members of the public about what he calls the “rich practices of friendship and hospitality.” Hill said he seeks to explain how these practices can be strengthened and deployed to make pastoral care for gay and lesbian individuals “compassionate and realistic.”

The intensive course, entitled “Friendship, Sexuality, and Community,” will mark Hill’s first time teaching in Canada, though he is well-known within Episcopal institutions in the United States.

In 2014, Christianity Today magazine named Hill one of 33 evangelicals under age 33 to watch. Four years prior, he published Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality. He said the book upholds the view that sexual expression should remain within a marriage of one man and one woman. He said the book debuted during a time of “fierce debate” within Episcopal circles over matters of sexuality.

Patrick Franklin, associate professor of theology and ethics at Providence, stated that 17 students have already registered for the module, and upwards of 100 people are expected to take in the public portion on Mar. 6.

“I’m in contact with students and also with a number of local pastors, and I’ve heard a fair bit of excitement for it,” said Franklin. “People are looking for a good place to talk about this stuff.”

Franklin noted that many church responses to homosexuality tend toward the extremes of avoidance or preoccupation.

“Churches are struggling with it on the ground,” Franklin said, as pastors navigate ongoing cultural and generational shifts.

Hill’s scholarship is intertwined with his own life experience. He describes himself as “a celibate gay Christian” who was raised as an evangelical.

“I have spent a lot of time in the world of conservative Protestant Christianity,” he said. “I think there’s been a real lack of exploration and understanding of intentional singleness and intentional celibacy. There’s been a kind of prioritization of romance and the nuclear family.”

In Hill’s view, singleness does not preclude meaningful connection, as friendship “can often be just as significant, if not more significant, than romance…If a gay person chooses celibacy, that doesn’t mean that they’re automatically doomed to loneliness.” Hospitality, Hill said, is therefore a way for Christians to grow and deepen friendships, and “befriend people who are falling through the cracks.”

Moving forward, Hill said he underscores the difference between sexual orientation and sexual acts, and seeks to avoid what he termed “a vocation of ‘no’” that defines Christian calling negatively.

“There have been a lot of efforts at pastoral care that have been aimed at helping people flourish in same-sex marriages, and there has been a lot of pastoral care that is aimed at helping people overcome or diminish their same-sex desires,” said Hill.

“I’m not advocating either of those things. I’m talking about what it would look like to flourish as someone who is intentionally abstaining from gay sex, but who’s also still very much experiencing same-sex desire.”

For Hill’s students, the issue is not abstract, but personal.

“Almost all of my students are acquainted with someone who is openly gay or lesbian,” he said.

“The assumption of my students is that this is not an issue that is ‘out there,’ so to speak, but is inside the church, in their own social circles.”

The tenor of the debate, and not merely its contents, is something Hill said he considers carefully.

“It can be hard to have a fruitful debate when you’re starting from very different presuppositions. I think we all need to do better at uncovering and discussing some of our core convictions that cause us to have different perspectives on the specific issue of sexuality.”

Franklin agrees.

“We want to seek to understand the issues, and understand the scriptures,” he said. “That might involve looking at some of our preconceptions.”

Hill said that he hopes his time on campus leaves participants with “a nuanced and sensitive pastoral approach to gay and lesbian people. I want them to have more compassion as a result of this class.”