Sexuality, Self, and the Shape of Society
by Holly Hanson
Overview
This workshop tried to give Bahá’ís a way to explain
Bahá’í teachings about sexuality so that they will
not feel defensive when answering the question, “Why is a religion
that claims to be about oneness not gay-affirming?” Also, it sought
to give Bahá’í communities a way to understand how
our culture’s ideas about sexuality come out of our materialism,
and to consider how we can be aware of and meet the needs of Bahá’ís
who experience same-sex desire.
Outline
1. Our culture’s current understanding
of sexuality, including the dichotomy of heterosexual/homosexual, and
the sense that sexual desire defines people, has come into existence
in the past 120 years. Writings of the Central Figures of the Faith
show us that the ideas in a society change over time, and that we both
shape and are shaped by ideas in our society.
2. Our culture’s current understanding
of human sexuality, and our cultural practices related to sexuality,
are profoundly materialistic and fundamentally unjust. Part of our goal
as Bahá’ís is to live in a way that transforms this
dimension of society. (e.g., our current cultural understanding defines
sexual fulfillment as the core of human happiness, which is a distortion
of our spiritual nature; it perceive desire to be fixed and defining,
while Bahá’u’lláh tells us desire is ephemeral; our cultural practice
diminishes and undermines the bonds of community by structuring people's
lives in a way that all support comes from a marriage partner, and there
are many other aspects).
3. Bahá’ís need
to firmly disengage from our culture’s current highly politicized
discourse about homosexuality. We need to create a community that does
not divide people according to their desires, and to recognize that
each of us, whatever desires we experience, is called upon to make sacrifices
to create the patterns of personal and community life Bahá’u’lláh
envisions.
To read a review of the workshop by a reporter at the conference click
here.
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Sexuality,
Self, and the Shape of Society — Presentation
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