Found Out
Women, sexuality and faith
by Alison Webster
A letter of invitation to women interested in sexuality and spirituality.
Dear friend,
Twenty years ago, my book Found Wanting – Women, Christianity and Sexualitywas published (Cassell, 1995). It represented a trenchant lesbian and feminist critique of Christian teachings on sexuality which, at their core, I argued, promote the ‘curse of complementarity.’ Found Wanting gave voice to many women’s experiences and explored the impact of Christian teaching on the sexual and faith identities of a diverse range of women.
In terms of sexuality and gender, the landscape of British society has changed beyond recognition over that twenty year period. From equal rights to goods and services, through Civil Partnerships to equal marriage, the late 80s days of discrimination, as exemplified by Section 28, seem distant.
But how much have things changed in the churches and within the Christian community? Progress has undoubtedly been made through the advent of women bishops in the Church of England, but the full acceptance of LGTBI Christians still appears to be a long way off. Whilst attitudes amongst ‘ordinary Christians’ seem to reflect the liberalisation of wider society, most denominations’ policy-making bodies seemed to get stuck in the early 1990s.
The world has moved on in many ways. Engagements with sexuality both within and beyond the churches take place on a global stage, with sexuality and gender issues having an important geo-political dimension (eg see Elaine Storkey’s recent work on gender-based violence across the globe). The identity categories of sexuality and gender are no longer considered in isolation, but are seen as intimately connected with other forms of discrimination such as race, disability, age and economic means (so-called ‘intersectionality’). Practical theologies espoused by organised Christianity take little cognisance of these changes.
A New Book for Now
I have been commissioned by the publisher DLT to work on a new book. Provisionally entitled ‘Found Out’, this will capture the contemporary experiences of women marginalised by gender (eg transgender women), sexuality (lesbian, bisexual), lifestyle choice (eg single, divorced, non monogamous), and exploitation (eg trafficked women, those who work in the sex industry, those subject to racism and discrimination on the grounds of disability or ill-health).
Through story, poetry and interview, these experiences will be woven into one narrative, with categories of analysis derived from the stories themselves.
Found Out will explore the theologies and spiritualities that women have built for ourselves, despite their experiences of normative theology and church.
An Invitation
I would like to invite you to reflect on your experiences and send me your thoughts. Your contribution may be in the form of a one-liner, a paragraph, or more than a paragraph; it may be a poem or a piece of reflective prose. All formats are welcome! Even visual artwork would be helpful - if not in the end product of the book, it will help the analysis. And if you would prefer to speak to me face to face or on the phone, that’s fine too. The more women I hear from, the more comprehensive and nuanced the resulting picture will be. Please help me if you can!
My underlying passion in this project is a commitment to articulating, honestly and therefore powerfully, the lived experience of women in these most intimate and personal aspects of our identity - our sexuality and our spirituality.
Experience will drive the analysis, rather than the other way round. The chapter headings below are therefore provisional. They rely on my anticipation of what will emerge, and may change.
Likely themes
a)Introduction - where is our society at? where are the churches? Where is faith?
b)Faith - how have we, as women, reconfigured our faith? This chapter will use the notion of ‘queer’, as explicated in cultural studies, to problematise conventional notions of what constitutes a faith identity, carve out space for women to embrace their uncertainties about belonging to faith communities, and affirm the various positionalities we have been led to adopt.
c)Spiritual Practice - how does this look, in and beyond organised Christianity? What forms of spiritual practice have we devised and developed? It is likely that these will be anti-authoritarian, experience-honouring, non-conformist, post-church, and both individual and communal.
d)Relationships - what new languages for relationships have we developed? Conventional heterosexuality leaves us with a paucity of linguistic resources for understanding the range of relationships that we are part of (married/single, sexual or platonic). Living differently means that we face the challenge of describing ourselves and our relationships differently. What is emerging from this both in terms of who we understand ourselves to be, and how we understand our closest relationships (eg the language of friendship - ‘just’ a friend, can underplay and undervalue relationships that can save our lives)
e)God - what new visions and understandings of God have we discovered? Is God more immediate, less distant? Do we embrace a God that is more a part of us rather than separate, mysterious rather than explicable? Is mysticism more attractive than systematics?
About me
I currenlty work as the Social Responsibility Adviser for the Church of England Diocese of Oxford. I have also worked for the Student Christian Movement, The Christian Socialist Movement and the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality. I was the founder editor of two international journals, Theology and Sexuality, and Political Theology. I am author of ‘Wellbeing’ (SCM Press, 2002), and ‘You Are Mine: Reflections on who we are’ (SPCK 2009), and also of numerous resource materials and online publications in the field of social justice and faith. I am Chair of an arts charity called Amaka Beautiful Child (ABC), which works with young people towards personal and social transformation through poetry, art, music and drama.
You can contact me by email at
Or by phone on 07919 456451
This is a genuinely open invitation. Please pass it on to others who you think may be interested.
I am aiming to have most of the experiential material by the beginning of AUGUST 2016, though subsequent thoughts may be included later.
With best wishes,
Alison
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