Browsing by Author "Davids, Hanzline R."

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    Recognition of LGBTIQ bodies in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa: An indecent proposal?
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2020) Davids, Hanzline R.
    The human dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people are threatend on the African continent. The sexual orientation, gender identity, expressions and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) of LGBTIQ persons are seen as un-African. Religious communities are one of the biggest perpetrators that violate the human dignity of LGBTIQ people. For the past fifteen years the Uniting Reformed Church in South African (URCSA) made policy decions and compiled research documents that envistigates the SOGIESC of LGBTIQ people. The URCSA failed multiple times to affirm the full inclusion of LGBTQ people. In this article I'm asking, whether the recognition of LGBTIQ bodies in the URCSA is an indecent proposal. This paper is theologically underpinned by late Latin-American bisexual theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid's Bi/Christology. Starting with my own queer autobiography, I position myself from below and outside in doing theology. Secondly, I engage shortly with the history of the URCSA and the confessional clauses of the Belhar Confession. Lastly, the paper examines whether Belhar makes an indecent proposal for the recognition of LGBTIQ bodies in the URCSA.
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    Reconceiving child theology from a queer theological perspective : for LGBTIQ+ parented families and children
    (African Sun Media, 2020) Davids, Hanzline R.
    In this chapter, the focus will be on LGBTIQ+ children and LGBTIQ+ parented families from a Christian sexual ethics perspective. The traditional notion of family is contested by a variety of different structures of family. The traditional view of family is often equated to a heteronormative structure in service of patriarchy through procreation. This family consists of a mother and a father who reproduce children that defined the family unit. The family became the space where sexual and gender norms were constructed along societal, religious and cultural belief systems. In recent years in South Africa, literature scholars looked critically at the notion of family, especially pertaining to how the traditional view excludes Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and other (LGBTIQ+) parented families (cf. Lubbe-De Beer & Marnell 2013; Morison, Lynch & Reddy 2018). Furthermore, little research exists of children in LGBTIQ+ families and LGBTIQ+ children in heterosexual family units. In theological discourse, sexual and gender identities of LGBTIQ+ parented families and LGBTIQ+ children in heterosexual family units are even less studied. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Child Theology has emerged as a global movement with the focus of moving children from the margins to the centre of theological discourse. The focus of this theological interest is influenced by the theoretical lenses and methodologies of liberation and feminist theologies. Theologians from Africa too, contributed to the development of this theological focus on children. Contributors to this theology are also critical that the theology thus far has been constructed by adults rather than children. This criticism highlights that, children do theology, already, from their own embodied experiences. However, within a hierarchical system of power, in many cases patriarchy, their theological contribution is often ignored and denied. Before I outline this chapter further, I want to acknowledge that as a self-identifying gay man of colour, I am not a father and neither in a civil union. In this chapter, I theologically journey with LGBTIQ+ children and LGBTIQ+ parented families as an activist-theologian working in the intersection of sexuality, gender and faith in mainline churches and higher theological education training centres in South Africa. In the following section, the struggles that LGBTIQ+ children and LGBTIQ+ parented families experience will be discussed from various literature sources, my own embodied experiences and the multiple contexts I am exposed to in my work at Inclusive and Affirming Ministries. Hereafter, Child Theology will be briefly outlined to see whether theological principles exist that can assist theological imagination to explore life-affirming theologies for LGBTIQ+ parented families and LGBTIQ+ children in heterosexual family units. Lastly, this chapter will examine whether Queer Theology as a liberation theology can perhaps contribute to the development of Child Theology that are life-affirming towards LGBTIQ+ parented families and LGBTIQ+ children in heterosexual family units.