Was c s lewis gay
CS Lewis on the Church’s response to its gay members
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to dwell under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes doze, his cupidity may at some gesture be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of planet. Their very gentleness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” From C.S. Lewis “God in the Dock”
When I read this quote from C.S. Lewis I could not help but think that this was an apt description of the relationship between the church and its gay members. I have often tried to understand how it is that patient, loving, and compassionate people – like those that I encountered in the church –
The CS Lewis podcast recently featured a series focussing on Professor Alister McGrath’s book C.S Lewis: A Life. In one of the episodes, we explored Lewis’ experience of the First Earth War and the significant relationships he formed during this second. Here, McGrath shares some of the surprising things Lewis revealed to his childhood friend Arthur Greeves.
This article is adapted from The CS Lewis Podcast, Episode 89, Alister McGrath: CS Lewis and the Great War. To listen to the whole episode, click here or to inspect out other episodes, click here.
Ruth Jackson: During the First Society War, CS Lewis seems to have started expressing an interest in sadomasochism. That might be a bit of a shocking revelation to those who possess come to know Lewis perhaps through his later Christian writings, so what was going on here?
Alister McGrath: Lewis does converse about certain things in his letters with his friend Arthur Greeves and I think it’s fair to say that Lewis was working through a number of things in his experience at this time. He is slightly opaque about what some of these things are. But certainly, Lewis is a juvenile man who is going through a phase where he is not able to really expres
At the time that Lewis wrote these words he was nineteen years antique and an atheist, albeit an atheist who was raised in the Church of Ireland (Anglican). Nonetheless, these words, the first of Lewis’ printed thoughts on the subject of homosexuality, make known much.
First, Lewis displayed an open and welcoming attitude toward his friend.
Second, Lewis saw it as an act of moral courage to accept one’s sexuality and form one’s own opinions on the matter, in defiance of what he calls “the old taboos”. One must remember that at this hour, not only was homosexual practice regarded as immoral by virtually, if not all, Christian denominations, but it was also a violation of British law.
Third, the fact that Lewis uses the term “the old taboos” indicates that he did not, at that time, view homosexual acts as a violation of natural law.
Fourth, Lewis notes that he is not sure he agrees with Greeves in his view of homosexuality.
However, the fifth indicate Lewis makes is quite important: that his own views on the subject are irrelevant, because homosexuality can only be fully understood by those who are made that
C.S. Lewis was clear about his biblical views on homosexuality. At one direct he wrote, "I accept it for certain that the physical satisfaction of homosexual desires is sin. This leaves the lgbtq+ no worse off than any normal person who is, for whatever reason, prevented from marrying." But this didn't stop Lewis from building and maintaining a long and seal friendship with Arthur Greeves, a man who was honest with Lewis about his same-sex attraction.
The two met when they were boys and bonded over a shared love of Norse mythology. "Many thousands of people," Lewis would later write, "have had the experience of conclusion the first friend, and it is none the less a wonder; as great a wonder … as first love, or even a greater." For the next several decades, until the end of Lewis' life, the two would maintain their friendship in spite of geographical distance, a gap in intellectual aptitude, and other trivial and not-so-trivial differences and disagreements.
Arthur Greeves admitted at some point to Lewis that he was a homosexual. But as far as the textual record goes, there is no evidence that this ever proved to be an impediment to t