Revised Common Lectionary. Year B Easter 5. Acts 8:26-40
“There was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury.” [Acts 8:27]
It is timely, given the recent appointment of Adrian Orr as Reserve Bank Governor, to spare a thought for men assigned to similar positions of prominence in times long past. The price exacted from appointees to such lofty station was, at times, of the highest order, as the above verse attests.
In order to fulfil a variety of functions; as courtiers, domestic servants, treble singers, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women, frequently men underwent castration – a technique which provided a reliable source of compliant servants.
Castration occurred, typically, early in life, causing significant and irreversible hormonal effects. Often the subject did not give consent to the mutilation which involved either excision of both testes, or complete removal of all the male genitalia. Its twofold purpose was to prevent procreation and diminish the production of the hormone, testosterone.
Judaism opposed the practice. Leviticus specifically rejects eunuchs, or any man with imperfect genitals, from the priesthood, just as the law demanded that the genitals of sacrificial animals be perfectly intact.
Apart from the purpose of providing adult male treble singers, the practice of castration served, principally, as a method of control over those who presented a risk of treachery. Government officials, guardians of women, domestic servants and courtiers posed a perceived threat to the influential elite. Emasculation reduced the supposed threat.
Castrated treble singers, or castrati, first appeared in the Italian church in the mid-sixteenth century. By 1558 there were castrati singing in the Sistine Chapel choir. A Pauline edict banned women from church choirs; “women should be silent in the churches ” [1Cor 14:34 NRSV].
While castration for retention of boy-soprano voices is no longer practiced, many conservative and fundamentalist present-day churches exercise a covert form of emasculation by insisting that some people live as castrati – human beings made incomplete, the essence of their being cut away, their true identity denied – a state of being which is as neutering as the castrator’s knife.
Israel Folau, gives voice to these primitive views in his recent claim that the final destination for gay people is hell “unless they repent of their sins and turn to God.” His comment, supported by others equally misinformed, is a timely reminder that not all humanity has arrived fully into the twenty first century – yet.
Folau, and his supporting baggage-train, would do well to consider the evidence which runs counter to such ill-informed opinion. There is overwhelming testimony and data supporting the simple fact of same-sex attraction. Other than the church’s internally generated and self-serving documents, there is no evidence to support the idea that any god holds a particular dislike for gay people. In truth, if a god of any kind should dislike gay people, then that same god would probably dislike other kinds of people too – maybe your kind?
Perversely, the Judeo/Christian heritage, anchored in the traditions of Torah, does not prohibit lesbianism. The patriarchal system, which gave rise to moderate views about diversity of female sexuality, fails to deliver equal benevolence toward the male equivalent. Could this be because established religion remains controlled, largely, by men who feel threatened by men of a different kind?
Testosterone driven, male, sports-stars are not a reliable source of information or opinion on these matters. Such celebrities may exhibit a certain kind of exaggerated masculinity on the sports field. However, it takes a far greater measure of true valour, and a better-balanced kind of masculinity, to allow truth to testify in the matter of same-sex relationships.
The court of public opinion has already expressed its mind clearly. Most New Zealanders support the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, which allows same-sex couples to marry legally. Equally, most New Zealanders do not wish to return to the way things used to be, when, prior to the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986’s passing, sexual persecution was considered normal. The real world has moved on and is no longer calling for the emasculation of gay men. Unfortunately, some pockets of old-time religion linger, seemingly gaining attention when advocated by a high-profile sports person.
Emasculation, historically, has one purpose alone; to deprive a man of his identity. This society is embracing an emerging maturity of thought and understanding in matters of equality. Let us not become diverted from the task in hand by a derisive smokescreen dressed in the guise of religious fervour.
Sexual discrimination is an ugly relic belonging fully to the bad old days, when gay men suffered outrageous mistreatment, as did other categories of people deemed also less human than the dominant type, which just happened to be mostly white, male and heterosexual.
The story about an Ethiopian eunuch concludes happily. The castrated man asks; “What is to prevent me from being baptised?” His perceived imperfection proves no barrier to entering the fold of the new Israel – where there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one. [Galatians 3:28 NRSV]
© Roger James Gillies