Thai Christians Respond

On January 16 the Thailand Protestant Churches Coordinating Committee (TPCCC) issued a letter requesting every Christian church and institution in Thailand to send a letter to the committee by January 31 in which they state their opposition (or support) for the Civil Partnership provision of the proposed new constitution for Thailand.  The committee will collect these letters and duplicate them to be presented to the office of the Prime Minister “and others”.  The letter listed as co-signers in behalf of the TPCCC: The Church of Christ in Thailand, The Christian Fellowship of Thailand, The Baptist Foundation of Thailand, and the Foundation of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission in Thailand.  It was addressed to all congregations, organizations and members of those church groups as well as those under the Roman Catholic Bishop’s Council of Thailand.

For those unfamiliar with the issue and the groups being referred to I add the following notes:

• The Thai government is drafting a new constitution for the country.  One article being proposed creates “civil partnerships” as a legal relationship with the ability to inherit property and adopt children.  [See our blog essay of December 27 for a discussion of this: www.kendobson.asia/blog/our-gay-apparel].   
• There are roughly 66 million Thai citizens.
• The maximum number of Thai citizens that could be included in this appeal to Christians would be a bit less than 1% of the Thai population as a whole.
• The TPCCC is an advisory committee without official status; its members include the presidents of the four church groups.
• The committee allowed a mere 10 days for churches to respond in writing, which would then be delivered to the highest levels of the national government.  The result will be a small sample of letters presented as representing the whole church.
• This request is unprecedented.  There has never been a request for all churches and organizations to write individual letters to express an opinion on any pending legal matter.
• The most famous previous incident of a church letter seeking to gain widespread notice is when the General Secretary of the Church of Christ in Thailand wrote a personal letter of dissent/protest against the violent suppression of student activists in 1976, resulting in the CCT conducting a special assembly to remove him from office.
• The request for responses does not include any helpful information about what the proposed law would provide nor make any suggestions about why it is of particular concern for Christians.
• There has never been a conference, seminar, or gathering of Christian scholars in Thailand to consider the issues behind the drive to enable Civil Partnerships or marriage equality.  Churches leaders have not prepared their members and organizations to decide for or against this proposal to authorize Civil Partnerships.

I have many suspicions about what motivated the TPCCC to issue this unusual appeal for wide response on short notice.  I share the alarm expressed almost immediately on social media that Thai churches are now following the lead of churches in Taiwan to try to defeat any movement to legitimize LGBT families and provide for equality under the law for LGBT Thai citizens.  That is confirmed by a separate document that says clearly that the churches are organizing a coalition to oppose the Civil Partnership Act.  I am guessing that the church leaders think a mite of political pressure might have an effect.  Once again, Christian churches have chosen to be in conflict with the majority of their under-30 generation as well as opposed to their own LGBTK members and children.  It appears the church has no interest in leaving the door open for rational discourse.   However, were I to write an open letter in response to the letter sent by the TPCCC (as indeed I am doing) I would say the following:
 
With all due respect, I suggest that the Thailand Protestant Churches Coordinating Committee reconsider their request that churches send letters of protest (or support) with regard to the Civil Partnership provision of the proposed draft constitution.  The following are my reasons for suggesting the proposal is flawed:

1. Churches in Thailand have not had an opportunity to study civil partnerships from a Christian perspective because no thorough material has ever been published in Thai and no occasions have been provided for informed dialogue on this topic.  It is unfair to ask churches to reply to any matter they have not studied.

2. This is a matter which many sectors of world Christianity have spent decades studying, even if churches in Thailand have not.  It is clear that it cannot be responded to without extensive study.  That study has led to heated debate, but a majority of churches who helped establish the Church of Christ in Thailand have concluded that civil partnerships and marriage are right and moral.  There is now a large group of Christian denominations in favor of this form of marriage and family. 

3. It is not easy to see any way in which the enactment of civil partnerships would have a legal impact on Christian churches in Thailand.  Therefore, it must be that the churches on the TPCCC believe the issue is moral and that Christian churches should exercise a moral influence.  However, the committee’s letter requests those who are highly motivated to express an opinion, not about a point of moral importance, but about a legal issue about which everyone already had a chance to express themselves when public hearings were going on.
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For these reasons, I respectfully suggest that the TPCCC refrain from creating a compilation of letters to be sent to the government.  If it is time for the churches to take a stand about marriage equality and family life, then it is time to establish the opportunities and materials needed to study and debate this as other churches have done.  If it is too soon for churches in Thailand to do that, then it is too soon for the churches to let a few voices speak for the whole church to the government.