Homosexuality and the Flesh of Christ: Identity and Suffering

What follows is modified from a paper submitted for Theology 602 at Regent College. In it, I deal specifically with homosexuality, and not other groups in the LGBTQ community. In the past decade, Western cultures have become increasingly comfortable with accepting active homosexual lifestyles. The church, in turn, has struggled with trying to resolve its traditional moral stance in the face of the changing climate. Do we stick to our old positions that seem bigoted? Or did we perhaps make a mistake? This is by no means an easy issue, but for my part I am not convinced that either the liberal or conservative theological responses, and their accompanying political action, have dealt well with the complexities of the issue. Part of the problem, I believe, is a deficient understanding of our own identity as the church and the relation of that identity to suffering. I recently wrote a paper on the ecclesiology of the Roman Catholic theologian Jean-Marie-Roger Tillard, and I am persuaded that his ecclesiology, if taken...