The Gender Equality Committee of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) has finished a translation of the booklet “Facing Our Differences” and will be publishing it as the third installment of the NCCK Book Series. They hope that publishing this book will cultivate understanding of LGBTQ persons within the Korean Church.
The book was written by Dr. Alan A. Brash, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and former deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and published by the WCC in 1995 as a part of their Risk Book Series. The WCC stated its purpose for publishing the book, “to facilitate or advance a discussion within the constituency of the WCC. In fact, enabling churches to encounter one another in dialogue at those points where sharply contradictory convictions divide them is one of the primary purposes of the WCC itself.”
The NCCK also hopes this publication will help its member churches engage in more respectful dialogue about their contradictory convictions. This text is now 20 years old, and much has changed in the Church of New Zealand not to mention other ecumenical partners around the world and especially scientific understandings of how sexual orientations work. Many denominations have since come to change their policy to be affirming of faithful and healthy LGBTQ relationships including some denominations that have amended their constitutions to allow their churches to perform LGBTQ weddings. At the same time, other denominations have continued condemnation and have even cut ties with affirming denominations. From the perspective of science, the American Psychological Association, the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, has declared that scientific research has found there is no connection between lesbian, gay, and bisexual orientations and psychopathology or mental disorders. They also address the affect that outside forces like discrimination and stigmatization have on the LGBTQ community, “Although many lesbians and gay men learn to cope with the social stigma against homosexuality, this pattern of prejudice can have serious negative effects on health and well-being.”
The majority of Korean churches continue to condemn LGBTQ orientations as sin and as deviant with only small scattered groups offering perspectives to the contrary. Dr. Brash discusses his journey of coming from a place of condemnation based on stereotypes to eventually a better understanding of sexual orientation, the nature of LGBTQ orientations, and the church’s understanding of scriptural interpretation. Therefore, despite its age, this book will perhaps better engage the Korean Church considering where the church finds itself at this stage on the issue of sexual orientation.
The Gender Justice Committee is also hoping to hold discussion in November following this publication in order to invite LGBTQ persons within the Korean Church to share their stories, the experiences that their parents and families have gone through. This will help to dispel many of the stereotypes and rumors that lead to misunderstanding of the nature of LGBTQ sexuality around the world.
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