Right-on Reverend

Feature, By danny corvini, 2nd September, 2007

While the bible passage Leviticus 20:13 advocates the killing of queers, there are other stories in the bible that feature what might be gay and lesbian love affairs.

So says Reverend Heather Creighton of the Metropolitan Church in Burnley, a Melbourne chapter of an international queer-friendly church network that began in California in 1968.

“To keep out of people’s bedrooms,” is the message that Heather would like to send out to the elements of the mainstream church that advocates homophobia. “There are homosexual stories in the bible, if you really want to look at them,” she suggests. “The love between Ruth and Naomi and the love between David and Jonathan. If you look a bit closer at the story of the Centurian, his servant could possibly be viewed as a homosexual too,” she says, adding “but I wouldn’t want to go there.”

She is but one voice in a worldwide chorus of Christians who insist that Jesus never said anything forbidding about homosexuality; that it is the words and agendas of others since who have written those hateful words into the bible. Two thousand years is a long time to change the script from the original, she says: “Of course it’s not the same as when it was first written,” she insists. “Why isn’t there any strong women in the bible, or any of the gospels that were written by women? Because the gospels that were chosen to be in the bible were chosen by men who have an agenda; which is to keep the role of the men at the head of the family, and the roles of women in their place.” She says that the bible has also been used to condone slavery, as well, of course, as homophobia.

But Heather is not the angry type, and she is not too bothered by the official lines of homophobia coming from the church. She’s got other things to concentrate on, including a child and a partner, and of course her duties delivering messages of love, understanding and tolerance to queer Christians every weekend.

Take a deep breath, is the message she gives in regards to considering the homophobia of the Australian church and government, and the swing to the Conservative Right which has given shelter to the likes of Fred Nile of the NSW Parliament and Melbourne’s Peter Stokes of the Salt-Shakers fame. “From America’s point of view, they have a very strong Religious Right that pays an awful lot of money to have the right thing said by the President. In some ways, Australia is heading that way, which is sad. But you’ve got to realise that there’s only 18% of people here who acknowledge that they attend church regularly. There’s a minority of very loud fundamentalist people who seem to be heard, talking values about people who don’t even call themselves church-going or Christian. Yet it’s the fundamentalist Christians who are saying that they have all the right to dictate everybody else’s life.”

“I actually think that as time goes by that more and more churches are becoming more accepting and more willing to look beyond their narrow thoughts to realise that gay and lesbian and transgender people have a place in the church, and the right to worship in the community,” she says.

“The bottom line is, how to we tackle homophobia anywhere, whether it’s inside or outside the church? You’ve got to start with looking at what you’re actually teaching people – are you really preaching the word of god and the love that Jesus Christ had for people, or are you teaching your own agenda?”

It’s hard to join the dots between being raised a Christian and being queer sometimes, and with most choosing the safety of the gay ghetto, Heather admits that it’s going to be too hard for some gays to come back to the church. “Absolutely, absolutely,” she says. “Once you’ve rejected it, it’s very hard to go back. It’s hard to go back once someone has stood you up in front of a congregation and called you a sinner because you’re homosexual. That has happened, and still happens to gay and lesbian people today. But it’s not God who’s rejected homosexuals. The message from Jesus and God is love. Love is what all relationships are about – not necessarily sex by the way, but it’s really nice to have it.” It’s so nice hearing a church leader say that, especially when you know she’s talking about homo-sex. I guess it just shows you how much the world really has changed in 2000 years..

The Metropolitan Church is at 271 Burnley Street, Burnley, Melbourne. Worship time is every Sunday at 7pm. For a list of other Metropolitan Churches around Australia and New Zealand click here.

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