Lewis On Homosexuality

Hey everyone! Welcome to October, which if you disregard the Halloween stuff is probably one of my favorite months! The weather is beautiful outside, Fall Break is just around the corner (I have nothing planned... and that feels awesome!) and I updated my music for the month as well (though I'm still reading through Kim as steadily as I can, so the book list might stay that way for a while). Also, I added a new comment policy, since I think it's a good idea for a blogger to do. Please take a note of it before you comment.

I've been meaning to write today's post for several months, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I came across this letter through a friend of mine, and it's from one of my favorite authors: the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this man's writings helped me become a serious Christian (most notably The Screwtape Letters), so obviously I have a great amount of respect for him, and I was curious what his views were on homosexuality.

I was sure he'd be traditional in regards to sexual behavior. I am too. But I was curious about what his attitude would be concerning today's identity politics and ex-gay squabbles. Of course, the world was a very different place back when he was writing, and those things didn't even exist, but I was hoping I could glean something from his attitude and apply it to today. Turns out he seemed to be ahead of his time, and almost addresses those issues directly, though he also, of course, is limited by his own time period and lack of experience with the subject of homosexuality.

Here's the letter in full. I was thinking of going through it line by line, saying what I did and didn't like, but that really isn't necessary. I think it's pretty obvious what's good about it, and it's also pretty obvious that the bad stuff was born out of ignorance brought about by the more conservative culture at the time more than anything else.

Letter from C. S. Lewis regarding homosexuality, quoted in Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy, pp. 146-148, in response to a question about a couple of Christian students of Vanauken who were homosexual and had come to him for advice:

I have seen less than you but more than I wanted of this terrible problem. I will discuss your letter with those whom I think wise in Christ. This is only an interim report. First, to map out the boundaries within which all discussion must go on, I take it for certain that the physical satisfaction of homosexual desires is sin. This leaves the homo. no worse off than any normal person who is, for whatever reason, prevented from marrying. Second, our speculations on the cause of the abnormality are not what matters and we must be content with ignorance. The disciples were not told why (in terms of efficient cause) the man was born blind (Jn. IX 1-3): only the final cause, that the works of God shd. be made manifest in him. This suggests that in homosexuality, as in every other tribulation, those works can be made manifest: i.e. that every disability conceals a vocation, if only we can find it, wh. will 'turn the necessity to glorious gain.' Of course, the first step must be to accept any privations wh., if so disabled, we can't lawfully get. The homo. has to accept sexual abstinence just as the poor man has to forego otherwise lawful pleasures because he wd. be unjust to his wife and children if he took them. That is merely a negative condition. What shd. the positive life of the homo. be? I wish I had a letter wh. a pious male homo., now dead, once wrote to me--but of course it was the sort of letter one takes care to destroy. He believed that his necessity could be turned to spiritual gain: that there were certain kinds of sympathy and understanding, a certain social role which mere men and mere women cd. not give. But it is all horribly vague and long ago. Perhaps any homo. who humbly accepts his cross and puts himself under Divine guidance will, however, be shown the way. I am sure that any attempt to evade it (e.g. by mock or quasi-marriage with a member of one's own sex even if this does not lead to any carnal act) is the wrong way. Jealousy (this another homo. admitted to me) is far more rampant and deadly among them than among us. And I don't think little concessions like wearing the clothes of the other sex in private is the right line, either. It is the duties, burdens, the characteristic virtues of the other sex, I suspect, which the patient must try to cultivate. I have mentioned humility because male homos. (I don't know about women) are rather apt, the moment they find you don't treat them with horror and contempt, to rush to the opposite pole and start implying that they are somehow superior to the normal type. I wish I could be more definite. All I have really said is that, like all other tribulations, it must be offered to God and His guidance how to use it must be sought.

But while I'm here, I guess I can go through my favorite quotes, and quotes that I think more mainstream ex-gay ministries would do well to listen to.

"I take it for certain that the physical satisfaction of homosexual desires is sin. This leaves the homo. no worse off than any normal person who is, for whatever reason, prevented from marrying."

"Second, our speculations on the cause of the abnormality are not what matters and we must be content with ignorance. The disciples were not told why (in terms of efficient cause) the man was born blind (Jn. IX 1-3): only the final cause, that the works of God shd. be made manifest in him."

"This suggests that in homosexuality, as in every other tribulation, those works can be made manifest: i.e. that every disability conceals a vocation, if only we can find it, wh. will 'turn the necessity to glorious gain.'"

"I have mentioned humility because male homos. (I don't know about women) are rather apt, the moment they find you don't treat them with horror and contempt, to rush to the opposite pole and start implying that they are somehow superior to the normal type"

I quote that last line not because I believe it applies to all (or even most) gay men, but mainly because I know I often have the tendency to use my celibacy as a point of pride and lord it over people (Disputed Mutability wrote about that condition in this splendid post once; you should give it a read). Well, I guess it may apply to a lot of us, since there were quite a few people who responded to DM's post with a "me too!" And I was one of them. :)

Either way, I'm really interested in taking this letter apart through discussion in the comments. Despite all the negatives in it, I really think it's one of the most tempered, clear, loving, yet firm opinions about homosexuality I've ever read (and I wish I could have read the rest of this conversation, because presumably it continued). What do you guys think?