Sed Contra

Making The Leap

2003-10-13T17:30:00.000-04:00

My five readers may be pleased or dismayed to learn that I have made the leap....to Typepad. Henceforth Sed Contra may be found at this address. I will pop in here a while more to check on comments and old posts, but I doubt I shall post here again.

On The Front Lines

2003-10-13T09:32:00.000-04:00

The problem Mr. Culbreath ran into, unfortunately, stems from a perennial confusion, but remains one which he can and should remedy.

I doubt, highly, that Mr. Culbreath discriminated against self-identified gays and lesbians on the basis of their merely being same sex attracted. For example, if a self-identified gays and lesbians were involved in a business that offered products or services completely unrelated to same sex attraction, accounting, or landscaping or decorating or financial advising, would they still have refused to print the card?

I think its completely legitimate to decline to print messages which one disagrees with morally, and Mr. Culbreath could and should make the case that he would not have printed the cards of anyone involved in, say, offering a swingers club or or other "service." By appearing to agree that the basis of his not printing the card lay with the person who presented the business, rather than the behavior the business sought to promote, I am afraid Mr. Culbreath fell into a familiar trap.

Some Thoughts On Rush

2003-10-13T09:13:00.000-04:00

Now that some of the fuss has died down, I wanted to offer a couple of brief thoughts on Rush Limbaugh's announcement that he is entering treatment for an apparently long-standing addiction to prescription pain killers.

I want to make it clear that I don't wish Mr. Limbaugh anything but the best and success with his treatment. I cannot imagine the pain that might have led him into this addiction, and the pain he will have to endure shaking it. I agree entirely with Mark Shea on the matter.

But with that said, I wanted to ask some questions. What, for example, will be the disposition of the State and Federal prosecutors toward Rush's case? I don't wish to call down any of the legal dogs on Mr. Limbaugh, but his case does highlight some things about the current criminal justice situation vis a vis the War on Drugs that deserve notice.

According to a 1992 report prepared for The Sentencing Project:

Fifty-eight percent of drug prisoners Â– an estimated 124,885 inmates Â– have no history of violence or high level drug activity. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in state prisons have only been convicted of drug and/or non-violent offenses; one-third of the total have only been convicted of drug crimes. Four of every five drug prisoners are African-American (56%) and Hispanic(23%),well above their respective rates (13% and 9%) of overall drug use.

Now, to reiterate, I am not calling for the prosecution of Mr. Limbaugh on drug charges, but I am asking what makes Mr. Limbaugh's situation different from the thousands of other men and women in federal and state prison on purely drug use charges, charges without any violent component? The level of his wealth and connections? The color of his skin? Maybe one of the silver linings that might arise from his travail, pain and suffering might be a reevaluation of a criminal justice policy which, in two many cases, criminalizes what, as Mr. Limbaugh is discovering, is a primarily medical problem.

Purgatory For Spammers!

2003-10-12T20:50:00.000-04:00

In this case If only God told them on death that when they were purged and ready to enter the company of the saints that He would send them an email to notify them of this. Each day (or whatever goes for time in purgatory) they would receive thousands of emails to sort through and that they would have to go through each one to try to find the one that notifies them of their perfection and promotion to Heaven.

They would get trick subject lines like "Welcome to Heaven", "From God", "Your purgation is over!", yet when they opened them up they would see something like.

How large is your faith life? If you desire perfection then order for a significant discount spiritual viagra because "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life"

Anonymous Comments

2003-10-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

Any comments posts to my comments boxes that do not have some name attached (I don't care whether or not it is the commenters real name) will be deleted. My aim is for this blog to foster discussion on different topics and anonymous one or two line postings feel too much like cowardly vandalism (no matter whether they agree with me or not.)

Anyone who wants to stay and post a note is more than welcome. Anyone who doesn't feel they can do that with a name attached and still burns to comment should start their own web log.

If I lived in Denver...I Would Definitely Check Them Out

2003-10-12T16:25:00.000-04:00

Founded in 1974 by a Frenchman who was formerly a Protestant pastor, the group is one of few Catholic communities that includes both clergy and lay people.

The idea is to enrich members' lives by exposing them to people with starkly different callings. A nun doesn't have to live apart from children. A single person can live down the hall from a priest.

The movement grew out of the Catholic charismatic renewal, which stresses experiential worship - clapping, hands in the air and speaking in tongues.

In 1999, Christian and Christine Meert, a French couple who'd been living in a Beatitude monastery in Europe, founded the Denver community, one of 95 houses with 1,700 members in 30-plus countries.

The Beatitudes are centered on monasticism and contemplative prayer, with a deep devotion to Mary.

But they also borrow from Judaism and Orthodoxy to honor Catholicism's historic ties to those traditions.

The Denver community holds Shabbat dinner on Fridays and stages Jewish dance on Saturday nights in the convent basement. The white walls of its chapel are lined with the icons of saints, an Orthodox tradition.

Community members dress only in brown, symbolizing the earth, and white, for the Resurrection. They live simply, sharing a Toyota Corolla with 248,000 miles and a broken taillight. Their modest budget relies on donations, marriage preparation classes run by the Meerts, and the two priests' diocesan salaries.

Several times a day, the members gather to pray together. They study the Bible and Vatican II documents. They share meals. They pray more - alone. Night prayer at 8:30 is followed by the "great silence," when members tend to chores without a word. Bedtime is 9:30.

Some days and evenings, community members stage retreats or prayer services at other parishes.

"In a world with a lot of material needs, we can be a little light," said the Rev. Jose Sanchez, 43, a native of Argentina who arrived two months ago to shepherd the community.

Homily From the Abbot of the Monestary of Christ In The Desert

2003-10-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

For this week's readings:

My sisters and brothers in Christ,
Does Jesus reject all wealthy people? That does not seem likely and the Gospel does no support such a view. Does Jesus ask everyone to follow Him? Yes, that seems to be His invitation to us. That “discipleship” makes various demands on various people.

If we start with the first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, we find a standard approach to material wealth: it does not compare at all with wisdom. This should immediately challenge each of us to ask a question: if I had to choose one or the other, either wealth or wisdom, which would I choose? We need to know ourselves well enough to be honest about our answers.

Then we can ask ourselves: if I had to choose between Jesus and wealth, which would I choose?

We do not have to presume, however, that wealth is opposed by itself to following Jesus. The whole concept of wise stewardship has arisen to try to describe people who truly follow Christ and use their wealth for the good of others.

So when we come to the Gospel, we must hear Jesus challenging the rich man to sell everything not as a demand, but as an invitation to follow Him more closely. This invitation must resound in our hearts as well. We must look truthfully at our own lives and ask if we are willing to give up everything in order to follow Jesus. Everything may not be asked of us, but we must be ready.

Surely Jesus, who had the reputation as a wine-bibber and a glutton (see Luke 7:34), is not a man who is insisting that everyone be austere and totally bereft of material goods. Rather, we have this invitation to follow Him. The second reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, speaks clearly about the demands of the Word of God. It is this Word of God that invites us over and over to follow the Lord.

Our challenge is not giving up wealth and material goods, our challenge is to follow Jesus and come to know the living God.

Christianity Today on Anglican Split

2003-10-12T11:52:00.000-04:00

My old friend Doug Leblanc has a good story about the Anglican turmoil that goes a good bit deeper than most mainstream stories I have read have gone.

Priest Pulled From Parish After Criticizing Active Homosexuality

2003-10-12T11:42:00.000-04:00

Father John J. Pasquini, a priest at St. Juliana Church in West Palm Beach has been asked to leave his parish, where he has been for three months, after he wrote critically about active homosexuality and the Episcopal Church's affirmation of a self-defined gay man as bishop.

When the priest asked what was going on, the Vicar General of the Diocese replied that Pasquini's homilies were poor, he didn't show enough devotion to Mass, he was not equipped to be a priest and would never be a pastor in the diocese.

So Pasquini is being packed off to a hospital where, with all his alleged pastoral inabilities, he is bound to be a hit among folks ill and dying and their relatives and friends.

Needless to say, I doubt that any of these allegations of fault are true. The Father has served two other parishes before and without complaint. I think he is in hot water because he dared to speak what the Church teaches in public and I hope another diocese that might remember that it is still Catholic might pick him up.

And you folks sometimes write me to ask why you don't hear more homilies about sexual sin, particularly about active homosexuality.

NY Times on Anglican Fissure

2003-10-12T11:29:00.000-04:00

Article in the New York Times this morning about the split among Anglicans over approving homosex.

It includes some gems:

But now conservative Anglicans are saying that the era of collegial coexistence is over. They are threatening to divide the worldwide Anglican communion over the issue of homosexuality.

Let's see, one one side of the house announces that it is going to break the lease and follow after whatever the prevailing trends of ideology are loose on the streets and, yet, somehow, it's the other side of the house being blamed for preparing to move out?

These church leaders say that the real issue is honesty: There are gay Anglican priests, bishops and churchgoers in many countries, and the American church has merely allowed them to come out of the closet.

No, if there is one thing this is is not about, it's honesty. Honesty would mean that the folks pushing this agenda would have to admit it's about codifying misbehavior and sin. It's no great secret that Christians fail in their attempts to follow Christ, have to repent and get up and walk again. Kids in the natural world don't get it right the first times they try either.

But its quite another thing for a body which claims then name of Christ to declare that a behavior which has been seen as sinful for 2000 years is just not sinful any more.

The first might be personal failure and even hypocrisy, the tribute vice pays to virtue. But the second is an attempt to, by some sort of spiritual alchemy, turn vice into virtue. But no matter how many layers of gold paint are applied, the leaden weight of sin remains the leaden weight of sin. One thousand liberal Anglican prelates could meet in convocation for 1000 years and every day appear to solemnly declare the homesex is ok, and it still would not be ok.

Where, oh Where, Right Wing Film Geek?

2003-10-11T08:09:00.000-04:00

I know he is out there because I keep seeing his comments in comment boxes. Come on Victor, pull the new computer out of the box and get going. It's a Mac, how hard can it be?

Why Women Do Not Wish The Suffrage

2003-10-11T08:07:00.000-04:00

One hundred years ago women did not have the vote and there is a common believe now that all of them wanted to have it. Except for the ones who wrote essays in the Atlantic Monthly about why they didn't.

And how cool is it to have a publication whose archives goes back 100 years and which is willing to make some of the old stuff available online?

This is the negative reason why woman does not wish the ballot: she does not wish to engage in that conflict of wills which is the essence of politics; she does not wish to assume the responsibility for protecting person and property which is the essence of government. The affirmative reason is that she has other, and in some sense, more important work to do. It is more important than the work of government because it is the work for the protection of which governments are organized among men. Woman does not wish to turn aside from this higher work, which is itself the end of life, to devote herself to government, which exists only that this higher work may be done. Nor does she wish to divide her energies between the two. This higher work, which is itself the end of life, is Direct Ministry to Life.

A Thought On The Scottish Tempest

2003-10-11T07:49:00.000-04:00

A lot of furor is being generated over the notion that Cardinal Designate Keith O'Brien might have had to make clear statements about his fidelity to the doctrines of the Church on contraception, celibacy, married clergy and homosexuality. Even if this were true, and I don't know that it is, why should it be news to expect a Prince of the Church to teach and hold what the Church teaches and holds?

More News On The Priest Alleged Involved With Sex Offender

2003-10-10T16:34:00.000-04:00

Domenico Bettinelli has some more details on his blog. Turns out the priest involved was still a priest but not with a parish....

And Their Diocese Had No Place For Them, Of Course

2003-10-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

My mind boggles when I think about the reception Saint Francis would get today.

The religious order they developed is formally called Holy Transfiguration Skete (monastery). It's a stone's throw from Lake Superior at Jacobs Falls, midway between Eagle Harbor and Eagle River, Mich. The cedar shingle-sided complex, with its soaring bell tower and three copper-sheathed domes, is styled after churches found on the steppes of the Ukraine. The monks also have taken on a Ukrainian church look, with heavy robes and full, untrimmed beards.

Despite their difference from the Upper Peninsula norm, the monks have been accepted.

Same Sex Marriage and Friendship

2003-10-10T09:42:00.000-04:00

Eve Tushnet has been doing yoewoman's work in raising some terrific points in the ongoing debate about the nature of marriage and same sex marriage. I admit that I have not been paying as much attention to these discussions as I probably should, in part because much of the conversation has been above my head but also because I have to keep my snout too deeply buried in the day to day stuff of my life to be drawn into that discussion. Heck, I have trouble keep up this little web log!

But her recent posting on friendship and same sex marriage (thanks to Father Jim over at Dappled Things for pointing it out) lead me to ponder a little bit on how important friendship has been, and continues to be, in my own life.

It's no secret that the man with whom I used to be sexually involved have continued a deep and ongoing friendship even after we stopped sleeping together. We did so because, in the wake of the shock of chastity, we came to the conclusion that what we had as friends had always extended far beyond merely the bedroom and that there was no reason to stop being friends just because we stopped doing it.

This surprises and shocks some people, particularly Christians. I think the notion that maybe there might be some good in sexually active same sex relationships even though the sexual activity remained sinful stumps folks who really, really want to see the issue in more straightforward, black and white terms. But the truth remains. Lust and emotional neediness might have drawn us together, but ongoing growth and genuine love is what God drew out of such sordid beginnings.

I think our contemporary culture's understanding of friendship is extremely diminished, if not out and out impoverished. We confine our understanding of the loyalty of friendship, the love of friendship, the existence of genuine philia, to the realms of friendship and soldiering. The movie Stand By Me portrayed the sort of friendship that young boys can have, and it's commonly understood that being under fire with someone else forges a bond that is expected to be lifelong.

But the truth is that all significant, committed friendship can and should have the loyalty, trust, generosity and honor that those friendships have. Once upon a time this was understood. Gay and lesbian activists still occasionally embarrass themselves (in my opinion) by coming out with a declaration that this or that historical figure must have been gay on the grounds of some letters or something that showed deep commitment. Sorry, those folks weren't likely same sex attracted, they were probably conforming to a standard of friendship that we no longer revere.

The Issue is How One Lives

2003-10-10T09:03:00.000-04:00

The headline of this story reads Suspension stuns parish, neighbors, but then the story has this quote:

I have no real issues with Nolin and Kelly if they had a relationship. They're adults. But with Nolin's record, I just really hope this will convince (Gov. Mitt) Romney to put some teeth in the sex-offender registry law, she said.

Sorry, lady, but the fact that the priest was acting out homosexually should have made you less shocked, not more, at allegations of what has been done and not done. I mean here is a man who has been ordained and who pastors a parish and who, allegedly, has still let himself get involved in a sexually active relationship with a convicted sex offender and boy rapist. And the fact that they are doing so would not bother you, even a little?

Folks, the point of living a Christian life, both on our own and as part of communities, is to seek the Kingdom of God and to grow into Saints. That a pastor of a community could have jumped the tracks so badly and not even brought up a conviction among his flock to pray harder for him suggests that parish might have some deeper problems than merely pastoral sin.

The focus on "gays in the priesthood" which continues to bubble along in several other places as well just keeps missing the point. The great danger is not from priests who might live with some degree of same sex attraction but who nonetheless remain faithful to Christ and to their ordinations. The danger is in priests who live with some degree of Same Sex Attraction and simply disregard or eschew their promises and commitments in order to indulge their lusts - and who are not called on the carpet for it.

Of course I cannot be positive, but I would not be surprised if a perusal of this priests personnel file didn't find previous complaints about sexually acting out with other men and reveal that those complaints were ignored.

My Time On EWTN

2003-10-09T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well, my voice appeared on EWTN's Life On The Rock program tonight, for less than five minutes, I think. I am not sure what role I was supposed to play on the program; the host didn't seem to know why they would have asked me to appear and they didn't mention that I had written Beyond Gay.

I got a pretty strong sense from what was probably the host's the most leading question that he wanted me to knock living an actively gay life, which I could do but it's just not the point.

I brought up how this is primarily a discipleship issue, not as much an orientation or attraction issue, and how the Church teaches that men and women living with Same Sex Attraction can and should be Saints. And that was when the host cut me off.

So, for what its worth.

Missing The Point on Condoms

2003-10-09T16:32:00.000-04:00

The Vatican is under fire again for suggesting that condoms are not the holy shield against infection by HIV. The dispute has entirely, or virtually entirely, focused on whether the condoms perform technically adequately to prevent infection by HIV.

Might I suggest that this emphasis misses the point? The question about whether a very, very thin latex sheath is going to protect you from HIV is moot if the people involved are using them correctly in the first place, but there is a whole heap of evidence that even "safe sex" educated people don't use them correctly or at all.

This concern about the technical abilities of condoms focuses on testing them under laboratory conditions by sober, professional people, working usually under very bright light and feeling good about following some tight scientific guidelines. But I think the overwhelming majority of condoms are used by people who more often than not drunk or high, who don't use them too often, who are often in the dark or in diminished light and often feel very ambivalent about what they are doing.

And it only takes one failure, whether by the condom or by the person using it.

On EWTN Tonight

2003-10-09T15:12:00.000-04:00

This weblog's five readers might be interested to learn that at least my voice will take part in a conversation on Sorting Through Agendas: The Truth About Homosexuality on EWTN's Life On The Rock.

As far as I know, my voice goes on at 7:30 Central Time, 8:30 Eastern.

Under The Tuscan Sun

2003-10-09T13:58:00.000-04:00

Went to see Under The Tuscan Sun on Saturday and found it overall a pretty good film. The Italian Tourist Board must be thrilled at the free advertising, unless they paid some sort of fee for having all those terrific shots of the Tuscan countryside that made me want to leave for Florence as soon as possible.

Overall I found the movie felt very...Authentic. An academic woman writer has found that the man she married and thought she loved has, in fact, not loved her and in the wake of the failed marriage she travels to Tuscany, buys a house in a desire to change her life, and winds up getting involved in the surrounding community as she does so. She also manages to have an affair with another guy, an Italian this time, who winds up leaving her, which sort of left me feeling a little like what else could she have expected since she didn't really ask for any emotional commitment from him before she threw herself at him and they started stripping off their clothes on the way to bed.

Yah, that was one of the down things about the film, a little gratuitous exposure that could have been handled differently while making the same point.

One thing that I found less authentic. There were a lot of kids in this movie, a lot more kids in the movie than I have seen in trips to Italy. The Italian birth rate is below replacement and, unless the trend changes, in something like 300 years there will be few Italians left. In the Italy of the Under The Tuscan Sun the big Italian family still reigns, although all contemporary society suggests it has gone the way of all contracepted phenomenon.

I know, I haven't been blogging much...

2003-10-09T13:53:00.000-04:00

But that's because I have just been busy, particularly busy in the mornings, which is my most preferred time for working on the web log. My only excuse is that I have been stepping up the workout and that has been taking time in the mornings.

I haven't been making recommendations for products or services on here but in the ongoing battle to lose 100 pounds, of which I have lost more than 80, I have really found a computer program helpful.

Crosstrainer, produced by a Canadian firm called Innovative Logic, helps me keep track of the food, exercise and other data from losing the weight. Keeping track of where I have been has kept me encouraged and moving forward as the weight has steadily kept dropping.

It's an inexpensive program, they let you download and try it for 30 days and the customer service has been good whenever I have needed it.

If This Kiss Could Mean More Than Wishful Thinking

2003-10-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

Saturday's public session of the talks was cordial and respectful, with Williams and his delegation, which included his wife Jane, bending down and kissing the pope's ring.

How fast Is Your Internet Connection?

2003-10-02T21:04:00.000-04:00

My new cable modem is 1.5 MB per second which, I have been told, is "fantastic".

I do know it has my made a the part of my life which relies upon a computer much, much faster and easier.

Fixing Health Care

2003-10-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

It sounds like Eve Tushnet and have come to an awareness about broken the U.S. healthcare system is at roughly the same time. Young people never think about these things; it is the arrival of the bills for thousands of dollars, even if they are handled by insurance, that wake us up to the possibility that something may be amiss over at the E.R.

Eve linked to a link which, in turn, offered this article which outlined some possible responses to the problem that don't include the standard "one provider" response which has been found to have problems other places.

In a large part the article rehashes some ideas I have known about for a while, but still leaves some questions. I like the notion a lot of getting the consumer more directly involved with the shopping for health care so that prices might start to respond to consumer pressure. But the tax credit idea seems to have holes too. What about those folks who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but still don't really file much of a tax return - i.e. folks for whom a tax credit might not translate into the necessary cash to buy the insurance when they needed it? How do those folks get the coverage they need?

And this is really important folks. Just as nothing sharpens the mind as much as a trip past a ready scaffold, so too does seeing a bill for $30,000 that but for the insurance we might be entirely responsible.

Picketting St. Joseph

2003-10-02T07:27:00.000-04:00

You know, I love the writings of Dorothy Day, particularly those from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement. Some from the autumn of 1936 include this gem about "picketting St. Joseph."

We picketed St. Joseph this past month, when we were sending out the appeal — asking him to take care of our temporal necessities, as he had to take care of the temporal necessities of the Blessed Mother and the Infant Jesus during those long hidden years at Nazareth. It was a peaceful and loving picketing, the crowd of us taking turns to go to the church and there in the presence of Christ our Leader, contemplate St. Joseph, that great friend of God and Protector of His Church. One of the girls in St. Joseph’s house, when we announced the picketing at the breakfast table, wanted to know, very startled, whether she would have to carry a sign. We assured her that the sign she carried of her membership in the Mystical Body which Father Lord [missing words] .

That followed immediately the context of their work that October of 1936:

The way the priest at the Church of the Transfiguration goes up to the altar with out-stretched arms in the morning, the humble reverence of the Franciscan at the Church of the Precious Blood on Baxter street as he kneels at "The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us", the gallant and tender figure of St. Joseph clasping the Christ Child at the same church, the willing co-operation of all the workers around Mott street this turbulent month when there was so much moving to be done, and all the work of the paper had to go on — these were some of the things which put us in mind of the love of God this past few days.

A Blow To Ecumenism?

2003-10-02T06:12:00.000-04:00

The Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine withdrew its invitation Wednesday for the Episcopalian Diocese to use one of its churches for a ceremony because the pro-gay leader of the Episcopalian Church was slated to attend.

The local Catholic diocese rescinded the invitation after Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, defended in a news article the church's confirmation of a gay bishop and argued that the Bible does not condemn same-sex relationships.

A couple of thoughts on this. First, the Catholic Church cannot demand that Rev. Griswold change his position on homosexual activity, but it is quite proper to make it clear that the differences between the two institutions are now more sharply different than ever.

Second, this quote from Rev. Griswold needs to be unpacked:

"Discreet acts of homosexuality" were condemned in the Bible because they were acts of lust instead of the "love, forgiveness, grace" of committed same-sex relationships, Griswold said. "Homosexuality, as we understand it as an orientation, is not mentioned in the Bible."

Well, Reverend, what do you call it when sexual acts take place in complete disregard for even the possibility that, however inadvertently, the human body might actually perform as it was designed to perform? Am I to say that the miracle of how God created me as a man, the intricate engineering and working that allows me to produce sperm cells and all the mechanics of sex is is no other reason than my own pleasure, that's all? And what about the disregard my actions showed for my partners in these acts, who became essentially the means to my desired outcomes? And that's love?

I was involved in a loving, sexually active monogamous relationship for seven years, one that has continued on as a deep and abiding friendship. The context of love we were building in our friendship was not sufficient to render as loving those objectively unloving acts.

I agree that New Testament authors could not have known about the notion of deep seated Same Sex Attraction, but I am not prepared to claim that they would have revised their opinion of homosexual acts had they known. They understood profoundly well that the bottom line is not what tempts us, it's how we live.

However, in the run up to meeting between JPII and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Vatican is focusing on what unites more than on what divides.

Ever Wonder What You Looked Like Before Seeing The Light of Day?

2003-10-01T21:42:00.000-04:00

Click here and find out!

You Know, In The End SSA Doesn't Much Matter

2003-10-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of attention being paid to Same Sex Attraction these days. Folks who live with it and feel the best way they can deal with it is to celebrate it run full tilt into folks who think of it, at best, as a flaw in their make up and at worst as something that could lead them into hell. And that battle is going to keep on going at the level, in the culture, in the media and politics.

But for everyone who actually lives with a degree of SSA that battle remains more or less irrelevant. All that really matters is what we think, about our own experience of SSA, about our own behavior, about how we choose to live our lives and seek our joys, and in the end what we think about Christ. At the last analysis we are the ones with the power. If we ask the God of the universe into our lives I believe He will come, and the Church has taught for 2000 years that He will come. But He won't push His way in, and the power to accept or reject remains with us. The heart of the lover always exists on the string of the Beloved.

I, on my own, am never going to be able to convince anyone who lives with SSA to my point of view about it. I have developed my attitudes over a mixture of experiences and events that have included sexual promiscuity, sexual monogamy, emotional friendships and personal failures. They have included a life changing encounter with God, as a Person, not just as an idea, a concept, a feeling or a wish. When I got up from the floor over a decade ago, shaking, weak, confused but filled with a deep awareness of I knew not what, I knew nothing in my life would ever be quite the same, could ever be quite the same.

I can't make anyone else have that experience. I can invite them to have it, I can pray for them to have it, I can present everything I know about God in a way that I hope will help them have it, but I cannot make them have it. And in the absence of an experience, much about the way I live my way will not make any sense - and may even repel a lot of people. But He called, I answered, and I cannot take that back - even if I wanted to.

And the good news is that I am not responsible for whether other people have that experience or not. I am not responsible for what they choose to do or not do if they have that experience. The only thing I and everyone else can be responsible for are our own lives and our own choices. I have written before that people are not the sum of our temptations and, thank God, that is true. But its also true that the sum our choices goes into making up a lot of us and it is for those choices in my own life that I remain responsible and it is those choices that I most strongly seek Christ's face.

So the bottom line is how do we live as Christians. Not whether we object to this event or that issue, or denounce something or whatever. It is how we, in our lives, react to and act upon the ways God calls us. We live in a culture where many people claim God and label themselves with God, but how many of us think even briefly before we go to bed each night about whether we tried to reflect Christ in the world that day, and if we did how well did we do so?

So, in the end SSA doesn't much matter. Christ matters a lot more. Living with and loving Him matters a lot more. Seeking His face matters a lot more. At the edge of eternity SSA might mean as little as a pocket full of beans. If you choose to live a homosexually active life I will probably never agree with, or approve of, that choice. But my approval means nothing. All that matters is where we are with Christ.

Why No One Really Cares About Prison Rape

2003-10-01T14:55:00.000-04:00

No this is not the all prison all the time blog, but a recent charge in my comment boxes that I have too poor a view of our current prison system has led me to look into it more.

The truth is that the United States has essentially accepted violence—and particularly brutal sexual violence—as an inevitable consequence of incarcerating criminals. Indeed, prison assault has become a cliché within mainstream culture. The news and entertainment media refer to it nonchalantly. Prime-time TV shows, such as Oz, depict the most awful scenes of rape and carnage. Popular TV dramas routinely depict police taunting potential defendants with threats of the violence and sexual abuse they will face in prison. Indeed, last year 7UP ran a TV advertisement in which a teasing threat of sexual assault in prison was part of a light-hearted pitch for selling soda. The advertisement ran for two months without objection and was only pulled after criticisms from prisoners'-rights groups.

So accepted is assault as part of prison life that an outsider might conclude that on some basic, if unarticulated level, we think it an appropriate element of the punishment regimen. Perhaps we believe that allowing prisons to be places of horrific acts will serve as part of the utilitarian deterrent effect of criminal sentences. Or perhaps we recognize that prison rape and assault are an unavoidable byproduct of the rape and assault in society generally, so that our goal here is not utilitarian but retributive: that is, even though we cannot eliminate rape and assault, we can at least reallocate them. Thus, when we purport to incapacitate convicted criminals, what we are really doing is shifting to them, the most "deserving" among us, the burden of victimization.

Florida Grand Jury To Investigate Prison Abuse

2003-10-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

When they gather in the courthouse to investigate the state's only maximum security prison for girls, 21 Palm Beach County residents likely will learn about teenage arms twisted until they popped. They'll read about a 14-year-old girl led into a staff bathroom and the condom wrapper found afterward in the garbage can. And they'll hear about a suicidal girl, supposedly under 24-hour watch, who managed to slip razor blades into her bra and later slice her wrist.

More On Dolls

2003-10-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

Apparently one of the few (as far as know) similarities between European self-identified gay and lesbian activists and Wahahist Muslims is their ability to transmit, or see, messages in children's toys. The activists seek to make sure grade school children in Scotland have "lesbian dolls" with which to play (scroll down for story) while the Saudi Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice claims to be able to discern dolls' religion.

"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful," the committee said.

It is no problem that little girls play with dolls. But these dolls should not have the developed body of a woman and wear revealing clothes," fumed Sheik Abdulla al-Merdas, a Wahhabi preacher in a Riyadh mosque. "These revealing clothes will be imprinted in their minds, and they will refuse to wear the clothes we are used to as Muslims."

Mattel could sell mini-burqas for their dolls, I suppose. But Western children would still probably be bored by dolls wearing burqas they could not remove so the Saudi approved models would have a very limited market outside the Kingdom.

Barbie, Jewish or not, has been banned in Saudia for a decade.

More Canadian Tolerance

2003-10-01T08:45:00.000-04:00

Gotta love the folks up in the Great White North...and thank God again for our Constitution and First Amendment.

Vancouver police are investigating complaints that B.C.'s top Catholic, who is at the centre of a fiery debate over homosexuality, was threatened by an angry crowd of protesters outside his window late at night.

"We have been in contact with Archbishop [Adam] Exner about the incident and talking to him about security measures he can take," Vancouver Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said late Tuesday....

Since the first story about the Catholic church's decision appeared in The Vancouver Sun, the paper has received hundreds of letters to the editor and e-mails, most of them criticizing Exner for telling four Catholic school principals they must withdraw from VanCity's junior banking program because the 295,000-member credit union approves of homosexual relationships.

In an opinion piece in today's Vancouver Sun, Exner writes that the story "opened the floodgates to letters, e-mails, phone calls and faxes, alleging everything from bigotry to fascism. The word 'Nazis' was even used. A small but angry crowd screamed obscenities and threats outside my window late at night."

Ok, Likely Not The Wrath of God But....

2003-10-01T08:16:00.000-04:00

Some might remember the fellow who was busted, with his girlfriend, while having sex at the back of St. Patrick's Cathedral as part of a radio promotion stunt. Well, he has died, age 38, of a heart attack. RIP, and I am not being sarcastic.

Thanks to Victor Morton for the tip.

Heading North

2003-09-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

Virtually every morning you can find them, a mile to two from my condominium, waiting near the place where the I-395's ramps meet the local streets. They are trabajadores, workers, the overwhelming majority of them from Central and South America, not Mexico. In the mornings every few minutes a jeep, a van, an SUV, a pickup, will pull up to the intersection sparking a mad rush through traffic to get to the car window to offer themselves, their time, their labor, their sweat for the day. Even if they get hired by someone who will, at the end of the day, refuse to pay them, or refuse to pay them what was negociated, or simply leave them somewhere stranded in the Northern Virginia area, they will still count themselves as luckier than the unfortunate ones who during the day will remain at the intersection, hoping for the late van or pickup or jeep.

National Public Radio has a series about the very trip these folks had to make to be able to wait at that intersection. It''s a short and worthy read, with some eye-opening photos.

Alabama Prison Health Deemed Risk

2003-09-30T13:06:00.000-04:00

There is a disturbing story in an Alabama paper about the reality that prison health care in Alabama is poor enough that prisoners being released, and there will be 5000 of them soon because of budget cuts, may be released carrying things like disease resistant TB etc. Like I said before, prison policy in is country is becoming a significant issue that needs attention. Some excerpts:

Statewide, Alabama correctional facilities hold nearly 28,000 inmates, though they are designed to house about 13,000, according to state facility reports.

Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery -- where many sick inmates are sent to be treated at the on-campus hos pital unit -- had an average monthly population of nearly 1,300, about three times its designed capacity of 440.

Experts fear that the crowded conditions in Alabama prisons -- many hold two to three times the number of inmates they were designed for -- have made them a breeding ground for infectious diseases. And recent audits of the prison health care system suggest that dangerous infections have been poorly tracked and inadequately treated.

A lawsuit filed in March by the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta alleged that the Alabama prison system administered negligent health care, leading to the deaths of nearly 38 HIAIDS-infected inmates between 1999 and 2002.

NaphCare -- the state's Birmingham-based health care provider -- and Department of Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell are listed as defendants in the class action lawsuit

Complaint About Pell Being Named Cardinal

2003-09-29T11:19:00.000-04:00

Pope John Paul II has named George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, a Cardinal. This has occasioned the expected round of complaining, some of which needs some unpacking:

Dr Pell has refused to administer communion to members of the gay Catholics collective Rainbow Sash. Its spokesman Michael Kelly said the appointment was the result of his skill in playing politics at the Vatican.

"Pell is a champion of all that sort of mentality that is about doctrinal checklists and excluding people," Mr Kelly said. "I think it is a very unfortunate day for the church. It is a very unfortunate appointment.

"A lot of people are going to become even more cynical about Rome and about the way the church is run. It is going to promote a very right-wing version of orthodoxy."

Dr Pell has been seen for several years as a rising star within the church. When the archbishopric of Sydney fell vacant in 2001, Pope John Paul II reportedly examined a list of prospects, before declaring: "I want Pell."

For the record, the Rainbow Sash folks are not merely self-identifying as gay; they are making a statement with the rainbow sashes to the effect that they either engage in homosexual sex or encourage or promote others in doing so. These are serious sins which may in fact be mortal and to not give communion in those circumstances both resists scandal and offers charity. If Mr. Kelly and the other Rainbow Sash supporters want to choose having sex over being Catholic, that is their affair. They have no right to demand the Church change her teaching to accommodate their desires.

For the record, as well, Archbishop Pell has offered communion to men and women from Courage who, though they live with same sex attraction and some of whom even self-identify as gay, nonetheless live lives committed to discipleship and seeking the Kingdom of God. Kelly et al. count on being able to conflate identity with behavior, but the issue has never been what tempts us, but how we live.

Grade School Kids in Scotland To Be Given "Lesbian Dolls"

2003-09-29T10:27:00.000-04:00

Scottish pupils are set to learn about same sex relationships through controversial "lesbian dolls".

Schoolchildren will see the Persona Dolls in lessons that aim to teach respect and understanding of different relationships and family structures.

The project is headed by the Lesbians Mothers Scotland group and is partially funded by Lottery cash.

Ok, some things are so absurd they have to draw laughter. First, distributors of the these dolls say the dolls are not used for sex education or to promote gay relationshipsbut that's just specious. By definition, they have to be. How on earth do the kids tell a lesbian doll from a non-lesbian doll? And what will that difference mean to a kid in the absence of some sort of detail about what a self-identified is and wants/likes to do in bed?

Second, unless the dolls wear little tee-shirts that say "lesbian" on them, how do they avoid stereotyping? Do the "lesbian" dolls look more at home behind the wheels of semis? Are their accessories limited to hammers and tools and other stereotypes?

To their credit, the Catholics which appeared in the story expressed doubts.

Religious opposition has also been typically loud, with the Catholic Church in Scotland's Peter Kearney claiming the project is "precisely the sort of pro-homosexual brain-washing that Section 28 would have prevented".

"It seems to confirm all the fears we had about young children being exposed to inappropriate material if Section 28 was repealed," he added.

UAW Backs Off Supporting Abortions

2003-09-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

DETROIT -- Moments after the news broke this summer, petitions started circulating in the plants, the phones started ringing at Solidarity House in Detroit, and abortion protestors sprang into action.

Thursday, as United Auto Workers members continue voting on their new contract, the controversial proposal that shocked many union members into action -- health care coverage for abortions -- has been quashed.

Missed Opportunity

2003-09-28T09:33:00.000-04:00

Well, anyone who imagined the Bishop of Riverside California might have taken the opportunity of addressing the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries about, say, the gospel, the need for discipleship, the need to present the whole of the Church's teaching on same sex attraction and behavior would have been sorely mistaken.

Instead, according to this press report, he affirmed their approach and apologized for the problems they have faced baptizing gay sex.

PALM SPRINGS - Bishop Gerald Barnes thanked more than 130 Roman Catholics at a national conference for gay and lesbian ministries and apologized for the strife they have endured.

OK, I am open to the notion that the message might have been more nuanced that it appeared to be and that the reporter might not have recognized the nuance, but from this article at least it seemed that even the mildest part of firm love, much less "tough love" was not on the bishop's agenda.

The bishop apologized for what society and the church have done to punish good ministries," said the Rev. Rich Lewandowski of Worcester, Mass. "It was a very powerful thing."

Olivia Dorman of La Mesa, in San Diego County, cried during the service. Dorman said she was moved when she saw a young woman she believed was a lesbian crying herself.

"People have been suffering so much," Dorman said. "They really need that assurance. Everyone wants to be loved. That's all we want."

Yes. That's what everyone wants. But the issue at hand is what genuine love is and means. Almost every parent out there knows that genuinely loving their kids does not mean simply endorsing every one of their behaviors - particularly not the ones that the parents believes or hazardous to their bodies and souls.

A genuinely loving message from the bishop would have welcomed the conferees and would have reassured them as to their worth before God, and would have called them, on account of that very worth, to join the millions of other Christians on the road to heaven. Teaching the Cross does not seek to exclude anyone, it seeks to include everyone in doing the work it really takes to grow into sainthood, into being the men and women God meant us to be.

And the Church needs and, please God will soon have, more men who will preach that truth and offer genuine bread instead of stones.

Happy Birthday Jesuits

2003-09-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

In Rome, the Society of Jesus--a Roman Catholic missionary organization--receives its charter from Pope Paul III. The Jesuit order played an important role in the Counter-Reformation and eventually succeeded in converting millions around the world to Catholicism.

The Jesuit movement was founded by Ignatius de Loyola, a Spanish soldier turned priest, in August 1534. The first Jesuits--Ignatius and six of his students--took vows of poverty and chastity and made plans to work for the conversion of Muslims.

Article Chronicles One Aspect of DC's Gay Drug Trade

2003-09-27T07:49:00.000-04:00

Drug use among self-defined, sexually active gays and lesbians has long been documented, but rarely discussed from the users perspective. Until now. Interesting article about one aspect of Washington DC's gay drug trade, from a gay paper as well. Significantly, and refreshingly, I don't think the words "internalized homophobia" appear once in the piece as a justification for the activity....

The market for crystal in Washington, D.C., is limited — relegated primarily to the gay club scene — and most of the methamphetamine in D.C. comes from sources in California, via overnight or regular mail delivery services, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.... .

Corbin, who still uses crystal, said that as his life becomes “more stable and grounded,” his need for crystal has abated. But he admitted that tina is still very much a part of his identity and laments his once prominent notoriety and VIP status in the D.C. drug world.

He blames himself to some extent for selling drugs, especially to 18-year-olds, and added at times he would cut clients off if he felt they were doing too much crystal.

“I would say sometimes to people, ‘You’ve done too much, you must detox,’” Corbin said. “And they would still continue to use. I would say, ‘Look, you are not going to die in my house. If you are going to be stupid enough to kill yourself, do it on your own time.’”

Corbin described crystal abuse in D.C. as an “outrageous epidemic” and noted that it is “sad.”

“People will sell their soul for a fix. I’ve had boys offer to do any sex act with me, many were willing to physically hurt people to prove how loyal they were.”
But he scoffed at the notion of being addicted to crystal saying, “All addiction is mind over matter.”

“There are those out there who can do a gram a day without a problem,” Corbin said. “I’m doing shit that makes you feel like you’ve walked through the gates of heaven.”

Corbin said his regrets are few, justifying his business as an effort merely to provide pleasurable experiences for gay men.

“On one hand, certainly one would say that [gay men] complicated our lives but just think of where we would be [without drugs] … creating an absence of pleasure. Sometimes it is important to walk on the edge. I’m not comfortable with mediocrity. Can’t exist in the norm. I’ve learned to, but I’m not comfortable with it.”

Small Town Seeking To Become Miami of The Carolinas

2003-09-27T07:24:00.000-04:00

SENECA, S.C. - Town leaders no longer are counting on factories and mills to fuel the economy of Seneca, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians.

Instead, they are targeting retirees, hoping an ad campaign will lure them to play golf and build million-dollar homes on the shores of Lake Keowee.

Just curious, what would this do to the community;'s profile re: health insurance and health costs. I thought things like insurance rates were calculated according to statistical averages for a given area or community. Won't having a population of mostly elderly, with presumably higher medical costs, skew the figures?

Excellent Column Against the Latest Anti-Catholic Screed

2003-09-27T07:07:00.000-04:00

The novel is part of a genre to present a hate-filled stereotype of Roman Catholicism as a villain. ''Almost as troubling as the sheer abundance of anti-Catholic rhetoric is the failure to acknowledge it as a serious social problem,'' writes Jenkins, distinguished professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. ''In the media, Catholicism is regarded as a perfectly legitimate target. . . . What sometimes seems to be limitless social tolerance in modern America has strict limits where the Catholic Church is concerned.''

The Da Vinci Code is only the latest crude assault, as frightening in its own way as were recent demonstrations by mobs at Catholic cathedrals in New York City and Montreal (no ''hate crime'' sanctions were invoked there). That this erratic tale will soon fade away will be fitting justification for a church whose founder died, out of love, for man's redemption and prophesied its unending persecution -- but also that will endure to the end of time.

And A Smoking Gun?

2003-09-26T09:23:00.000-04:00

Ok, here might be some sort of smoking gun. Some of this weblog's readers may recall the scandal of the St. Sebastian's Angels website, a site with a membership of "gay priests" which also had pictures of naked young men and boys and featured negative comment about Church officials as well as somewhat lascivious comments about young men around the posters.

Well, a story in the Portland Press Herald has revealed that the St. Sebastian's creator has stepped down from his ministry while being investigated for swimming nude with young male campers in the 1980's.

The Rev. John Harris, who is on a voluntary leave of absence from his parish in Rangeley, could face expulsion based on an investigation into reports that he was seen nude swimming and boating with boys at a private youth camp in the early 1980s....

Voice of the Faithful members did not know about the reports of Harris at the camp, but had been pressing the diocese to investigate Harris because he was the creator of St. Sebastian's Angels, a defunct Web site for gay clergy that included pornography, sexually explicit discussions and some references to boys. Harris had already been investigated and punished for creating the website in 2000, and the diocese uncovered no evidence at the time of misconduct with minors, Bernard said.

So is it that much of a surprise that men who had been part of a site which favored pictures of naked young men and boys might have been involved in inappropriate behavior with the young men around them?

Smoke Screens Rising

2003-09-26T08:27:00.000-04:00

An article in the Press Enterprise, a local paper serving Palm Springs, California, previewed the upcoming National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference in Palm Springs (registration required).

I can't make up my mind whether the article merely represents uninformed reporting or a deliberate misrepresentation. While the reporter interviewed critics of the NACDGLM conference, he let the organization off without any particularly hard questions and let the diocese of San Bernardino make this remarkable statement:

But the Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the million-member San Bernardino Diocese, said the church always teaches that one must be chaste and refrain from sexual contact outside of marriage.

"God loves homosexuals as much as heterosexuals and those with a homosexual orientation deserve and have the right to ministry from our church," Lincoln said by phone. "Our diocese stands firmly behind the teachings of the church in all areas including those pertaining to the gay and lesbian community."

Well, that's great and to be commended. But if that is the case what the heck is the diocese doing welcoming NACDLGM? Unless they shifted their positions, I don't believe visitors to the organization's website will see one reference to living chastely. The website's resources are marked by the familiar rainbow triangles of the gay and lesbian rights movement the whole site makes it clear that, whatever NACDLGM is about, it is not about helping men and women living with same sex attraction make it to heaven.

And yet, a Catholic bishop recommends the sheep of his flock attend this thing?

The Silly Season

2003-09-25T21:37:00.000-04:00

Now will the autumn of my political discontent be transformed into the sweet spring of political satisfaction? Looking over this field of candidates, including General Clark, I have to say not bloody likely.

I got started in politics, liberal politics, early. I believe I turned the tender age of six when I first held a political sign at a rally. At age nine, in the heat of the 1972 Nixon v. McGovern campaign, I and some of my fellow urchins got hold of some Nixon/Agnew bumper stickers and spent the bulk of a Saturday afternoon making sure neighborhood signs read "no Nixon/Agnew Anytime" instead of no parking anytime. When Marion S. Barry ran for the first time for Mayor of DC, I worked like a dog for almost a whole summer to help him get elected, as the "outsider" to a moribund DC political establishment. (I have never regretted any of my political decisions quite as much as that one.)

But time has passed and while I cannot in good conscience support a liberal democratic candidate I also cannot wholeheartedly support a conservative Republican one (or the President for that matter). To paraphrase, I think, Woodie Gutherie: I can't belong to any organized U.S. political party in 2003. I'm a Catholic.

Each of the parties has a lot wrong with it. I can't support the Democrats (a.k.a. The Party of Lust) in good conscience because the core of that party has apparently convinced itself that a woman is not a woman unless she has the right, at will, to abort her children and appears on its way to signing on to the gay agenda hook, line and sinker.

Likewise, I cannot support the Republicans (a.ka. the Party of Greed) in good conscience because they cannot seem to understand that human beings and human labor are not just another one of the wheels of production to be used and spat out or traded for wheels around the world just because their labor can be had more cheaply. Nor do I believe, as many Republicans seem to, in the Market Uber Alles. I think there are considerations in economic activity at least as, if not more so, important than getting the stockholders that extra .25 cents on quarterly earnings.

Actually, there is a good deal or irony afoot this year. The Republicans in Congress and the White House have begun to understand that the flight of capital and jobs in search of the cheaper wage hour will probably mean that this year's economic recovery remains jobless - and their is precious little they can do about it.

The trickle down theory of tax cuts only works if the folks whose taxes are being cut can be counted upon to invest their money here, and not in this year's most popular sweatshop country. I heard on the radio the other day that Mexico, home of the Maquiliadora and Ross Perot's Great Sucking Sound has begun to lose jobs to China. Welcome to the global economy, Senores.

This is ironic because Free Trade, which brought us to this point, has long been a predominantly Republican sacred cow. Even Free Trade's most devoted supporters acknowledge that while it might deliver benefits long term, it often does so after causing a lot of short term pain. The Republicans happen to be the party in power when the pigeons of Free Trade come home to roost, so they are likely to garner the rewards that roosting pigeons often leave.

Anyway, there are some political issues I wish more people were talking about.

First, prison policy reform. Folks, the system we have now is not working. The U.S. has 1.2 million people in prison this year, and by and large is doing nothing to prepare them for when they eventually leave prison. I mean they will eventually come home, and when they do they will need to have skills and support and some sort of chance at making it - or they commit more crime, hurt more people, and head back into prison.

Second, immigration reform. My grandmother reminded me a couple of times that if I decide not to decide something, I have still made a decision. By deciding not to make a coherent immigration policy we are in effect opting for an incoherent one.

Do the rafts of illegal (undocumented) aliens here really suppress the wages of Americans in the industries they take up, as some groups maintain? Does the fact that a factory owner can get someone to work at a dangerous or inefficient job more cheaply because they are undocumented forestall the factory from adopting safer or more efficient technology? How are we complicit in the the problem, relying on cheap undocumented labor to provide the elbow grease this economy needs?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I wish a candidate would raise them and not in the simplistic "los trabajadores son buenos!" formula which many seem ready to adopt.

Third, health care. It needs fixing. My buddy went into the hospital this year and it would have cost him $30,000 if he had not had insurance. Why, if the drug companies are having yet another year of record profits, is nobody questioning whether society is served by their charging hundreds of dollars per month for some medications?

I mean as far as I can tell the problem is that the market simply cannot currently make inroads into health care as it does other places. For example, a new computer technology comes out and for the early adopters its very expensive. But there is a lot of incentive and competition for manufacturers to bring down the cost and, sure enough, we get to a point where I can buy a better printer than many offices had a few years ago for less money.

But that model cannot, or is not being allowed to, work in a similar way for medical technology. Magnetic Resonance Imaging has been around for a while, why aren't we seeing stories about how more small hospitals are being able to get basic MRI machines because they have dropped so much in price?

Four Lessons Gay Men Should Learn From Straight Guys

2003-09-25T17:50:00.000-04:00

Some of you might be familiar with the NBC program "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy" that has been generating media buzz and, in my opinion at least, exploiting SSA and men living with some SSA but that is another issue. The program furthers the myth that men with SSA have an inherently better sense of style etc than men without SSA and sends a team of men with SSA to make over the style of some hapless goof in need of a makeover to attain some goal, whether personal or career.

Anyway, in the speculation about the show a number of folks brought up how politically incorrect a show called, for example, "Straight Eye For the Queer Guy" would be, in which a team of men without any SSA would offer to teach some self-defined gay man about things in the so-called hetero man's world. Such a show, many agreed, would never fly in today's media age.

Imagine my shock, therefore, when in the October issue of Men's Health, as a sidebar to an article about things men without SSA could learn from self-defined gay guys about women, there appeared the following four points under the headline:

Four Lessons Gay Men Should Learn From Straight Guys

1. BE HAPPY WITH YOUR THREE PACK. My straight friends are proud of their bodies despite growing guts and love handles aplenty; those things never stop them from feeling attractive. I, on the other hand, won't consider having sex unless (a) I am wearing my special boxer briefs that make my butt look like stone and (b) I'm backlit. Body obsession is one lesson from women I would have been better off not learning.

2. GOOD FRIENDS DON'T HOLD GRUDGES. I could rehash for you, probably word for word, virtually every argument I've had with a gay friend over the past decade. But I won't, because it's still too upsetting. Straight guys forgive within minutes and forget by the next morning. And, like a biceps after a curl, each battle makes their friendships grow stronger.

3. MAKE YOUR OWN SCENE. Gay men go out in groups, but always with the ulterior motive if scamming dates. Straight guys understand the virtue of going out with friends just to enjoy their company. Sure, they'll take advantage of a hook up opportunity if it suddenly presents itself, but that's not the main motivation to leave the house in the first place.

4. REAL RELATIONSHIPS TAKE TIME. There was a time when I thought getting a call from a guy meant we were headed to Pottery Barn to buy china together. Straight guys understand that true connections are built over many rounds of ups and downs, not three rounds of martinis.

Now, leaving aside the obvious moral problems with some of these points, I found them interesting. First of all, I wonder how many of the things the author would like to correct are inherently part of male experience of SSA and how many are cultural, part of self-defining as gay etc.

Second, I think its interesting in that these are all things that I have learned as my own degree of SSA has diminished. I wonder if my learning them was part of the SSA diminishing, or whether learning them (and/or lessons like them) came about because the degree of SSA I experience diminished.

Putting Money Where Faith Is

2003-09-25T10:02:00.000-04:00

The Archdiocese of Vancouver has ended a program in four of its schools designed to help students learn financial management skills after the program's co sponsor, Canada's largest credit union, took an open stand in favor of self-defined gay rights and put that stand in advertising, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The credit union, VanCity, is running ads which feature two men sitting cheek-to-cheek, saying, "I want to bank with people who value all partnerships," a reference to support for actively homosexual relationships in the ongoing controversy over public approval for same sex marriage.

In a press release, the credit union pointed out that it has a long history of supporting self-defined gays and lesbians. The difference now appears to the be the public stance of the advertising. The Archdiocese pointed out that its policy is consistent with previous actions it had taken in regard to the United Way, which supports Planned Parenthood.

"To be consistent," Exner said, "how can the archdiocese now tolerate cooperation with an organization [the United Way] that by policy supports an agenda seriously in conflict with the teaching of the church?"

I say good for the Archbishop for drawing a line in the sand. Since credit unionism has deep roots in the Catholic world (the first credit union in the U.S. was begun in a Catholic parish, I expect there will be a number of institutions who would like to pick parts of the financial education program.

Calling Chutzpa

2003-09-25T09:10:00.000-04:00

This morning I heard some scabrous shill for the direct marketing association simpering over my radio waves that the association 'just thought consumers should be allowed to have a choice about which telemarketing calls they want.'

Bunk and nonsense! I want NO products that are sold to me over the phone. None. Zilch. Nada. And guess what, vile little pimps for the consumer world, I MADE my choice (and so did 50 million other Americans) about which calls I wanted when I added my phone number to the Do Not Call List.

If these little pinheaded sandfleas of modern life succeed in keeping the list from being implemented, I think all 50 million of us should commit to making one call to the direct marketers association. I think we should find out what products these firms sell over the phone and boycott them. I would like to be able to pick up my phone past five o'clock with a reasonable assurance that the voice on the other end will not be trying to sell me something I really don't want!

Their freedom of speech does not mean that they have a right to disturb my evenings seeking to peddle their crap, any more than it would mean I had to accept a vending cart setting up shop in my front yard.

Mea Culpa

2003-09-24T16:05:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. I haven't been blogging a lot, or at all. Between work responsibilities, the hurricane and other things I just have found it hard to get back into rhythm, but I will be back at it soon. One advantage now though is that I have a new computer to work with so that will make blogging more efficient, I hope.

Episopal Bishop In Atlanta Takes Heat For Robinson Approval

2003-09-15T15:51:00.000-04:00

Full story can be found here:

Alexander told the crowd that they had decided to confront the issue of homosexuality head-on after 30 years of debate. Other denominations have either put off the issue or pretend that they didn't have homosexuals in leadership positions, he said.

"What's killing our sister churches is that they refuse to tell the truth," Alexander said.

Alexander said that while there are Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, those Scriptures don't refer to faithful, homosexual relationships -- just pagan homosexual practices involving older men and boys in the ancient world.

Many people in the crowd didn't accept Alexander's argument. The mood in the audience of 150 to 200 often seemed tense and angry. Groups of elderly Episcopalians, their worn leather Bibles resting in the laps, sat frowning in their seats with their arms folded as they listened to Alexander...."I'm willing to say that there are neither straight nor gay in the kingdom of God," he said as members of the crowd broke out into applause.

Well, yes, that's true, but it also (rather clumsily for a Right Reverend) sidesteps the point. The issue is not whether Bishop-elect Robinson lives with a degree of Same Sex Attraction. The issue that he has chosen to be sexually active with at least one man and that he has sought to justify that decision as in accord with 2000 years of Christian tradition and morality. That, and not merely what tempts him, is the question.

This is another instance of the way backers of active homosexality can blur the distinctions between inclinations and actions - and an example of where, too often, Christians fall into the trap of that thinking themselves.

A Train Wreck At The Corcoran"

2003-09-15T14:05:00.000-04:00

OK, when I first heard about a collection of classic impressionist painting that had been made three diminsional through sculpture, I thought, "wow, that sounds quirky" and planned to take it in. Well, little did I know that it would generate the sort of rare paragraph in the Washington Post that one might see once every dozen years or so:

In fact, thinking back over my years as an art historian and critic, and cross-checking those memories against my notes and archives, I can assert with a fair degree of certainty: This is the worst museum exhibition I've ever seen.

The rest of the review can be found here.

I suppose I am still going to see the show, albeit with a bit more...awareness than I had before. Any of my few readers who might be in the DC area seen it yet? If so, what did you think.

Prominent Gay Parent Says He Wants Son To Grow Up Without SSA

2003-09-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

One of two Australian men who contracted with women in the U.S. to have a boy, whom they have taken back to Australia to raise, has told an Australian paper that he doesn't want the boy with two dads to grow up to be gay.

The Melbourne couple brought Alexander back to Australia and now plan to raise the boy, who Mr Matthews said he hoped would grow up "straight" rather than gay, in a two-father family.

Ok, I find this story really quite disturbing and there are a couple of things I think should be said about it.

First, I don't think its an accident that human beings need a male and a female parent when growing up. Yes, in the case of accidents, tragedies, abuses etc. we can somehow still turn out ok with only one parent, but I nonetheless believe the chances for doing so diminish by the loss. To me this seems as uncontroversial as noting the sky is blue and I don't see how a claim to love a child could be made if one if willfully bringing them into existence intending that they are not going to have someone in their life that they need. This smacks of not wanting a child, but a pet.

Second, what about the rights of the kid? How can it be sound or just that someone can just decide for someone else, before they are born, that they have no right to a mother? These two gentlemen have been quite up front with the fact that they don't consider the woman who carried the boy to be the child's mother. What will they tell him later when he confesses to always wishing to have had a mom? That he doesn't have a mom not because of some horrible accident carried her away but because they decided he didn't need one? Pardon me, but could you be more selfish...and almost monstrous?

Listen to these words: "Mr Wood said they went through with it "because we love kids and thought we'd get a lot out of it ourselves and . . . hasn't it turned out better than you could have imagined".

"We have the perfect child. Every parent probably says that.

"He's an absolute delight, just amazing and he's got the most wonderful nature."

Note there is not a whole lot about the kid's needs, except perhaps to meet the minimum standard, but an awful lot about their having a child. One of the people in the article made a comment about the commodification of children, and I think that is right on. I think the comment about not wanting the kid to grow up gay speaks volumes about the suggestion that having SSA is a "blessing" or somehow a good that society needs to celebrate. If it were unabashedly a good I think that these men would be eager to make sure their son shared, something which at least one of them is not.

Finally, there is this: But Dr Justin Oakley, director of Monash University's Centre for Human Bioethics, said: "I don't see there's any particular problem with it and I think it's a shame [Mr Matthews and Mr Wood] have had to resort to such means in order to become parents or to become fathers."

Sorry, Dr. Oakley, these two gentlemen did not have to go this route to have children. There are very many men and women who live with a degree of SSA but who choose not to define themselves by it and who are great husbands, wives, fathers and mothers. But you know, that requires self-sacrifice, genuine love and being willing to see yourself as something more than just a sexual entity.

September 11, 1973

2003-09-11T14:57:00.000-04:00

Here in the U.S our attention is rooted in the event of September 11, 2001, of course. But for Chileans, the date September 11 is more likely to carry an association to September 11, 1973, a day when, to our shame, the U.S. government was intimately involved in a military coup that overturned a democratically elected government. You can find out more about the whole unfortunate affair here.

The comparisons are almost a little creepy. Not only was it on September 11 when the military moved against the government, a move that in the end brought about the death of Salvador Allende Gossens, the elected president of Chile, but the coup inaugurated a wave of arrests and "disappearances" across the country that wound up killing over 3000 people.

From the perspective of 2003, after the collapse of centralized economies around the world, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc, it's hard to read of the moves that led to the U.S. inspired coup without sensing the irony of the moment. Left to its own economic policies, knowing what we know now, it seems likely that the Chilean people would have ended up voting the Allende government out of power eventually anyway. A coup inspired by and assisted by the U.S. was never probably necessary.

Today is 9/11

2003-09-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

And I wonder if folks in the rest of the country experience today like people do here, those of us who live in the shadow of the Pentagon and in New York. Today is...mostly quiet. I find I am a little down, emotionally. One of my former editors, a man who gave me some important and timely guidance in my early career, died at Ground Zero. On that morning, for the first time in several years he had actually managed to have been on time for a weekly editorial meeting for which he was notoriously late.

The weather is beautiful here though. Out on my balcony my small hibiscus is positively crowned with yellow blooms the size of dessert plates, the sky is almost a Caribbean blue and even my normally pathetic geraniums look better. But even as I sat outside during a small lunch break and tried to enjoy the sunshine, I really couldn't. Every beautiful day now, particularly this one, remains stained with my memories. Maybe it will remain so for my entire life.

My best friend has had trouble sleeping for while now, coming up onto today. On the morning of 9/11 2001 he sat in his car, stuck in traffic, on the stretch of highway that runs right behind the Pentagon. He and hundreds, thousands, of other drivers and some passengers in the traffic jam looked up in horror as a jet flew lower than they had ever seen one fly, right over their cars, to plunge into the building. The fireball, he told me later, was like looking at the sun. In the immediate aftermath he told me that he and others got out of their cars, on instinct, wanting to help everyone injured - only there wasn't anyone to help, no one laying on the ground, no one to be seen, only the building, burning sharply against the blue sky.

He can talk about it now, and it doesn't appear to affect his life. Until, like this year, in the weeks before the days comes round, he starts dreaming it again, and suddenly our house flees back into solemnity.

I have put off writing about this because I have been hoping to be able to have something profound to say. But I don't. Here there is only blue sky and hibiscus blooming and my own memories of the lone person I knew, one name out of 3000 names, my one small, person, chain of memory to these 24 hours of sorrow we call 9/11.

Mustering The Opposition

2003-09-05T19:29:00.000-04:00

Episcopalians upset with their communion's voting to approve the ordination of a homosexually active bishop can sign a petition to the Primates of their communion and find information on other measures they can take, for example withholding funds, here.

Here is the petition:

Appeal to the Primates

The recent actions of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in The United States of America have triggered the reactions and responses promised by those Anglican leaders from Provinces around the world comprising a majority of the world's 75 million Anglicans who signed the Truro Statement of July, 2003.

By giving consent to the election a non-celibate homosexual as a bishop of this Communion and by making a local option the blessing of relationships outside of marriage will hereby declare and affirm that:

" Those in ECUSA who voted for and support the actions of General Convention have agreed to a position that is contrary to the historic Christian faith and order of our church,

" These same have alienated themselves from the fellowship and accountability of the worldwide Anglican Communion and,

" They have undermined and subverted the witness of the Church to the love, joy and vocation of Christian marriage.

In response to this crisis, we, bishops, clergy, lay members, and parishes loyal to the historic faith and order of the Anglican Communion and living in opposition and resistance to the recent actions of our General Convention, reaffirm our commitment to:

" The teaching of the historic Christian Church,

" Our fellowship with sisters and brothers in the global Anglican Communion, and

" The joyful proclamation of Christ's love for the Church as reflected in the sacrament of marriage.

As we forewarned in the Truro statement:

we do hereby declare the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America to be unconstitutional and illegitimate in its violation of the historic faith and order of the Anglican Communion;

we further appeal to Primates of the Anglican Communion to intervene in these extraordinary circumstances and to restore to our church the historic faith and order of the worldwide Anglican Communion as set forth in the preamble to our own constitution and canons and affirmed at many Lambeth Conferences;

we finally and desperately plead with you the Primates of our Communion for your protection from repressive principalities and powers, bishops and standing committees, who are already beginning to threaten and move against those who oppose their innovations and alterations of the faith once delivered.

The Church Desiring Human Happiness

2003-09-01T09:10:00.000-04:00

A little bit ago in one or two of my comment boxes some of the correspondents raised questions about the notion of the Church teaching what she does about the morality of same sex sexual acts out of a desire to further the happiness of all people, including those who live with same sex attraction. Well, by coincidence one of the Cardinals addressed this topic in a speech before a meeting of the Catholic group Communion and Liberation. The full text can be found here. But here are some excerpts from the report of Cardinal Schonborn's presentation:

The Austrian cardinal revealed that story from his past as he began his reflection on the topic "Christian Vocation: Call to Happiness." He addressed more than 2,000 participants at the weeklong "Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples," organized by the Communion and Liberation movement.

"The desire for happiness is given to us by the Creator and it is written in the heart of every man. It represents an end to which the Creator has destined us," the cardinal explained.

For many "the search for happiness is deceptive and is manifested in such things as drugs, fame, success or sex," he said. "All are actions that can give momentary pleasure and satisfaction, but they do not guarantee happiness."

Instead, "the 'little happiness' -- little gestures that give a bit of light to daily life -- is the way to come closer to the great happiness," Cardinal SchÃ¶nborn said. "One depends on the other, they belong to one another."

Yet, "little happinesses" have been unjustly condemned by ideologues and philosophers, he added. "This disdain for little happinesses is, in fact, profoundly inhuman and finds tragic applications in history where the political power arrogates to itself the task of creating the great happinesses on earth."

In fact, "whoever is unable to appreciate little joys, mentioned even in the biblical book of Qoheleth [Ecclesiastes], will not be aware of the great happinesses either," he noted.

"The real search for happiness in the Christian sense is translated in the magisterium of the Catholic Church in topics such as peace, the defense of life, respect for human rights," the cardinal said.

These topics are summarized in the safeguarding of the common good, as expressed in the Second Vatican Council's pastoral constitution, "Gaudium et Spes." Without these topics "there is no room for the happy life," the cardinal said.

"The little happinesses, which we often are aware of only when they are lacking, are nourished by a source, by a promise of good, justice and truth which Socrates" appreciated "and which the Christian event reveals completely to man," he continued.

The "little" and "great happiness" have their roots in the gift of self, he said; in fact, "the key to happiness lies in giving oneself for the good."

More On Southern Decadance

2003-08-31T11:03:00.000-04:00

Well, at the risk of rushing in where angels fear to tread there is more news from the Southern Decadance event in New Orleans. The New Orleans' Times Picayune has a story (brief registration required to read it) about a protest led by a someone who tends to view Catholics and people living with any same sex attraction with the same disdain, if not outright hostility.

He believes that only righteous confrontation brings success, whether in the parking lot of a Metairie bookstore, where he once led the torching of a batch of gay magazines, or in a Westwego beauty salon, where police once arrested him for haranguing the ladies about their Catholicism.

In a way this situation, and it is played out in different locations around the country at different times, feels about as scripted as a traditional Kabuki drama.

Scene One, self-identified gay population, some of whom fully subscribe to the libertine school of sexual behavior, arrives in town. Scene Two, "revelry" commences as in Southern Decadance and some folks on the scene who take a dim view of sex in the streets get upset. Scene Three, they protest, demand authorities "do something," and don't make any distictions between living with same sex attraction and actually practicising same sex acts. Scene Four, activists decry "homophobia", pointing to the protests and outrageous comments of protesters. End of play, most everyone goes home feeling righteous about their position in the whole thing.

Except, of course, for the folks who experience same sex attraction but who 1) do not feel at all comfortable with the sexual behavior in the streets but 2) don't need to be condemned for experiencing same sex attraction. Those folks get to go home feeling confused and longing for an oasis where maybe they can not be at the "eye" of any storms for a while.

We, including myself, need to find better ways of talking about these issues.

Relics In Secular Museums?

2003-08-30T19:03:00.000-04:00

The air in Chicago today felt fantastic! My buddy David said that temperatures in the city hovered in the mid 90's through yesterday, but this evening it's cool enough that I am probably going to have to wear long pants.

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago where, aside from seeing some really tremendously great works of art, I also saw something that gave me pause. What do you all think of Saints' relics being in museums? On the one hand, if a person can have the relics of a saint in his or her personal possession, why not a secular museum having them? But is there, or should there be, an assumption that a person holding those relics would be expected to respect them and to venerate them? Can a secular museum be expected to do so?

Some relics of St. Catherine and St. John the Baptist were encased on display alongside things like household items and formal dishes under the heading "Decorative arts" - as though there were no difference between a reliquary containing a relic of saint and an attractively painted vase or even a chamber pot. The reliquaries themselves were beautiful works of art, but aren't we called as Catholics to view such things not only for their appearance but for the reality they contain? Would attractive containers for Torah scrolls be expected to hold their Torahs in a secular setting, or wouldn't the proper home for those scrolls, or relics, be in a place where they might be respected for the religious objects they are?

Away From The Home Keys

2003-08-30T10:58:00.000-04:00

I am visiting some of the Courageous in Chicago and will be away from regular blogging until Monday evening.

Beyond "Right" and "Left"

2003-08-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

In Alabama, predominantly evangelical Christians are backing a measure to reform Alabama's tax structure on the grounds that, in its current form, its egregiously harmful to the poor and fails the standards the Bible calls Christians to hold.

In her thesis, Hamill stakes claims more reminiscent of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Party than Pat Robertson and the religious right. Citing ancient precedents of land tenure rights and debt forgiveness, she says the Bible mandates a "minimum opportunity" for the poor. Lest anyone miss the point, she goes on to argue that "minimum opportunity" in contemporary America consists of a decent public education. Lest anyone miss that point, Hamill demonstrates that Alabama public schools fall so woefully short of adequacy that only a drastic increase in funds could fulfill the state's moral obligation.

The novel combination of Hamill's left-wing argument and Beeson's right-wing reputation earned front-page coverage in Alabama newspapers. Her ironclad research, including 21 pages of data tables, won praise from editorial boards. And in a state that raises the least tax revenue per capita, Hamill's thesis -- reprinted as a book titled The Least of These: Fair Taxes and the Moral Duty of Christians -- somehow ended up as a rationale for politicians to imagine and initiate the unthinkable.

Just Please Don't Have Sex In The Streets

2003-08-28T19:20:00.000-04:00

Southern Decadance, the last stop of the Summer Gay Party Circuit (a term drawn from both gay and mainstream press notices) is currently underway in New Orleans. Undoubtedly local residents will be pleased to know that the organizers of this event have warned participants not to have sex in the streets.

The 2003 campaign is bold in its concept to catch the attention of both visitors and locals alike to end public sex, in particular. It simply states "Southern Decadence Wrist Bands" (with a pair of hand cuffs below), followed by "Public Sex=10 Days in Jail!" The design for the campaign was the brain child of New Orleans Human Relations Commission Executive Director Larry Bagneris, Jr. Ambush graphic designer Chris Hall made it a reality.

The GLBT community in New Orleans does not condone nor encourage public sex in the streets.

Visitors and locals are also asked to assist with this problem, by asking other visitors and locals, not to participate in public sex or urination in the streets. Please take these functions inside, and whatever you do, play safe. Revelers could be arrested and spend their entire Labor Day Weekend in jail. Legal fees could well exceed $200 per offense.

What could have given any of these lovers of privacy the idea that sex in the streets would be even a possibility? Maybe some of the event listed here?

But its good to remember that gay sex is really all about same sex love. Gimme a break.

Some Thoughts on the Nature of Love

2003-08-28T12:53:00.000-04:00

Late last April I traveled to Boston College to appear on a two man panel with Andrew Sullivan addressing the Church's teachings on Same Sex Attraction. Boston College Magazine later condensed some of the thoughts I presented into an essay which can be found here. For what they are worth.

P.S. I take no credit nor blame for the title of the essay. It's their magazine, they can title the pieces as they like, though I did point out that the title is inaccurate.

A Couple of Good Texts

2003-08-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

The Catholic New World, the diocesan paper for the Archdiocese of Chicago, has a good article on reaction among some Chicago Catholics to the recent document on same sex marriage.

The article ended thus:

The document was received more coolly at St. Peter the Apostle parish in Montreal’s gay village in the city center, an area that is the second-poorest of the metropolitan area. Some 250-300 Catholics—mainly gay men, some lesbians—come from all over the island to worship.

On Aug. 3, the Sunday after the Vatican issued its document urging politicians to work against legal recognition of same-sex unions, the only sign of protest in the church was a minute of silence, when the organ music stopped abruptly after Communion. Pastoral worker Gerard Laverdure described the momentary silence as a “way of showing our protest at recent events.”

If I had been there I imagine I would have appreciated the silence after communion; the post-reception flood of organ at many parishes is a pet peeve of mine.

The second is a homily on John 6 and its particualr message on Same Sex Attraction and discipleship offered by Father Kurt Nagle, at Queen of Angels parish in Seattle. This is worth a read! Father Nagle preached in part:

This is a very sensitive issue because sexuality is such an intimate and important part of us. I realize that there are people in this congregation today who have a homosexual orientation. There are even more people here whose immediate family is touched by homosexuality. In my own case, my first cousin Mike is homosexual. I'm not revealing any family secrets. Mike is very open about it all. And he's a wonderful person. And that is where we have to begin in talking about homosexuality. We must respect the human dignity of all persons regardless of sexual orientation. God loves homosexuals and heterosexuals equally. We don't know why some people have a sexual attraction for the same sex. It's still a mystery. But it is not a choice. A homosexual orientation in itself is neither morally good nor bad. And to make fun of people because of such an orientation, to call them names is a serious offense against charity. And to physically intimidate them or attack homosexuals is a grave sin. As the Catechism says, homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided." (2358)

And yet the Church does teach that homosexual acts are sinful. Why? It's a matter of the meaning of sex. The Catholic Church teaches that sex is a great good and a divine gift, but as such has a specific purpose and design. In Catholic thought we can't speak coherently about sexuality without reference to marriage. They go together because human sexuality is a vital way for human beings to co-create with God. We can actually help to form new persons through our sexuality. To those who participate in this procreation of humanity it can seem little short of miraculous. And the children created by our sexual acts also need to be raised, nurtured and educated. Those are central purposes of both marriage and the family.

.......

Obviously Homosexuality is not uniquely contrary to Catholic sexual morality. There are many heterosexual challenges to Catholic sexual morality as well, but I speak of homosexuality in particular today because it has become so topical.

.......

But I think it's important to stress that neither God nor the Catholic Church rejects homosexuals. Rather, just as with heterosexuals who sin sexually, the Church loves the sinner, but hates the sin. All homosexuals, like all single heterosexuals, are called to live chastely without sexual relations for the sake of their own happiness. Although it's difficult for sexually active homosexuals to believe, the goal of the teaching of the Church is actually their happiness. Almost all of us, heterosexual and homosexual alike, have sexual desires of one kind or another that can not be acted upon if we are to remain happy because such desires are spiritually destructive and go against God's plan for us and the human race. But it is also true that if any of us falls into temptation God has given us the sacrament of Reconciliation. God is merciful. He loves us all and will always accept us back when we stray, if we would only turn to Him.

Sexual activity is not a requirement for a happy, and fulfilling life. After all, given the Catholic understanding of human sexuality, sexual expression is a gift from God, given to some but not to others for a specific reason. It is not a right. But that idea goes against the very grain of our entire culture. Our culture sees sex as a purely private matter. It is a form of pleasure individuals give to one another with a malleable meaning. It can be a sign of love, or maybe a form of relaxation or recreation. But it is not seen as a divine gift with objective purposes and boundaries.

.........

From the gay perspective, for a homosexual NOT to be sexually active is to be untrue to oneself. And a homosexual who follows the Church's teachings and lives chastely is denying who he or she really is, because for gay homosexuals sexual activity lies at the very center of their self-identity. Therefore, the logic of the gay rights movement requires not mere legal toleration of homosexual acts, but their acceptance as normal, beautiful—morally and legally equivalent to heterosexual acts; and homosexual unions as true marriages.

That idea is behind the growing tension in our society surrounding homosexuality. I don't think if the Texas legislature had voted to de-criminalize homosexual acts that there would have been much outcry. The point can be argued, but adultery, fornication, etc, are all legally tolerated. But when the whole society is asked, or forced, to change the very definition of marriage itself there is a line crossed that must result in Christians' resistance. We must respect and love ALL persons with homosexual orientations, but we must also resist a gay ideology contrary to the gospel.

"This saying is hard; who can accept it?" To return to our gospel today, we learn from it that Jesus' teaching will challenge and offend His disciples—us. Jesus reveals in the second reading from Ephesians that He loves His disciples, the Church, as much as a husband loves His bride. That image should comfort those who feel Christ's message is harsh. But Christ does expect fidelity from His bride. He does not run after those who leave Him, offering to change His teaching if they will only stay. He insists, rather, we make a choice as Joshua insisted to the chosen people 1,000 years before. "If it does not please you to serve the Lord," Joshua said, "decide today whom you will serve." We, too, must make that choice.

California Conversations

2003-08-28T10:32:00.000-04:00

You know, its really weird, but its like everybody out here has been bitten by the civics bug or something. My friend Cathy, who sells real estate in Southern California, Orange County in fact, was talking to me yesterday on her cell phone in between sips of her soy milk mocha triple sized latte. She told me that she doesn't know what to make of the relatively sudden, very (in her opinion) un-Californian burst of interest in the upcoming recall election. It's really all people are talking about out here.

I have learned to take Cathy's observations about life on the ground in California seriously. As long as you were not looking to buy anything, she has stipulated, she believes real estate agents are among the best observers of an area's different economic and cultural trends. We are the some of the folks who see both the tapestry and what's on the back of the tapestry, she says. We see all the missed stiches, bad knots and fuck ups.

She attributed the elevated level of interest to a couple of factors. First, she said, the shortened time frame for the campaigning is extremely popular. I have even heard more than person ask sort of wistfully, why couldn't we do every election like this?, Cathy said, In addition, many people she has talked to feel empowered by having as many choices as they appear to have. People like it that there is no primary, she said. People perceive that they have more choices. They like it that Democrats are fighting Democrats and Republicans and Republicans are fighting Democrats and other Republicans. They like the free for all.

But the overarching different in this election is just the level of interest in it. Politics out here has been ho hum for years, she said. All this is new.

North Carolina Under Pressure To Allow Public Gay Sex

2003-08-26T15:27:00.000-04:00

A while back several readers wrote to argue that I was overreacting to the Lawrence decision and that there would be no pressure to change State laws against sex in public. Well, someone is pressuring the police to stop enforcing the ban against sex in public. I could be wrong, of course, but I don't believe there is a clamor for allowing heterosex in public...

Prosecutors also bring "crime against nature" charges against people who have sex in public, which other state laws don't specifically prohibit. A charge of indecent exposure would not necessarily apply because it's a crime to be naked in public only if the individual is seen by a member of the opposite sex.

John A. Maxfield, legal adviser to the Wake County sheriff, and Dawn Bryant, Raleigh's police attorney, have told officers that they can continue to charge people with a "crime against nature" as long as the activity occurs in a public place. "We're following constitutional law," Bryant said. "The Supreme Court's decision only applies to private conduct." Prosecutors in Brunswick County, for example, recently dismissed charges against three men for sexual activities at a party in a private residence. They are pursuing charges against six men accused of having oral sex in a public park near a school.

"The only thing we want," Brunswick County assistant district attorney Connie Jordan said, "is for them not to have sex next to where kids are getting on a bus."

No figures were available on the number of people charged with a "crime against nature" in North Carolina since the Supreme Court ruling on June 26, In the first six months of this year, more than 400 people were charged with either violating the law or soliciting to break the law.

Anglican - Roman Catholic Relations Seen On Last Legs

2003-08-26T15:16:00.001-04:00

Flack said the crux of the matter dividing the two churches lies in church authority: Unlike the Catholic Church, where authority flows down from Rome, the Anglican Communion is a loose association of 38 national provinces which, in practical terms, do as they wish.

Williams' views carry weight because he is the Anglican spiritual leader, but he has no power.

"The Archbishop of Canterbury can shout until he's blue in the face, but there will be churches who disagree with him,'' Flack said.

That, Wilkins says, poses a serious problem for the Vatican, which wants a partner in the ecumenical dialogue that can deliver on any agreements reached.

"Who's going to keep the agreement if you've got a completely disparate union?'' Wilkins asked.

Anglican - Roman Catholic Relations Seen On Last Legs Following Robinson Decision

2003-08-26T15:16:00.000-04:00

Mark's struggle - and Ours

2003-08-26T09:24:00.001-04:00

One of the Courageous wrote and submitted this and I thought it deserved a wider audience. Pledges to protect privacy prevent me from sharing his name and email openly here, but if he gives me permission I will share it with folks who write me for it.

I grew up on a lake and to me swimming was just something that I naturally knew how to do. It was like breathing -- effortless. My cousin Mark grew up in the city, for him swimming was a struggle. Actually, it was more like well choreographed chaos. We were both five. On sunny days when he was visiting we would walk down to the lake and descend into the water. Mark wore a "lifejacket," one of those dull orange contraptions that rode up around your neck as soon as you were launched. This had the effect of pointing your head upward so that the arms flapped at your sides while you went absolutely nowhere -- just bobbed helplessly while your aunt Rose and uncle Bert convulsed in laughter watching you from the shore. It gave one the impression of a stuffed pepper that was on the verge of exploding in the pressure cooker.

The Lord bless Mark. He was a real trooper. He was bound and determined to swim like the rest of us, unaided by an orange straightjacket that doubled as a flotation devise. After he floundered about for a time, he would propel himself back to where he could touch bottom. He would carefully remove the fasteners from his lifejacket and then ease it off his shoulders. Standing waist deep in the water he would stare down the tiny waves and get this weird yet very determined look on his face -- I believe it was a self taught form of Zen-drowning -- and he would fling himself forward into the deep. Well, it wasn't actually deep at all, just a few feet, but to Mark it was a bottomless ocean. Mark had faced his fear and he was in the process of conquering it. To the rest of us it looked like the crazed and frenetic movements of a madman -- all foam and spray, splash and suds. His arms were doing the breast stroke at the speed of light as he made grunting gasping sounds that told all who could hear that he was a real swimmer. I would always stay just out of reach with only my eyes just out of the water -- the remainder of my 5 year old body submerged like a human crocodile -- watching the prey struggle and tire itself out -- waiting to pounce.

Mind you, all of his struggling occurred with his feet planted firmly on the bedrock floor of the lake. He was never really in over his head. He was never really in danger. Eventually, my dad, not the most patient of men, would go down into the water and retrieve my cousin before he exhausted himself. As soon as he was on dry land he would exclaim, "Did you all see me swim!?" Afraid that he would jump back in if they replied negatively, they all acknowledged that he swam better than Ester Williams. He and I did not get the joke but the adults thought it was a real hoot.

There was a young man that worked around our property during the summer. His name was John. John was amazingly kind and patient with us little guys. One day he decided that he would teach Mark to swim. Well, I was skeptical. I had seen my cousin struggle for the whole vacation and only create a minor typhoon with all his effort -- he could not swim. Swimming was something you were born with the ability to do -- nobody taught me. Anyway, John took Mark out over his head and told him to begin paddling. Mark, naturally, began his high speed churning stroke -- which got him nowhere -- but John was not put off. He would tell Mark that he would not let anything happen to him. He held Mark under the abdomen and waist, floating him on the surface of the water. He began moving his about like a tiny toy motor boat all while Mark slowly gave up the flailing and began doing the doggy paddle and kicking his little legs off. I guess he felt safe with John -- that he knew John was in control.

John took Mark out with him into the deep water at least twice a day for a week. On the last day, John took Mark out to the same place they had gone each previous lesson and he held Mark in the same way. This time, however, as Mark doggy paddled and kicked his little feet -- John lowered his hands away from Marks body. Mark never even noticed. I did. There was John standing in the water, his arms crossed at the chest -- and there was Mark swimming in little circles around him like a shark with delusions of grandeur. As John swam back to shore my cousin accompanied him. Mark had learned to swim.

I think John acted toward Mark a lot like God wants to act toward us if we let him -- If we would just stop flailing about and trust him take us out into the deep water -- he will teach us to swim. We have but to place ourselves in his loving hands and to know that he has to take his hands away to allow us to exercise our freedom to grow.

More Anglican News

2003-08-26T09:24:00.000-04:00

Writing the Weekly Standardof August 25, Diane Knippers authored The Anglican Mainstream: It's Not Where Americans Might Think for which unfortunately a subscription is required to view. It's a good overview of the Robinson controversy, and includes some voices from some of the people most impacted in the developing world by this decision.

The Anglican bishop of Egypt, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa, Mouneer Anis, leads a vulnurable religious minority. They "cannot comprehend a decision to elect as bishop a man who has forsaken his wife and the vows he made her in order to live in a sexual relationship with another man," he wrote. "We feel profoundly let down, as this decision will unquestionably damage our interfaith relations with our Muslim friends among whom we live. It will also have a negative impact on our relations with the Orthodox and Catholic churches in our area, which continue to hold fast to the apostolic faith. We will definitely be seen by them as heretical. We had not expected this to be done to us by brothers and sisters who are in communion with us. We had expected that they would think of us before taking such a grave step."

Already, Muslim observers have drawn their own conclusions about the disregard of Western liberals for fellow Christians elsewhere. Writing in the Arab News on August 10, commentator Amir Mohammed Al-Faisal said that the Episcopal General Convention "is another example....of how Westerners give themselves the right to change even Christian scriptures to suit their whims, and in the process trample all over the religious sensibilities of other Christians who are are unfortunate enough not to have been born in the West.

"So we learn an important lesson on the respect Westerners have for religion and how they deal with any religion that does not conform to their 'liberal' ideology. After all, does the non-Westerner Jesus (peace be upon him) know more about Christianity than an American or British Bishop? If this is how they deal with their own religion, thing what they will try (are already trying) to do with other religions such as Islam."

The Anglican Institute has a comprehensive report on the whole topic which includes developing world perspectives. The Anglican Archbishop of the West Indies wrote it, saying in part:

This discernment is inevitably required of those in the West who minister amongst gay people. Yet it cannot be undertaken without reference to the wider Christian Church. A worldwide Communion cannot ‘act locally’ without ‘thinking globally’. Those outside the Western context must learn from those involved in ministry to gay people, listening to and struggling with the difficult questions raised by such a pastoral and missionary context; but the latter too must be open to critique. In particular, concerned voices are raised from the global South where leaders, theologically well-trained, sense a deep challenge to gospel ethics and the identity of the Church. They also face the missionary challenge of upholding a credible witness in the face of opposition (often from Islam).

This global perspective casts a fresh light on one of the key texts in this debate—Romans 1. Paul’s words are primarily an analysis not of individuals and personal psychology, but rather of cultural and societal disintegration To those living in poorer parts of the globe, this makes perfect sense. Is it a coincidence that the gay movement has arisen in a Western culture that is post-Christian, highly sexualized and, to them, politically and economically imperialist? There is here an uncomfortable correlation between what Paul saw in the ancient Roman Empire and what they sense in the modern West—oppression and exploitation on the frontiers, but moral innovation at the centre. From such a perspective, some ‘Western’ responses to those experiencing same-sex attraction seem, however sincere, to be driven by a consumerist mentality providing ‘whatever sells best’. Those of us living within Western culture need to hear such uncomfortable questions raised from outside.

Great Mysteries

2003-08-24T12:31:00.000-04:00

People of God having to make difficult decisions in the face of uncertain or unknown circumstances is on of the biggest themes of the Mass readings from this Sunday.

In the reading from Joshua, the people of God that Joshua assembles are offered a pretty stark choice; the gods their fathers worshiped in Egypt, the gods that people around them worship now, or God Himself. But as for me and my house, Joshua said, we will serve the Lord. In the second reading, St. Paul invites married couples to choose what may be the hardest path human beings can take, that of being married to one another in the Lord, subservient to one another, loving one another unto death. This is a great mystery, St. Paul wrote, and he could not foreseen even a tiny portion of it. And the Gospel today contains Christ's question and Peter's confession on the part of all the disciples which remained after Christ had taught them about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Lord, to whom should we go, Peter asks, on behalf of us all.

From the three I would like to start with St. Paul's urging to married couples. Last night, my friend the Rightwing Film Geek, my roommate and I went to see The Secret Lives of Dentists, a film which, despite its title, is really all about marriage. Victor, the Rightwing Film Geek, has already weblogged about with more intelligence and erudition here, so I will let you read his thoughts. I will only add that I have already urged my mom and stepdad to see the film, and plan to urge my sister and her fiance to see it.

There can be a tendency, particularly now, when the traditional understandings of the foundations of marriage are being challenged, to overly idealize or denigrate the institution. For lack of a better metaphor, one side of the debate about marriage seems all to ready to cast married folks onto pedestals and have them stand ready to have the plaster applied. While another crowd would drag the institution through the gutter, charging that its only about contracts and economics etc.

But St. Paul and the Secret Lives understand that the reality is in between. Marriage is really about a man and a woman, who might sometimes reek of the gutter, working together to build something which will one day be worthy of a pedestal, even if it never makes it there.

In St. Paul wives are advised to be subject to their husbands as the Church is subject to Christ, and husbands are urged to love their wives as much as the love their own lives and be prepared to lay their lives down for their wives as Christ laid His life down for us. Can anyone bear a full and accurate witness to hard this must be? I know from my long friendship with my roommate, how hard it can be to lay down the selfishness etc for the sake of showing Christ, how much harder would it be if he were a she and we had all the gulf of gender, attitude, and miscommunication to cross in addition to the measure of responsibility that would come from being parents!

In the Secret Lives of Dentists, a husband and father of three daughters gets a pretty good idea that his wife is having an affair, and that she may not love him any longer. That she, in effect, will have to choose what life she wishes to lead and that life might not include him. The film is about the dynamic of that decision on her part, on one level, but its also much more about what he must go through as part of that. The film personified the mocking voices in his head, "why do you do this, what do you do this for?" And showed in very complete detail just...the struggle raising kids can be, the roughly 3 year old who can't stop calling for her dad, the bickering older girls, a whole five day sequence in which the entire family falls ill with stomach flu. The message of St. Paul and the movie is that marriage is not for wimps, its not for taking lightly, its not a once for all time commitment but one which must be affirmed, like our walk with Christ, every day or even more than once a day. Every engaged couple should see this movie.

The second theme comes from the Gospel this morning, where St. John writes after this [His teaching about having to eat His flesh and drink His blood] many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. As Father Pollard this morning pointed out, these were not folks who had just come upon Jesus the day before, or the week before. These were folks who had been with Him for a while, who had likely seen Him work many miracles in their midst and yet who, when the push came to the hard teaching, could not or would not stay.

Every one of has, in his or her heart, the capacitate to be one of three types of people in this Gospel incident. We can be like the people who had come to know Jesus a bit, admired Jesus, respected Jesus and even fervently hoped and pulled for Jesus yet who, when Christ says something to us that we can not understand or will not accept, will leave Jesus. We can be like Judas, the one who, whether couldn't or wouldn't, didn't believe Jesus or accept His teaching and yet who continued to act as though he did. Or we can be like Peter and the other disciples: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

In today's Gospel, in every part of the Gospel, in every part of our lives, really, Christ asks us just as He asked Peter and the rest over and over again. Will you also go away? And from us every day Christ expects an answer, one offered not only with our lips but through our very lives.

Greasing Up The Slippery Slope

2003-08-23T17:46:00.000-04:00

Mike Airhart has questioned the churchman's invoking the slippery slope argument in the previous item, and at the risk of being accused of bludgeoning a point, I couldn't be more certain that Mike needs to wake up and smell some java.

In the September/October Issue of the Utne Reader there is an article by Utne contributing editor Jacqueline White. Titled Where No Woman (or Man) Has Gone Before, the article introduces those of us laggards to the frontiers of gender, 2003 style. Unfortunately the article is not online yet, but I promise to provide a link should the piece appear on the Utne site before this item makes it off my front page.

After pointing out the relatively new popularity of strap-on dildos among women, both self-defined lesbians and heterosexuals as well as recent moves at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, to introduce transgender language in constitutions and a "gender blind" dorm onto campus, White writes:

Welcome to the new gender rules - of the anything goes variety. Evidently, the need to separate the sexes, for whatever reason, is not longer the imperative it once was. Even more striking, the notion that men and women are essentially distinct is also undergoing revision.

Increasing numbers of transgender folks would seem to directly challenge our culture's pervasive male-female duality, but the long-held expectation that they go all the way - taking hormones and getting surgery to pass as the opposite gender - actually reinforced the belief that only two gender options are viable. But lately more transpeople have been setting up camp in the intedeterminate, often androgynous zone between genders, sometimes because surgery is too expensive and unsatisfactory, other times because it simply feels more comfortable to them.

The spectrum of gender expression is on display where young queers gather, whether its for Gender Crash spoken word performances in Boston or GenderBLUR cabarets in Minneapolis. Drag queens and kings are still strutting their stuff, exploring the sometimes stereotypical poles of femininity and masculinity, but other performers are asking "What does it mean to be myself, even if who I am looks like someone no one has seen before?....There are more ways to play it than the available pronouns. Try s/he. Try bigendered. Try man with a vagina.

Now, I don't want to make too, too much of this. Youth is always going to have its, pardon the pun, cutting edge; and one advantage of not actually going under the knife is that what's spared the blade can be used after all, presumably when some maturity kicks in. But still I cannot help but think there is something deeply confused here.

First of all, I know our modern age is is supposed to be terrified and repulsed by the notion that biology is destiny, but I gotta ask where biology is in all this. A woman might strap one on, a woman might dress as butch as a some of the dudes I work out with and act in a way that makes you squint and ask yourself if that person is a woman or a man. But unless she takes some sort of hormones, whose possibly cancerous consequences I don't even want to contemplate, isn't the fact that she's a woman going to reassert itself every month?

Second, since when have we gotten to where we hate our bodies so much? Admittedly, in the years I have spent living with a degree of same sex attraction, and knowing others who do as well, I have noticed a good deal of ambivalence about masculinity and a somewhat ongoing question about what it means to be a man. But I have never really seen folks, on as large as a sale as Ms. White seems to portray, who are so apparently....unhappy being either a man or a woman.

You know, I just cannot help but think that somehow, somewhere, whoever it is who inspired Arius and the other folks who fought the Church so hard over the assertion that Christ was fully human as fully God must be laughing with delight about now. Folks, the human body is a GOOD. God created us with bodies, male and female bodies, and called that creation GOOD. God Himself became a man with a fully Human Male Body because it was and is a GOOD, just as human female bodies are good too.

Slippery slope? I just had to write the above paragraph. If we start sliding any faster the scenery is going to start to blur.

Some Maturity, Please!

2003-08-23T09:18:00.000-04:00

An Anglican cleric has had the temerity to suggest that if the Church says yes to gay sex, she will in effect be saying yes to the whole raft of sexual practices that people can and do engage in. This drew the predictable howls of outrage, including this priceless quote:

Mary Murphy, city councillor for Hulme, told him: "I am a Catholic and a lesbian. I am sick to death of people like you standing up and telling me how wrong I am. "The Bible was written by people like you - a dinosaur who teaches people to bully and discriminate."

This is more of the same tired old line that if someone does not approve of gay sex they must "hate" the people who perform it and advocate it. Really, its just too immature!

If you are going to go have lesbian sex and you are set upon it then, please, have at it. But don't demand that the rest of society or a Christistian tradition stretching back hundreds of years of Anglicanism and thousands of years overall must pat you on the head and tell you what a good girl (or boy) you have been.

What Are Our Greatest Commandments?

2003-08-22T09:16:00.000-04:00

In the Gospel for today's Mass we read of the Pharisees, having heard that Christ has put to route the Sadducees, the theological liberals of His day, turn up with a sneaky question (one of several the Gospel records). One, a lawyer, asked Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Christ said to him and the assembled Pharisees, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

This is surely one of the biggies in Christian life. Who among us can really claim to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds? All of us, weakened by the effects of the Fall, subject to the pulls and pressures of the world, harassed to a great or lesser degree by doubts, reserve little corners of our hearts and minds and maybe our souls (though I really do hope not) as ours. We designate places or histories or topics or memories as so private, or important, or even insignificant (we lie to ourselves) that we will not expose them to the light of Christ - and thus fail in the commandment.

But we can always make progress toward fulfilling the Greatest Commandment. We can adopt in our lives the habits, the practices, the strategies that will help us gradually let go of those little things, those corners or ours selves, that we block so fiercely from His love. We can partake in the sacraments, the visible and audible and sensory manifestations of God's love for us, the outward signs of inward reality that we are His brother and sisters in God the Father. We can seek the reality that we might not yet have been able to reach.

Or we cannot.

The wonderful thing about the Church's teaching on same sex attraction is that she recognizes that all those approaches to seeking to participate in the Great Commandment are available to me, as a man who lives with a degree of same sex attraction, as they are to anyone else. My brothers and sisters in the pews at Mass this morning, for all I know, face far greater temptations and battles with far more unacceptable failings - battles that for all I know they have sometimes lost even as they have often won - or at least won enough times to keep coming back to Him, the One who loves us no matter our failings. But there we are, all of us together, many of us blinking a little, shrugging, stretching the sleep away, and seeking to meet our King along the road, to let Him love us and bless us and feed us as we head out into our days.

Discipleship in Christ is for everybody who would take His name! Except for the folks who decide to opt out and would rather just keep some corners of themselves walled off from Him.

In just over a month, the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries will have its 2003 Annual conference, at a resort in Palm Springs, California. This is an association of ministries which, their name implies, are explicitly charged by the bishops of their dioceses, with bringing the Gospel to men and women who self-define as gay or lesbian among their flocks. A glance at the agenda and speakers summaries don't inspire confidence that this is being done.

For example, on the agenda, the group will have Mass once, on Saturday, with no Mass on Sunday, merely a "closing ritual." By contrast at the Courage conferences offer Masses every day. And the opportunities to pray with one another, and for one another. Heck, one of the first things folks do at the Courage conferences is set aside one of the available chapels for conference attendees to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and folks sign up for hours through the night to take part.

The NACDLGM conference will have speakers who expound on topics like The gay/lesbian presence in church serves as an important source for theological reflection: that God created gay and lesbian people to reflect the richness of God’s own loving. Christ is mentioned explicit in one of the group's break out session descriptions. Chastity and discipleship and a personal relationship with God, not at all.

I could be wrong of course. The online Conference description might not really reflect what the event will be about, or it might not reflect its soul, but the overall impression is of an event designed not to help its members draw closer to the Greatest Commandment, but instead to be reassured or even strengthened in their walling off parts of themselves from God.

If this is accurate it is a shame and more than a shame and more than a scandal, it is a tragedy. Anytime someone sets themselves up as offering something akin to Christ - but which is not Christ - they hand out stones instead of bread and snakes instead of fish.

And like all discipleship issues, this is not just of sexual disobedience. If this group was an association of Ministries to people who self-defined as misers, the message would be same. Writing in the fourth century, St. Ambrose of Milan laid out briefly in a letter the challenges which can block a man's heart from Christ:

It is not then everyone who can say, "The Lord is my portion." The covetous man cannot, for covetousness draws near and says: Thou art my portion, I have thee in subjection, thou hast served me, thou hast sold thyself to me with that gold, by that possession thou hast adjudged thyself to me. The luxurious man says not: Christ is my portion, for luxury comes and says: Thou art my portion, I made thee mine in that banquet, I caught thee in the net of that feast, I hold thee by the bond of thy gluttony. Dost thou not know that thy table was more valued by thee than thy life? I refute thee by thine own judgment, deny if thou canst, but thou canst not. And in fine thou hast reserved nothing for thy life, thou hast spent it all for thy table. The adulterer cannot say: "The Lord is my portion;" for lust comes and says: I am thy portion, thou didst bind thyself to me in the love of that maiden, by a night with that harlot thou hast come under my laws and into my power. The traitor cannot say: "Christ is my portion," for at once the wickedness of his sin rushes on him and says: He is deceiving Thee, Lord Jesus, he is mine.

Little Boxes

2003-08-21T08:20:00.000-04:00

Please forgive this post which seem, to me at least, to tread dangerously close to the blogsin of navel gazing, but the email this morning has let me know that I can't assume that I have been understood.

It's ironic, but I am getting flak from the correspondents whom I sense are to my right and to my left about the distinctions I make between "same sex attraction" and "gay."

Some left-leaning correspondents charge that too often I equate gay with sex and thus boil down something with a lot of different dimensions to one thing. Some right-leaning correspondents allege that by using "same sex attraction" I am merely acting as a spin doctor for self-defined gay activists and are soft selling the issue. I would to address a clarification to both.

First, to the left-leaning correspondents. I agree that there can be a lot of dimensions to a person's experience of same sex attraction and that those dimensions can have different impacts on different parts of their lives and personalities. But by using the word gay, as in the phrase "I am gay" I would be steamrolling a lot of those differences into one stock phrase and taking the focus off the fact of my humanity as a creation of God.

There is a world of difference between saying "I live with a degree of same sex attraction," in much the same way as I live with a tendency to many different things, some good and some ill, and saying "I AM gay" or "I AM" any of those different facets or parts of myself. "Gay" is simply too reductionist, and in our evolution to this position I and other folks have found it simply a hassle to keep having to overcome and explain our opposition to the weight of cultural baggage that the word carries. If the word 'gay' should mean more than sex than maybe some of your objections might be better directed to a gay culture which, in the perceptions of many self-identified proponents, remains preoccupied with sex.

To the right-leaning correspondents I would say much the same thing. Shoving everyone who experiences same sex attraction into a category you can label "gay" and dismiss, or oppose, or whatever you like does an injustice to their humanity and ignores the very real people who are living out a same sex attraction in lives that are far deeper than the label might seem to imply. It also tends to go against Catholic teaching which makes a distinction between experiencing same sex attraction and acting upon it in a sexual way.

This might be a perspective that only people living with SSA can bring to the discussion, the perspective of those who see themselves in ways other than as icons of an issue and that's why the distinctions matter.

More On The "Ex-gay" Questions

2003-08-20T19:05:00.000-04:00

In a an email Mike Airhart, the primary blogger from Ex-Gay Watch, has written to assure me that he is making changes to the blog to introduce more nuancing into his categorization.

I realize, however, that I am going to have to address the 'ex-gay' question again.

Mike's target at the web-log appears to be the type of 'Ex-gay" ministry and advocate who does not seem to recognize that not everyone will see the degree of same sex attraction they experience diminish or that, if they do, that is liable to be a work accomplished more slowly than quickly.

At the risk of offending some of Sed Contra's Protestant readers, I lay the responsibility for the roots of this attitude on the stereotypically Protestant approach to conversion and salvation, some of which, in my experience has not only desperately wanted to hear that a person's SSA has diminished entirely but that the person's fellowship in the community is contingent on that disappearance.

In short, the Roman Church's recognition that there is a difference between merely experiencing same sex attraction (even as it is recognized as an objective disorder) and actually acting out on those attractions is not universally shared in the Church Universal.

One sad result of this has been to put an enormous degree of pressure on the Christian in some congregations who while they would never act upon the attractions might experience some degree of SSA and who must either claim the attractions have disappeared if they are known or hide them deeply if they are not.

The result of this have been a number of ministries which appear to have either claimed to guarantee a complete diminishing of SSA, or a number of people who have claimed such and then been found to have been premature or mistaken in their claims.

Needless to say, as I believe this distinction between experiencing attraction and acting out is one to be one of strongest elements of the Catholic faith on this topic I lament that not all branches of Christianity share her more nuanced understanding of both the person who experiences SSA and the path to heaven all Christians must walk.

Not 'Ex-Gay'

2003-08-20T17:37:00.000-04:00

Careful readers Sed Contra will by now, I hope, have understood that I have been explicit about not adopting the ex-gay label. I don't self-identify as gay and I don't self-identify as 'ex-gay.' I do relate that, over the years as I have sought a life of Christian discipleship, the degree of same sex attraction I experience has diminished. I have never claimed to be free of all SSA, nor defined myself as such.

The folks over at Ex-Gay Watch however, appear to have not have gotten the message. At their blog they have labeled me as 'ex-gay' and, on the whole seem very shocked at the notion that same sex attraction might not be cast in stone forever and ever, Amen. Not to mention, I guess, that someone might experience same sex attraction, acknowledge it even, and still 1) decline to act on it or 2) self-define by it or 3) affirm people it the pursuit of homosex.

By their definition an ex-smoker who still wants a cigarette after dinner remains a smoker. If this is really their position it is not credible or accurate, in my opinion, and while I admittedly did not peruse their web-log in depth, the comments I did read failed to rise above the level of school boy catcalls.

The issue is not what tempts people, it's how we live. Nowadays people who live with a degree of same sex attraction have more freedom than ever before to decide for themselves how they address those attractions and how they will choose to define themselves. Gay activists can no longer credibly claim to speak for everybody who lives with a degree of SSA, and we don't have to make our lives fit their definitions. I understand this can be inconvenient to a gay activist agenda which needs someone to demonize as much as some Christians need to self-identified gays to demonize. But at some point somebody has to start offering the perspective of the people behind the icons and whose lives are much more than the "issue."

Harper's Index: July 3003

2003-08-20T15:34:00.000-04:00

Mark Shea over a Catholic and Enjoying It has had a few readers who have been advocating Monarchy in the USA. I think he should know that, according to the July Harper's Index, they are the heirs to at least one Founding Father's argument.

Harper's Index: July 2003

Hours Alexander Hamilton spent in 1787 arguing at the Constitutional Convention that America should have a king : 5

Other interesting snippets:

Percentage by which a British flag maker's sales of U.S. flags in March exceeded those a year earlier : 25

Percentage by which its sales of Iraqi flags did : 10,000

Estimated number of foreign human-rights violators living in the United States : 1,000

Percentage of Americans who said at the end of April that their nation commanded less respect abroad than a year ago : 41

Percentage who said that the Iraq war will have been worthwhile even if Saddam Hussein is never captured or killed : 53

Percentage who said it will have been worthwhile even if weapons of mass destruction are never found : 60

Number of Serbian Orthodox churches burned down since the end of NATO's 1999 Operation Allied Force : 134

Amount by which the number of government jobs in the U.S. exceeds the number of manufacturing jobs : 5,129,000

Amount of the $106,185 price of a Hummer H1 that businesses may deduct under the proposed Bush tax plan : $88,722

Number of terrorism indictments brought since September 2001 by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey : 62

Number of them brought against Middle Eastern students for paying others to take their English proficiency tests : 60

Number of Wisconsin accounting students given take-home tests to accommodate an Enron whistle-blower's April speech : 78

Number later found to have cheated : 40

Year in which Washington, D.C., neighbors of a WWI-era chemical-weapons test site were told it was cleaned up : 1995

Tons of toxic soil that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has removed from the site since 2001 : 10,660

Estimated percentage of U.S. workers who were "creative professionals" in 1900, 1980, and 2000, respectively : 10, 19, 30

Weekly wage above which new federal regulations forbid the payment of overtime in jobs requiring "talent" : $425

Estimated amount spent on lap dances in Las Vegas each year : $25,000,000

Percentage of married U.S. couples that are raising children : 46

Percentage of unmarried, cohabiting U.S. couples that are : 41

Vote in April by which the North Dakota Senate upheld the state's 1890 ban on cohabitation by unmarried couples : 26–21

Ratio of New York City's minimum fine for smoking tobacco in a bar to its minimum fine for possessing marijuana : 2:1

Number of Grateful Dead concerts attended by columnist Ann Coulter : 67

Full index can be found here.

Let Them Build The Fence

2003-08-20T13:37:00.000-04:00

Somewhat lost in the coverage of the tragic bombing of the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad has been attention to the latest horrific bombing of a city bus in Israel. This time it was the Jerusalem Number 2 bus, which winds its way from the Western or Wailing Wall through the city including Jerusalem's Mea Shearim orthodox neighborhood. The bus was packed. Many were killed, and among those a significant number of children.

Israel has begun building a security fence along the borders with the West Bank areas where most of these suicide bombers come from. It will be similar to the fence that already exists between Israel's southern border and the Gaza strip. Fence backers have noted that the Gaza strip fence has effectively prevented suicide bombers getting into the country from Gaza to blow themselves and as many Israelis as possible into pieces and Israel clearly hopes a similar fence will prevent bombers from places like Nablus, Jenin and even Bethlehem from getting in.

The White House has been putting pressure on Israel to back off the fence issue, but I think we should stand down and let them build it. I am as much of a one world idealist as the next guy, or maybe more than most, but what Israel has been asked to endure is simply impossible without doing something - and since the Israelis refuse to simply drown themselves in the sea a fence appears to be only real option. Yes, it will cut Palestinians off from their jobs in Israel, but as it seems the Palestinians do not find that a sufficiently compelling reason to stop the Jihadists from blowing up busses, I am not sure its reasonable to ask the Israelis to care more about that than about protecting themselves.

The U.S. would have not have tolerated folks coming across our borders with Mexico of Canada to blow up our citizens even once, and we would not have let it happen more than once. Let them build the fence.

It's not about sex, really!

2003-08-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

Some things are just too funny to let pass. Gay.com is selling pleasure wipes, the first scented adult wipe, soon to be indispensable for your bedside table.

Pleasure Wipes are the perfect choice to help you feel confident (before sex) and fresh (after sex.) The sleek, re-sealable tub fits nicely in your nightstand, too.

Twenty-five of these things come per "sleek re-sealable tub" and you can buy them in scents of vanilla or mango. (Mango? My mangos in the morning don't usually smell like much.) And they are marked down now too. Originally they would have run you about a buck per pleasurable wipe, but you can have each one for a mere 50 cents.

A couple thoughts spring to mind.

First, someone has too much money on their hands. Supposing you really needed something like this on your nightstand, surely one of the many products marketed for use with infants could suffice.

Second, if sex is something that you are having to freshen up for, of after, in bed there is probably something wrong (no surprise there, I guess).

Be aware, the page that offers this little product also offers various type of sexually suggestive items, along with a DVD of the first season of Will & Grace that a viewer may not want to view.

We Are Married! We Are! We Are!

2003-08-20T08:53:00.000-04:00

Sed Contra readers know that I am no fan of television and rarely watch it, but the other night I was drawn to a recent episode of the Amazing Race, that allegedly reality based program where different teams of two people each race each other around the globe from clue to clue and task to task in search of, what else, money.

Now as a premise for a show this is maybe not so bad. It could be a twenty-first century version of the classic Around the World in Eight Days. But alas, the producers of the show could not pass up the chance to label each competing duo and a pair of same sex best friends, an engaged couple and a couple of self-identified gay males (doesn't every television show demand at least one token self-identified gay male or lesbian?) are the ones that were left in the part of the show I saw. And yes, underneath every identification of the gay couple, and in the announcer's voice over, the word married or "married couple" were used.

After watching the end of a segment where the term married couple seemed to be used about four times in two minutes my best friend turned to me and asked "are they trying to convince us, or themselves?"

Indeed, there is something almost pathetically puerile about the repeated assertion that these two guys who serve as the means to each other's ends in bed should be considered married. As though by dint of mere repetition they could make this true. Well, sorry guys, magical enchantment never turned lead into gold and repeating over and over "I will be tall, I will be tall, I will be tall" never gave me the height I needed to stuff basketballs into hoops.

Marriage is more than just the labels we mutter over the heads of the two (or more) people who want to call themselves married, and no amount of wishing will make any difference. One thousand bishops for 1000 years could appear every night from solemn convocation to declare gay sex to be ok - and it still wouldn't be ok, and since the whole gay marriage drive is a push to make that happen I predict there is going to have be a whole lot of wishing going on for a long time.

All Things Are Possible With God

2003-08-19T15:39:00.000-04:00

Today's Mass readings, and tomorrow's, always cheer me because they remind me that God's approaches and God's values are not our approaches or necessarily our values.

In yesterday's Gospel, by way of a reminder, Christ and the disciples encountered a Rich Young Man, who had expressed interest in following Christ until Christ revealed to him just what discipleship was going to mean. If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, Christ said (Gospel of St. Matthew, 19:21), And the Gospel records that the man went away sorrowing, for he had great possessions.

Now that the man has gone, in today's Gospel, Christ tells his disciples that it will be nearly impossible for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven of his own strength, but that with God all things are possible.

The Fathers of the Church have noted that the the wealthy, and there are a lot of different ways one can be wealthy, need such measures of grace because wealth so often carries its own illusion of self-sufficiency.

Whether we are wealthy in talent, good looks, physcial health, or treasure it can be easy to succumb to the lie our wealth whispers to us, the fable that we don't need to reach out to God, we don't need Him at all. The world is our oyster, we tell ourselves, and its kingdoms can seem to stretch out before us. Without the measure of God grace, sometimes in the forms of having our illusions of power shattered, we can waste our lives seeking after that which really doesn't satisfy, the ends that truly are just dead ends.

That reality contrasts nicely with Gideon's call. When the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon to tell him to go and save Israel from the hands of her oppressors, Gideon does not reply "here I am Lord, send me." Gideon essentially responds, with "you must mean somebody, anybody, else." Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family, Gideon says. More or less, you can't mean me, I am a dunce.

But God did mean Gideon. Both to save Israel, that time, and to remind us that when we do respond to Grace and put aside whatever it is that would keep us from Him, keep us captive in our own little isolated world where, we tell ourselves, we can be King, He will work through us to our good and the good of those we love.

St. John Eudes, whose birth into eternal life the Church remembers today, put the nature of our live in Christ, the live He shares with us when we let Him, in part this way:

You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as the members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into him. You must receive life from him and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you except in him, for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction. Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

The rest of this reading can be found here, at Universalis.com. If that link does not lead to it, look up the Office of Readings for August 19 and you will find it there.

Bangkok 8

2003-08-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

It's funny sometimes the different things God will use to get through to us. Lately, a lot of my reading has been absorbed by a book called Bangkok 8, a police mystery novel written by an Englishman named John Burdett.

In the story so far, I have not finished it yet, a young Thai police officer named Sonchai Jitpleecheep, has lost his best friend and long time police partner in the wake of a particularly grisly murder involving an American Marine. Sonchai's investigations into the deaths of the Marine and his friend, sometimes with the American authorities, sometimes in opposition to them, just oozes the atmosphere of another world, another attitude, another culture. It has captured my imagination, at least for now.

God comes into the nexus between the book and I because, it turns out, Sonchai is a Buddhist, and not just a nominal Buddhist, but one who takes Buddhism seriously although he has not sought ordination as his friend had planned to do. He and his friend came into Buddhism in the wake of having murdered a drug dealer in their neighborhood as teenagers:

After we murdered the yaa baa dealer our mothers secured us an interview with the abbot of a forest monastery in the far north, who told us that we were lowest form of live in the ten thousand universes. Pichai had thrust the broken bottle into the jugular of humanity, and therefore of the Buddha himself, while I giggled. After six months of mosquitoes and meditation, remorse had gouged our hearts. Six months after that the abbot told us we were going to mend our karma by becoming cops. His youngest brother was a police colonel named Vikorn, chief of District 8. Corruption was forbidden to us, however. If we wanted to escape the murderers' hell we would have to be honest cops. More, we would have to be arhat cops. The abbot is undoubtedly an arhat himself, a fully realized man who voluntarily pauses on the shore of nirvana, postponing his total release in order to teach his wisdom to wretches like us. He knows everything. Pichai is with him now, while I am stranded here in the pollution called life on earth. I must try harder with my meditation.

Now the attraction is not to Buddhism itself, although I agree with Peter Kreeft's observation that Buddhism might have the best diagnosis of the human condition available, after the Fall (a Christian concept), even as its proposed remedy for the problem is incomplete. Rather the appeal Sonchai has for me is in the balance he must strike over and over again between life in a Thai culture spinning, in many ways, out of control and his own commitment to values bigger than himself. For example there is this:

Random-access memory: an island in the Andaman Sea reserved for nature and forbidden to everyone except high ranking cops with luxury yachts; more girls than I could count, their perfect young bodies permanently sparkling with droplets from incessant diving off the swimming platform (the girls really had fun that trip); Pichai and I uncomfortable and aloof, taking a lot of flak: to refuse bribes was bad enough, to refuse free sex was downright seditious.

To the overwhelming majority of people in Sonchai's world, Buddhism is merely an idea or, at best, a series of ideals. Just as, in many ways, Christianity is in mine. Functionally, to paraphrase (I think) Kirkegard, if the whole culture is Christian, or Buddhist, then no-one is - and both Sonchai and I must make our ways through our respective cultures and times balancing that reality. Even though he is merely a fictional creation, and one from another culture and faith, I have sensed in Sonchai a kindred spirit - one that God is using to speak to my soul.

Living With Intention

2003-08-19T08:42:00.000-04:00

One of the things that frustrates me about writing this web log has been the extent to which I have allowed writing it to change my focus. Writing a web log in the way that I have has meant that I have become that much more inclined to define myself as reacting to things, reacting to news from other places, other people, other events.

Doing so has meant taking my attention off of what I call Living With Intention. Living with Intention means living a life of discipleship in Christ not in reaction to what might be going on in other places or with other people, but instead in a proactive way, focusing on taking the beams out of my own eyes and trying to work steadily toward becoming the man Christ intended (and intends) I should be.

So, I think I am going to try to bring Sed Contra back to some of the focus I have wanted it to have. I am toying with the idea of moving it and renaming it, but I haven't made any decisions yet.

Dr. Robert Spitzer on NPR

2003-08-18T10:14:00.000-04:00

National Public Radio this morning is teasing a story and interview with Robert Spitzer which they have scheduled for this evening's edition of All Things Considered. Spitzer was one of the key people involved in the controversial 1973 removal of homosexuality (same sex attraction) from the diagnostic manual for mental illnesses used by psychiatric care givers.

In 2001, however, Spitzer delivered a presentation of research into 200 men who had sought counseling as an approach to reducing the degree of SSA they experienced and reported good results and success from their point of view. (More information here.)

Presumably, the story tonight will focus on both these items, the first from the perspective of 30 years later and, the second, from the perspective of the new information. I say presumably because in this media phase of "everything gay is great!," the teaser did not mention homosexuality, "gay" or "same sex attraction" at all....

Arnold's Newest Buddy

2003-08-15T19:16:00.000-04:00

National Public Radio is reporting tonight that entertainment reporters and political reporters have been dancing on edge of fisticuffs in their eagerness to talk to Arnold, the man who has been alleged to hold the Governor's Office of California in one admittedly meaty paw.

But conservatives in California have been reported to be wary, and Californians who are pro-life and pro-human rights should also be wary, because the newest guy to have joined team Arnold is none other than billionaire Warren Buffett, a man whose quest for accumulating great wealth has only somewhat been surpassed by his drive to close as many of the world's wombs as possible.

Despite his wealth, however, Buffet is something of a miser. Unlike Gates, who has put billions of dollars into his foundation, Buffet’s foundation is a repository of a meager $22 million. Where Buffet eclipses Gates is in his fanatical commitment to population control.

Indeed, Buffet’s foundation is known for funding projects that other foundations, even those similarly inclined to limit human numbers, will not touch. The controversial abortion drug, RU-486, was in part funded by Buffet, who provided $2 million to the Population Council, the chief U.S. promoter of the deadly drug’s legalization.

Another $2 million went to Family Health International for the development of quinacrine hydrochloride pills, which once inserted into a woman’s uterus causes a severe chemical burn that scars shut her fallopian tubes, thus rendering her sterile. Quinacrine sterilization has become a favored method of sterilizing minorities by the Vietnamese government, not known for its strict observance of human rights.

In 2002, Steven Mosher, leader of the Population Research Institute, which has tracked Buffett's population control donations for years, traveled at the request of stockholder of Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway, to address the man and the firm about where they put their money. I am not sure anything has changed since, and I would not count Buffett's joining Team Arnold as a Good Omen.

Australian Gays Engage In 'Reproductive Tourism' To Be Parents

2003-08-15T13:57:00.000-04:00

So. I want to Father a kid. But just because the Kid might really need both a father and a mother, should that stop me? Why not buy one, at just a few thousands of dollars (Australian?)?

Melbourne GP and gay rights activist Ruth McNair confirms the phenomenon of "reproductive tourism" is an emerging trend in gay communities around Australia.

Dr McNair said she was acquainted with three male couples in Melbourne who had become fathers by paying US mothers "tens of thousands of dollars" to have babies with sperm donated by one partner in the relationship.

In her practice, the Carlton Clinic, she had counselled several gay men "desperate to be parents and to have a primary parenting role". Although much rarer, some lesbians are also examining overseas surrogacy as a path to parenthood.

Some Thoughts On Today

2003-08-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening I had hoped that by this morning I would be able to put into more coherent language exactly why today's recognition of Mary's Assumption into heaven speaks to me. But alas, my thoughts today remain as lumpy as poorly mashed potatoes and so I am just going to throw these two thoughts out there.

The Solemnity of Mary's Assumption has importance to contemporary Christians because it offers the Church a chance to speak on two things that She doesn't speak about nearly enough these days.

First, the meaning and the importance of God creating us with Bodies, as incarnate spirits, not as (to paraphrase, I think, Peter Kreeft) mere ghosts (spirits) driving around in machines (our bodies).

Second, the reality in our faith that heaven includes a bodily resurrection; that we are not going to just enter into a heaven which is nothing more than another spiritual plane of existence, but we will have bodies in heaven and that the bodies will not just be our own familiar bodies but Glorified Bodies. Bodies that are a heck of lot closer to what God looked upon when He looked upon Adam and Eve and proclaimed their creation Good.

Contrary to popular misapprenhension, it has not been orthodox Christianity over the centuries that has expressed disdain for, and even hostility to, the body. People who have departed from orthodox Christianity have done that. Heretics from Arius forward have been the ones to suggest that Christ could not be fully Human as well as Fully God, in a large part, because that would mean He had a genuinely human body and that genuinely human body was part of Who He Was. As a baby He would have needed to nurse. He would have needed to be toilet trained and taught to speak and educated. What a Scandal!

And in so many ways we can understand that scandal, and enter into it if we are not careful. It's easy to dislike or bodies. They frustrate us because they fail. They age. They lose their superficial beauty, elasticity, healing power. At forty I don't recover from sprains and illnesses like I did twenty years ago. How could a Good God have created me with these flaws, subject to disease and death?

(The answer of course was that He didn't, we introduced disease and death into the picture, but we are looking at things from outside the Faith, so to speak).

Now there is a tendency in this day and age to assume that a Christian defense of the body must center on sex - and that is a very important aspect of the discussion for sure. An awful lot of what passes offers itself as sexual liberation and innovation these days are nothing more than old fashioned disregard for (and even hatred of) the body dressed up in 21st century drag. But the issues of how we understand the human body are so much bigger than sex.

If the human body is not integral to why and how we are human then why isn't it wrong to simply make little clones of ourselves to use as sources of body parts? Why is it wrong to match human cells with rabbit cells or those of other species? Why not create groups of humans deliberately debilitated so that they can perform the tasks our culture finds distasteful or inconvenient? On the calendar we will move twenty years past George Orwell's 1984 next year. But in terms of real events we draw closer to the challenge the book presents every day.

The Assumption answers that question in much the same way as Christ's Resurrection answers the claims of death. Just as when Christ's Resurrection showed us that death has no claim on a human body, Mary's Assumption shows us that God will include our very human bodies in the move to heaven. Christ's divinity, by necessity, must always color His humanity and how we view His humanity. But Mary is not divine. She really is the Help of Christians because she is truly is one of us. Yes, a recipient of Grace earlier than everyone else, but still a human person who still had to make a decision, in her body, for or against God, for or against her own (and our) salvation.

As we and our culture tilts more wildly every day towards cutting our bodies out of our humanity and cutting ourselves off from any real hope of heaven, it is essential the Church return again and again to two of the messages from Mary's Assumption. First, that our bodies are an essential and good part of our humanity and, second, that God loves us and wants us to be with Him, bodies and all.

Survey of Intolerance

2003-08-15T11:37:00.000-04:00

Mark Steyn, writing in the Inernet version of the Jerusalem Post, has collected a number of the recent examples of the use of law to shut down any criticism of homosexuality that have been in the news lately:

THIRTY YEARS ago, in the early days of gay liberation, most of us assumed we were being asked to live and let live. But throughout the Western world, tolerance has become remarkably intolerant, and diversity demands ruthless conformity. In New Zealand, an appeals court upheld a nationwide ban on importing a Christian video Gay Rights/Special Rights: Inside The Homosexual Agenda.

In Saskatchewan, The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix was fined by the Human Rights Commission for publishing an advertisement quoting biblical passages on homosexuality. Fining publishers of the Bible surely can't be far off. The coerciveness of the most "liberal" cultures in the Western world is not a pretty sight.

Whatever happened to "live and let live?" If I can live with the occasional rustle from the undergrowth as I'm strolling through a condom-strewn park or a come-hither look from George Michael in the men's room, why can't gays live with the occasional expression of disapproval?

And he is even willing to concede the need to walk across parks (and beaches, and picnic areas, and woods, and trails) strewn with condoms. I am more of a mind to go with the residents of the Hamptons.

So The Outage Did Not Originate With Terrorists...

2003-08-15T10:36:00.000-04:00

But is anyone else feeling any more vulnerable and, for lack of a better word, smaller than they did yesterday? Also, if this did not originate with a terror attack, if you were a terrorist wouldn't it give you all sorts of ideas?

Feast of the Assumption

2003-08-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow (August 15) is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, or at least it is in the Western Church. I hope everyone has a chance, or makes the chance or accepts the grace of a chance to get to Mass today.

I have some thoughts about this, some ideas about how this Feast might speak to us especially in our time and circumstances, but alas those thought remain like the shoelaces on my running shoes, ragged and still far from tied down. I hope to have them more in order tomorrow. But, until then, I will leave you with some thoughts from a homily of last year's Feast of the Assumption from Father Brendan Freeman, Abbot of the Cistercian community of New Melleray:

Today we celebrate the culmination of Mary's existence, her assumption into Heaven. She is the first and only one to be united with her glorified body. In these days when we all struggle with what is called the humanness of the Church and with our own humanness, it is good to celebrate this feast of Mary whose humanness is fully redeemed. We need this encouragement. St. Bernard calls Mary a star. If we get discouraged on our journey he tells us to look to the star and call upon Mary. By looking at her glorified body in Heaven, we are reminded that our own redemption is at hand. Redemption means our sins are not final. All these ugly things we read about, all the evil of the culture of death is not final if there is repentance and forgiveness. Today's feast is about redemption, about the final outcome of human life, about hope and the reversal of sin and death. As Paul tells us this morning "the last of the enemies to be done away with is death."(1 Cor 15:26) Christ made death our last sacrament as it were. It has a visible and an invisible moment. Visibly our physical life comes to an end, but in the act of dying we give our whole existence back to God and this can be the most personal action of our whole time on earth, a total surrender that begins our new life in Christ. Mary has made that surrender and is the first of the redeemed.

A Worthy Site

2003-08-13T18:36:00.000-04:00

Charles, an occasional correspondent who runs the Same Sex Attraction Morality League writes a lengthy analysis of the Lawrence decision and other items from the spate of homosexually related news that crowds the headlines these days. In part:

I would remind gay activists and Justice Kennedy, however, that traditional religious believers and even those with same sex attraction who embrace chastity on religious principle or who voluntarily seek to change their sexual orientation also have the right to find the meaning of life in their faith and not in their sexual desires. They are as much entitled to respect and toleration as are practicing homosexuals. (Indeed, if there were ever an unpopular minority class deserving of the Supreme Court's heightened solicitude and protection, it is the ever-demonized "ex-gays.") We traditional religious believers can benefit from the freedom of a truly libertarian social order, particularly amid a hostile society and under a hostile government that does not share our beliefs.

Voices from the Courage Conference

2003-08-13T17:39:00.000-04:00

Well, the Courage Conference for 2003 has ended and Courage Online has had the usual bursts of chatter among folks who attended the Conference and those who wish they could have, etc.

Rather than just leave it and the organization as appearing to be something mysterious and strange, I thought I would post up, with first names only for privacy's sake, some of the remarks from Conference attendees:

Jim wrote: Hi all, I just got home from the conference. I just want to say that I had an absolutely amazing time. It was no nice to meet so many people around whom I could feel completely comfortable. I learned a lot about ssa, myself, and other things. The thing I'm most thankful for though is all the people I had the chance to meet. If you haven't yet been to a conference, I pray you will find a way to be there next year. Hope to see everyone in Illinois!!!! God bless...

Bob writes: The speakers that impressed me the most was of course Father Groeschel and also Christopher West and his talk on "Theology of the Body & Homosexuality" in which he explains in language we all could understand John Paul II's "Gospel of the Body". For those of you who are not familiar with this theology I don't have time to go into detail here but I suggest you read his book "Theology of the Body explained". Finally I think the highlight of these conferences is the testimonies of the courage members themselves (including fri. morning speakers Vince & Maria). Robert and Toni's testimony on Sat. truly was an example of God's infinite mercy for us all and
reduced me to tears several times...

Robert wrote: What I thought would be rage was actually a collection of broken people trying to understand how to love themselves and their family members who had chosen to be in the lifestyle. Most of the people I spoke with were Catholics (except for one who held a collection of disconnected Eastern and Western religious beliefs). The Catholics appeared misled by unorthodox ideas about the true meaning of love, the appropriate expression of that love, and even who Jesus Christ was! One person was trying to claim that Jesus never prohibited homosexuality explicitly because He was
shaped by the culture of the time—-otherwise he would have mentioned it as being acceptable.

Aside from the fact that Christ is the Son of God, it’s pretty clear that Jesus didn’t care one bit about offending peoples’ cultural sensibilities. Nor did he care about challenging power. Can you say “Pharisees”? Jesus was as radical as the world has seen and is yet to see, and that’s because he is God. So if He were ready to sanction something that had theretofore been unacceptable in Judaism, I think He would have taken the opportunity.

Please pray for these people, and that they be granted the gift of faith by God. They’ve been misled by evil and I can say that while I saw a glimmer in their eyes of the truth—-a sure sign of hope—-it was clear to me that the flame has been suppressed and hidden at the bottom of their souls.

The Business of Kids

2003-08-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

Kids exist for a lot of reasons. Dealing with them teaches us a lot about how God would deal with us, if we would just let Him. Watching them play and learn and explore makes us remember, even if only through the frosted glass of memory, what is was like once to be innocent, carefree and good and to possess a purity of intention that only little kids appear to be able to muster with sincerity. Even when they frustrate us or frighten us, they move ever more steadily into our hearts until we get to the point where we cannot imagine loving any other person quite as much as we love these little new people.

I am not a father, a loss that could be among the greatest sorrows of my life if I dwelled on it, so I don't. But I am a godfather. Twenty-two months ago tomorrow two of my best friends, Mike and Dian, got their first glimpse of their first child, a baby girl they named Brinnaria Penelope Dian. And they honored me enormously, and changed my life forever, when they asked me to take a special responsibility to help shepherd her to Christ and then to heaven. Nothing else in my 38 years of life to that point meant as much or has brought as much change and I can't imagine anything else will - unless they ask me to serve the same function for another one and I should be so blessed.

What is it about little kids? Is Brinnaria cute? Absolutely. She has her parents' features, of course, and blond hair long in the back, and an absolutely engaging personality. But, hey, all parents would say much the same thing about their kids. I recognize I am inclined to bias.

For lack of a better word, in a mysterious way, her presence in my life grounds me and makes me not just desire but actively seek, work at, strive for, becoming a better man.

How, well let me count the most obvious. If I am honest I must credit being a significant part of Brinnaria's life and planning for when she gets older and wanting to be there when she gets older with making me lose almost 100 pounds (a few more and the goal will be met) and wearing my seatbelt when I drive and calling my insurance agent to see if I could add a bit more coverage at a reasonable price. Having Brinnaria in my life has made me start (at last, my mother might say) growing up.

Sure, I knew the weight was a problem. My doctor had been warning me every physical to take it off - and I had even broken a beach chair once because I was too heavy. But it wasn't until I lifted Brinnaria up to blow raspberry noises into her belly button, which always makes her giggle and squeal, and I flashed to the reality that if I didn't change my ways I might not ever see her again in this life, just when she might need methat I invested the time, money, sweat and energy into getting fit.

And it didn't stop there. After Brinnaria came on the scene I began praying more, praying for her, for her folks, for her future and I began working harder to help build the kind of world and culture where she can flourish and be happy. The bottom line is that while I might be Brinnaria's Godfather, Brinnaria is the one who may be most likely to spur me to heaven. Through letting me participate in her life, Mike and Dian have given me a place in my life to be a Dad.

And of course there is always something new. Mike and Dian expect their second also, they think, a girl, to arrive this coming November, and its hard to believe there could be anyone more excited by the pending arrival than Brinnaria. As her mom has made room in her closet for the infant things, Brinnaria has taken an almost proprietary, clinical interest in how the new baby is doing. When I visited the family this past Sunday, she showed me some of the toys I had not seen in months and gravely announced "for the baby" when pointing at them.

I know people without kids in their lives sometimes hate hearing about them, and I know I could be just as inclined to gush as anybody else if I had any kids of my own. But as the business of kids is sanctifying their parents I am blessed and grateful to have a small share in the work of at least one. Amen.

What Is Love?

2003-08-12T07:59:00.000-04:00

Father Johansen, over at ThrownBack, has a post up about the Episcopal Church in the US' decision to consecrate Gene Robinson is more or less what can be expected when a body of Christians begins to make decisions according to the alleged wisdom of the contemporary culture and not according to the wisdom of Christ and the 2000 years of Christian tradition so far.

But as interesting as Father's post is, I want to focus on something else. Father includes in his post a quote from bishop-elect Robinson which I share below:

I believe that God gave us the gift of sexuality so that we might express with our bodies the love that's in our hearts,'' he announced to his fellow bishops. ''I just need to tell you that I experience that with my partner. In the time that we have, I can't go into all the theology around it, but what I can tell you is that in my relationship with my partner, I am able to express the deep love that's in my heart, and in his unfailing and unquestioning love of me, I experience just a little bit of the kind of never-ending, never-failing love that God has for me. So it's sacramental for me.

Father Johansen rightly noted that Robinson's description revolves around sexuality as expressive of his feelings for his "partner". This is the sort of talk one might expect from a self-absorbed nineteen year old, but not from someone professing to be a serious thinker, or even a mature person, not to mention a serious Christian.

But what I find difficult to understand is how confused we have become "love" and claims to "love." The late Leo Buscaglia, a noted lecturer and popular "expert" on love, told in a lecture once about the work he had begun with a young girl, aged 10 or so, whose Mother had experienced repeated psychotic episodes.

He told of walking into the room that they were using for sessions once to find the girl holding her favorite doll by the arm and slamming the toy against the wall. Each time the doll hit the wall the young girl said "I love you." So what he witnessed was this young girl slamming her favorite doll against the wall saying over and over again, each time. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

Peter Kreeft, noted philosophy professor and lecturer and likewise a convert to Catholicism has written that the more important something is, the more counterfeits it has. Love, he has observed, which is perhaps the most important thing in the universe short of God has many counterfeits.

The man the leadership of the ECUSA has asked worldwide Anglicans to accept as a bishop is pleads that he loves his partner and that his sexually active relationship with this other man should be viewed through a lenses of love. But if love is going to be the pleading, isn't it reasonable to have a good (or at least a better) idea of what love is? Shouldn't our ideas of love carry with them some basics, bottom floor expectations, so to speak, that say for example that if I claim to love someone I don't intentionally cause them harm? That if I genuinely love someone I don't make them a means to reaching some goal I have, whether that goal be economic, social or sexual? Leave aside the tediously debated texts from Leviticus and Romans. I don't believe same sex sexual acts can pass the test of being genuinely loving. There is research published in peer reviewed journals that documents, in sharp detail, just what the price of this allegedly "loving" behavior is - a price that stems from this behavior in and of itself.

Love is rough. A hell of a lot of a lot grander and rougher and more dangerous and costly than something which should (or even could) be used to justify given sexual behavior. At a minimum I think love means seeking the good of the beloved over one's own good. Christ's standard is that the greatest love is that the lover lays down his life for those he loves. The man the ECUSA has chosen to recognize as bishop, a leader in Christ's name, cannot even bring himself, out of "love" to refrain from having sex with the man he claims to "love." I think Episcopalians, and all Christians, are right to ask what that's about.

Some Thoughts on Gibson's Passion

2003-08-12T05:33:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged much on this, because I haven't seen the film, and haven't had the time to do the necessary research. But my buddy Victor, over at RightWing Film Geek, who frankly forgets more about cinema in a given afternoon than I am likely to ever know, has some thoughts about Mel's effort and what the Film says about the inevitable tension between Judaism and Christianity. He writes, in part:

I obviously haven't seen the film, so maybe I should hold my fire, but I can't say I'm impressed with the ADL's arguments, as presented in its press release. Any reasonably faithful adaptation of the Gospels will show Jesus's blood being sought by the Jewish authorities and the Jerusalem mob. Whatever the subtle details of what body did what at what hour, where the accounts do differ in minor ways, all four Gospels are united in proclaiming what the ADL is clearly constructing in its first, second and fifth bullets as anti-Semitism. If the argument is that any portrayal of any Jew demanding Jesus' blood is anti-Semitic, then Christianity as such is anti-Semitic. At this point, I throw up my hands and go home, concluding that ADL wants Christians to apologize ourselves out of existence.

Becoming Lesbians

2003-08-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

If this report is accurate, something called "Relationships Australia" has publicly urged older Australian women to "become lesbians."

Relationships Australia spokesman Jack Carney said men's shorter life spans, and their pursuit of much younger women, meant women in their twilight years were often forced to turn to other women for love and companionship.

Mr Carney said the government-funded support group encouraged older women to explore lesbian relationships, which were seen as more nurturing and emotionally supportive. Older women were even pooling their resources to buy property and making pacts to form couples if they did not find a male partner by a certain age, he said.

"As they get over 60, opportunities to get a man diminish substantially. Men marry younger women and they die about eight years younger, so there is a real male shortage," Mr Carney said.

There are so many....comments that need to be made about this piece that its almost dizzying. Ok, where to start.

First, the phenomenon of same sex attraction in men and women is significantly different - not just in terms of each individual man or woman, but also in terms of broad generality. This should not surprise anyone since men and women are different. Why should anyone assume they experience SSA in the same way?

Second, while Mark Shea's headline made it appear that this somehow laid to rest the nature versus nurture debate. But I am not sure it does. All that is really being discussed here is the degree of self-identification. Same sex attractions themselves likely still arise from a matrix of different sources that might include some genetic factor (or that might not, I am not a geneticist and the geneticists don't agree). What is clear is that women have generally been perceived to have an easier time moving from self-identified lesbianism to self-identified heterosexuality and back again. The phenomenon of "collegiate lesbianism" otherwise known as "lesbian until graduation" has been fairly well documented.

Third, this organization makes a grievous assumption that if two people of the same sex share a long term friendship, then there must be a sexual element involved. Even the one Australian official who is quoted refusing to make that assumption, still assumed it in some cases.

"You notice it more where women are sharing houses, but I never ask exactly what the nature of their arrangements are, but it wouldn't surprise me (if they were in same-sex relationships). Loneliness can be a terrible thing when you are older," she said.

Notice the link? If a person feels lonely, the obvious solution is a sexually attracted/active friendship. Clearly, lonely people are assumed to have no other ground upon which they might establish an emotionally fulfilling and supportive friendship than sex.

The kicker, Australians, is that the agency that spills these attitudes are supported by your own tax dollars. Cheers, mate!

Orthodox Episcopal Parish Attacked Over Sex

2003-08-11T12:44:00.000-04:00

Given what happened to the Anglican bishop of Kenya (scroll down two posts)l wonder if this might be the beginning of a larger unfortunate phenomenon. After all, there is old saw that once is an event, twice a coincidence, three times a trend...

On Tuesday, August 5th, late in the night, the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Graham Texas, located in the Diocese of Fort Worth, was vandalized, and a portion of it was set ablaze.

The main church was littered with food from the kitchen and candle wax from the altar. The parish hall received the same treatment. The office area was set on fire. The only lead the police have is writing on the wall: "God and Jesus love Homosexuals."

Also, it continues to be amazing to me that a significant number of people equate "love" with "approval." At their heart the demands of the gay activists equate to something I would expect from a five or six year old: If you love us, you have to love (approve) of what we do.

This makes no sense. Almost every parent, with the exception of those recently in Minneapolis, I guess, (scroll down, the archives are apparently not working) recognizes that one can love a child, or another person, without approving of all of their moral and other choices. People are certainly free to make mistakes, but as we make our mistakes we are not entitled to having a crowd applaud them - as much as we might demand one.