WHEN IT COMES TO SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS, this book by Karen Keen contains the most thoughtful, balanced, biblically grounded discussion you’re likely to encounter anywhere. With pastoral sensitivity and respect for biblical authority, Keen breaks through current stalemates in the debate surrounding faith and sexual identity. The fresh, evenhanded reevaluation of Scripture, Christian tradition, theology, and science in Keen’s Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships will appeal to both traditionalist and progressive church leaders and parishioners, students of ethics and biblical studies, and gay and lesbian people who often feel painfully torn between faith and sexuality.
Using the 1977 campaign against the Dade County Florida gay rights ordinance as a focal point, this book provides an examination of the emergence of the modern lesbian and gay American movement, the challenges it posed to the accepted American notions of sexuality, and how American society reacted in turn.
Gay Science is the first comprehensive examination of the ethical questions surrounding sexual orientation research. Bioethicist Timothy Murphy presents the views of many gay men and women who detect ominous motives behind this research. If a genetic marker were discovered for homosexual tendencies would genetic screening be used to further discriminate against gay people? If a method for changing sexual orientation were developed would it would be forced upon gay adults, or children whose parents suspected they might grow up to be gay? Given the potential for its misuse, is sexual orientation research fundamentally unethical? Murphy acknowledges that much of sexual orientation research to date has been bad science, questionable in its motives and methodologically unsound. He examines the social and historical conditions, from the 1880s to the present, that spawned this research and reviews the findings that have often perpetuated confusion about homosexuality. He assesses five major studies on sexual orientation undertaken in the 1990s, from neuroanatomist Simon leVay's study of certain brain structures in gay men to the work of psychologist Joseph Nicolosi. He questions the flawed and simplistic assumptions about sexuality made by much of this research, Murphy argues that a true science of sexual orientation would not be focused exclusively upon homosexuality nor presuppose its pathology. Throughout the book Murphy argues that concerns about the potential misuses of this research do not justify its prohibition. Tackling gay science's most troubling aspects, he contends that if this research leads to the development of effective sexual orientation therapies, informed adults should have the choice to undergo them; he also examines the factors that weigh in favor of a parental right to choose or attempt to influence the sexual orientation of a child, and the ethical limits to such a right. Pointing to the potential benefits of sexual orientation research as well as acknowledging its potential for harm, Murphy ultimately defends gay science in the name of free scientific inquiry. Gay Science argues that the way to ensure the future of gay people is not through censoring sexual orientation research but through working toward a society which uses reseach as a way of dinstinguishing myth from fact and not as an instrument of discrimination.
Gay Ethics is an anthology that addresses ethical questions involving key moral issues of today--sexual morality, outing, gay and lesbian marriages, military service, anti-discrimination laws, affirmative action policies, the moral significance of sexual orientation research, and the legacy of homophobia in health care. It focuses on these issues within the social context of the lives of gay men and lesbians and makes evident the ways in which ethics can and should be reclaimed to pursue the moral good for gay men and lesbians. Gay Ethics is a timely book that illustrates the inadequacies of various moral arguments used in regard to homosexuality. This book reaches a new awareness for the standing and treatment of gay men and lesbians in society by moving beyond conventional philosophical analyses that focus exclusively on the morality of specific kinds of sexual acts, the nature of perversion, or the cogency of scientific accounts of the origins of homoeroticism. It raises pertinent questions about the meaning of sexuality for private and public life, civics, and science. Some of the issues covered: Sexual Morality Outing Same-Sex Marriage Military Service Anti-Discrimination Laws Affirmative Action Policy The Scientific Study of Sexual Orientation Bias in Psychoanalysis Homophobia in Health Care Gay Ethics presents a wide range of perspectives but remains united in the common purpose of illuminating moral arguments and social policies as they involve homosexuality. The chapters challenge social oppression in the military, civil rights, and the social conventions observed among gay men and lesbians themselves. This book is applicable to a broad range of academics working in gay and lesbian studies and because of its current content, is of interest to an educated lay public. It will be a standard reference point for future discussion of the matters it addresses.
What are the most important biblical texts for modern Christians to read in order to arrive at responsible decisions regarding the ethics of human sexual behavior? How should the Bible be used in this enterprise? How should those texts be translated for today's reader? The contributors to this book, all noted biblical scholars, confront these questions as they deal with issues surrounding the ethics of sexual behavior, in general, and the divisive issue of gay/lesbian ordination, in particular. They provide for the reader a deeper understanding of the Bible, its intentions, and its variety. This book offers a challenge to the church to give heed to the multiplicity of voices that are engaged in biblically responsible and constructive debates about the volatile issues regarding sexual behavior.
'This book is unique in setting the question of homosexuality in its historical, legal, political, and religious contexts in North America. It is no longer possible in Catholic ethics to address sexual morality with a model of absolute moral norms, immune from the ambiguities and complexities social justice issues introduce. Peddicord looks at the personal and social sides of homosexuality, and fairly examines all sides of the Roman Catholic response.' --Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College
Gay and Gaia is Daniel Spencer's bold, passionate call to rethink sexuality, ecology, and the sacred. Contending that ecological ethics must become the grounding for all ethics, the author asserts that genuine justice requires right relation among all of creation, not simply among human beings. Spencer urges us - gay and straight, bisexual transgendered - to reject a human-centered, anthropocentric worldview in favor of an ecocentric worldview. Yet our responses to the ecological crises need to be rooted in, and nourished by, our appreciation of the erotic. Only when we are able to integrate our sexuality with our spirituality will we fully experience the divine - and fully live out our ethical values.
Gay Hawkins explores the ethical significance of waste in everyday life_from the broadest conceptions of waste and loss to how the environmental movement has affected the ways we think about garbage. Do we feel virtuous for reusing plastic bags and disdain those who don't? At what point does personal waste become public responsibility? How does this 'public conscience' affect policy? Placing these ideas into historical, social, and cultural perspective, this thoughtful book seeks ways to change ecologically destructive practices without recourse to guilt, moralism, or despair.
'Same Sex' presents a comprehensive anthology on homosexuality, exploring historical conceptions of homosexuality, homosexual identity, and a variety of public policy issues.
