Blood on its Hands? The Church and LGBT

by Dr Carol A Shepherd (Author), Anthony Venn-Brown (Foreword)

For years now, I’ve been reminding people that the enemy is not individuals, churches, conversion ‘therapy’ organisations or advocates, or political parties; the enemy is ignorance. Change is created by focusing our energies on overcoming the latter instead of attacking the former. Blood on Its Hands focuses on overcoming ignorance.

This book is a winning combination of several things. Firstly, the author is an academic which means there is a commitment to research, referencing and facts, as opposed to opinion. Secondly, Dr Carol Shepherd is a writer, not only of academic works but also fiction, making this work accessible to the average reader and not written in academic speak. Thirdly, she has personal experience to draw on being a bisexual Christian who has had to personally navigate the internal and external conflicts of faith and sexuality. Finally, the many years of research in this area have given the author additional insights and others’ stories to share.

The subject of the book, the harm, and particularly the suicide of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in faith contexts, is not new to many of us. I’ve been receiving emails and hearing similar stories since my autobiography was first published in 2004. Stories that horrified me and often brought me to tears as people shared their journeys, many for the first time, which frequently included details of their thoughts of suicide and attempts. Or the suicide of friends or family members. So many stories in fact, in order to cope, one can become desensitised to the horror of so many devastated lives.

When I first began doing media interviews in the early 2000s, every time I mentioned suicide of LGBTQ people of faith I’d become increasingly familiar with, I was either shut down or the interviewer changed the subject. The “expert” belief, at that time, was that mentioning suicide produced copy-cat deaths. I’m glad that has changed. I regret not pushing back then, but I was the new kid on the block. What would I know?

For many, the content of this book will be challenging. Finish it. Be informed. Be educated. Unless of course you find it triggering and putting you in a dark place. My experience over several decades has shown that LGBTQ people from faith backgrounds are one of the highest risk groups in our community in several key areas; three being suicide ideation, attempts and suicide itself. This is yet to be addressed not only by the church BUT the LGBTQ community as well.

Most importantly, share it. Buy extra copies to give away strategically. Share your thoughts on social media. 

I mentioned in my opening paragraph that “the enemy is ignorance”. There are two types of ignorance. One is the ignorance which is the comes from not knowing or understanding and the other is wilful ignorance. The wilful ignorance of those who refuse to explore the possibility that they may be wrong about sexual orientation and gender identity. They never move outside their Christian bubble of websites and books which only reinforce their outdated beliefs.

Wilful ignorance is inexcusable. It is founded in prejudice and bigotry. It is usually a waste of time sharing this information with those people. There is not a binary model of those for LGBTQ equality on one side and those against on the other – it’s a spectrum. It’s the moveable middle, those who are questioning, that will benefit most from reading this book. They will shift, once confronted with the reality and their hearts touched. They might even move beyond just being accepting and affirming and become advocates; now armed with a new insight into our worlds, compassion, and a desire to end the horror.

Others, who have a belief in life after death and a time of judgment, who’ve willingly refused to listen to our stories, will horrifyingly discover that they do have blood on their hands and as Jesus said six times in the book of Matthew, there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.

Now is the time to create change. For some, tomorrow will be too late.