Winds in the East

Taiwan, an island of 23 million, is one of the most LGBT-friendly regions in Asia. The city of Taipei hosts a gay pride parade each year that attracts tens of thousands of attendees. The rest of the year, coffee shops display rainbow flags and same-sex couples embrace on the subway.

Same-sex marriage is not legal on the island, but many believe that will soon change: Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s new president, took her oath of office in May and vocally supports gay causes—but any move to legalize gay weddings on the island will be met by furious opponents who uphold traditional family morals.

The Chinese mainland, too, has so far refused to allow same-sex marriage. The Communist Party maintains a tight grip on controversial social issues, including gay rights. In April the government rejected the country’s first same-sex marriage lawsuit, citing Chinese marriage laws that specify marriage is between a man and a woman. Yet the decision sparked a debate on social media: In one online poll, 51 percent of Chinese said they opposed gay marriage, while 49 percent supported it.

One big reason for opposition to gay marriage in the East: The heterosexual definition of marriage lines up with the traditional Confucian focus on family.

Yet as younger generations grow up on Hollywood movies and television shows, traditional Chinese values are fading. Christians in Taiwan and the mainland are observing this culture shift, and hope to do something about it: Though living as marginalized minorities, they are seeking ways to promote biblical marriage in their homelands.

In China, Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu Early Rain Reformed Church is among those who believe Christians need to fight against the current. His church is hosting ministries focusing on the marriages and families within the church, and Wang is considering how to bring God’s truth about these topics out into society as well: “The church should play a bigger role in marriage, family, and counseling—this is very important for the future.”

Wang said that although small communities of human rights activists and liberal intellectuals are advocating for gay rights, he does not yet believe society’s tide has turned in favor of same-sex marriage. “The Chinese media is not yet supportive of gay marriage … so I think we still have some time in China.” Wang noted a generational divide, with older Chinese people more likely to hold a traditional view of marriage.

Dissident writer Yu Jie, who currently lives in Virginia, said traditional Confucian views supporting heterosexual marriage may be “easy to overturn” because they are not rooted in the gospel. Chinese tradition views family as a miniature version of the government, with the father seated in the place of the king and the rest of the family falling under his rule, Yu said. Parents play a large role in their children’s marriages and still wield control after the wedding, in contrast to the Bible’s call for a man to “leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.”

In Taiwan, Immanuel Chih-Ming Ke, a professor at Providence University in Taichung, said the island’s traditional view of marriage began changing about 20 years ago. After a pro-gay church formed in 1995, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan invited Ke to discuss how Christians should tackle the issue. At the time, they viewed homosexuality as just one of many problems facing society.

Today, things have changed: Movies and TV have normalized homosexuality, news media depict only positive stories about the LGBT movement, and academia has long embraced liberalized sexuality. Ke points to influence from the West, as most of the professors in Taiwan studied in the West and brought back liberal ideas: “Taiwan is like a colony of Western secular culture.”

Still, not all Taiwanese have embraced LGBT values: In November 2013, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to oppose a proposal to revise the island’s Civil Code by changing the term “man and woman” to “two parties,” and “father and mother” to “parents.” (To date, the wordings have not been changed.)

Some believe Christians need to find a new way to discuss family values. By the time churches in Taiwan reacted to LGBT political advocacy, it was too late. In last January’s election, Christians created their own political party, touting candidates who would protect traditional marriage. But without a well-thought-out platform on other issues, they failed to win any seats. (It didn’t help that Christians make up only about 5 percent of the population.)

“Taiwan’s situation is not suitable for a Christian political party because Taiwan is not a Christian culture,” said Ke. Rather, he believes churches should continue preaching what the Bible says about gender, sexuality, marriage, and family. Among Taiwan’s Christian community, Ke said, “very few people can talk about marriage and family in terms that a non-Christian can understand.”

Ke hopes Christians will learn how to dialogue with secular society in “everyday language”—ultimately expressing to their neighbors the value of biblical marriage.