Christianity was initial reluctant to intervene in marriage, what happened within it was originally considered a private matter. That became over the centuries increasingly proscriptive. It took the Catholic Church twelve hundred years before it took complete control of the whole marriage procedure. Marriage became promoted as a means to legitimise the act of procreating the species. Sex for any other reason. for fun for instance, was to be downplayed, or even frowned upon. Encouraging married couples to practise chastity the rest of the time. This links it with the issue of a celibate priesthood, also a late development. The transition in medieval times from having married clergy to a solo celibate preisr, was, as you can imagine, pretty messy. It required a lot of chaste relationships whilst the aberattion of previous decades slowly vanished. Clergy and monastics were now meant to exemplify a more 'angelic' way of living to their congregation. Because angels, as every one understood, were asexual or non sexual beings. Though quite how they so firmly established that fact is left mythically vague.
In the middle of all this is a mischievous little paragraph about Pope Gregory :-
"Before Gregory became Pope, he was struck by the good looks of some English boys or youths who, Bede says, were being sold as slaves in Rome. Enquiring where they came from and being told that they were 'Angli', Gregory commented that the name was appropriate to those with angelic faces, and he varied that cheerful thought in a clutch of further devout Latin puns. Traditionally Gregory's reported literary playfulness has been summed up in a misquotation as 'Angli sed angeli': 'Not Angles, but angels.' Perhaps the agreeable neatness of the pun has allowed the survival of a story which, if reframed as ' Pope, impressed by beauty of young enslaved males, launches mission', might not meet modern safeguarding standards in the methods of evangelism."
When he comes to examine homosexuality MacCulloch unearths some interesting facts. Mediterranean attitudes in the South were generally permissive towards same sex relationships, whilst northern countries tended to be more proscriptive. Though Christianity has been greatly enamoured by the work of Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, they became deeply shocked to discover their blatant homosexuality. This fact they studiously edited out of copies of these philosopher's work for centuries. Even words, and to whom they are applied can also suddenly pivot.
"There is nevertheless no doubt that 'effeminacy' also completely reversed its meaning as a description, previously, Catholics had mocked Tudor Protestant bishops as 'effeminate' for their excessive interest in women, rather as John Chrysostom had mocked male partners in chaste heterosexual relationships. A century after the Reformation, the same mockery was applied for the same reason to England's Charles 2nd, that most ebulliently heterosexual of monarchs, so the subsequent switch in meanings after 1700 was very sudden. The new eighteenth century stereotype of the theatrically effeminate homosexual has had a long life; it remains a source both of mockery and of proud gay self-assertion in masculinised heterosexual cultures."
MacCulloch also reveals how even the term 'heterosexual', if examined etymologically, implies an indiscriminate romping across a wide range of the feminine, in and outside of marriage. Literally anything female will do. So, no monogamy there then. When it comes to trans issues, there are numerous examples of men and women throughout history living as the opposite sex, without that ever becoming an issue with the generally knowing broader population. He ressurects the life of St Wilgefortis as an iconographic example:-
" The bizzare legend and devotional iconography of St Wilgefortis (Uncumber), who had grown a beard in order to escape the threat of a non-Christian marriage and as punishment had been crucified. She/they developed a cult among unhappy wives, and, despite official unsainting by Rome in 1969, Wilgefortis has attracted a new constituency of non-binary interest today."
It does seem that the dual arrival in the 18th century of The Enlightenment, and John Wesley's street evangelism, appeared to trigger a tightening of the moral opprobrium around same sex relationships and even the more widespread, supposedly deleterious effects of masturbation upon morals. Initially it was unclear from which moral stand point The Enlightenment stood regarding science, sex and it's diversity. Taking far too seriously obvious charlatans like Mary Todd who claimed they have given birth to several rabbits.
As the narrative moves to more recent times, he charts the difficult arising of the abolition of slavery, women's emancipation, contemporary concerns about abortion and homosexuality, that now include trans issues. The latter three appearing to exist in parallel opprobrium within Fundamentalist Christianity. The propensity for Christianity to move the biblical goal posts when it suits, is exemplified by an attempt to answer the question, why Jesus makes no mention of homosexuality at all in his teachings. The answer apparently was very simple, so the theologians proudly stated; before God's son could be born into the world, the Lord Almighty had eradicated all gay people from the world. It's a neat duck, but a laughably fallacious later concoction.
In modern times political adoption of Christianity becomes similarly slippery with the actual facts. Putin often borrows the moral cloak of Russian Orthodoxy when it suits his political agenda. When he was invading Ukraine, he claimed the Donbas region were asking to be saved from 'gay parades ', which as MacCulloch remarks had not previously been ' notably part of Ukrainian President Zekensky's declared military strategy.' Contemporary right wing Christians fail to reflect on their own religion's history with regard to sex, marriage and the family. That for the first millennium it was dominated by the pursuit of an 'angelic' celibacy, and only after the Reformation did bolstering the family unit become a central thrust of its ministry. Plus a history of campaigning for more compassionate responses towards those who are poor, or minorities being oppressed or abused.
" My observation of the discussion of sexual morality during six decades of ecclesiastical life and politics has been that self-styled traditionalists rarely know enough about the traditions that they proclaim; conservatives do not fully admit to themselves or to others what it is they are trying to conserve, and why they are trying to conserve it. It is important when demolishing myths from the past not to create new ones to justify the present."
CARROT REVIEW - 6/8
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