SEED Postgraduate Admissions Assistant and MA Religions and Theology alum, Amy, shares her journey towards her dissertation ‘Homosexuality: an investigation of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians and Romans 1’. Through struggling to align her own faith with the stance on homosexuality expressed within some churches, Amy utilised academia to push through the narrative that she felt conflicted with her own belief. Amy graduated in 2022. 

My story starts during my undergraduate degree, when I started going to church. I was homesick and not enjoying my course. I took Sound Engineering at the University of Glamorgan, which is now the University of South Wales, and I wanted to change courses, but my programme director wouldn’t let me, and in my time of conflict I decided to go to a local church. I was offered a free lunch, which as a poor and homesick student was an offer too good to pass up.

After a postgraduate degree in the subject I had wanted to change to, and then decided was not the right fit for me, a nasty accident at work, and a few relocations, I was really into the Church and my faith, and was thinking about going back to university to study Christianity. I was going to the big Pentecostal church, Hillsong, in Guildford and was applying to go to their college in Sydney, Australia, when I realised I really didn’t like it or fit in there. They weren’t my people and it didn’t feel like my church, and so I started researching universities closer to home.

After a lot of consideration of what was important to me, I ended up tied between the more local, and safer, choice of The University of Winchester, or relocating again and applying to the top university that is The University of Manchester. Manchester was the best choice, but I wasn’t sure I would get in. When I got the unconditional offer, I cried with joy and informed my parents (who I’d moved back in with during lockdown) that I would be relocating, and they decided to move with me!

I studied MA Religions and Theology at The University of Manchester part-time and graduated in 2022. My priority courses met my expectations, and the lecturer who I was most excited about working with was everything I expected. My priorities were Greek language, and Gender and Sexuality with Holly Morse.

Before I started at the university, I thought I would brush up my skills and take some online courses at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. One of the summer school classes was on sexuality and the essay would be on the topic of LGBTQ+ in the Bible. My personal belief is that it is not ‘wrong’ to identify as LGBTQ+ and I wanted to explore this within the Bible. I was disappointed to find that perhaps the Bible did state that it was morally wrong and I concluded that celibacy was the only choice for someone LGBTQ+ and Christian. I wasn’t happy with my conclusion, but I couldn’t work out another option.

As part of my studies at Manchester, I was excited to get another chance to explore this topic as part of my Greek studies. I could now parse the original text myself and peel back another layer from the text. I also had a different type of support – in-person and someone (my lecturer) who I could really bounce some ideas off. I was much more satisfied with the conclusion I came to. Rather than finding that someone who identifies as LGBTQ+ and Christian could only be celibate, I found that the quotes often used by Christians against the LGBTQ+ community were not written to be used for everyone, but for specific people in specific situations, and that the term ‘homosexuality’ as we understand it, was not understood at the time of writing the New Testament.

Studying the topic more broadly gave me more insight than a single summer course; being in a learning environment with other dedicated students and excellent staff gave me more opportunities to dig deeper into my areas of interest and challenge myself in ways I hadn’t before. Having this opportunity to use academia to uncover what the Bible truly says about people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, when the rhetoric, especially from some ‘Christians’ is so ugly, felt really important. Especially to be able to challenge my own previous findings and overturn them.

I think academic support for the LGBTQ+ community now is more important than ever – having evidence that has been meticulously researched and peer reviewed is much harder to refute than unsubstantiated claims. Fake news seems to always win, but there always needs to be people battling against it, asking questions and digging into research in both the humanities and the sciences to support the community when they need it the most.

Right now is a hard time for equality and diversity generally, but it is also a difficult time politically for the LGBTQ+ community specifically; as an ally, I wanted to clarify for myself what my stance is, but also share my findings more widely. It is a divisive topic within Christianity, and I felt unhappy with what I’d been told through Churches. Doing the research myself was cathartic and satisfying.

I currently work at The University of Manchester – I work in postgraduate taught admissions for the School of Environment, Education and Development. I really enjoy the fact that I am now a part of other people’s journey to joining the university. I ultimately want to continue my studies at PhD level and am currently considering following the subject of pronouns from the Biblical perspective. I read some interesting work with Holly Morse that really got me thinking more deeply about this.

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