Some Further Resources

Although we all have many things on our minds and hearts in this time of struggle for the U.S. and world economies and challenges for many people on a number of other fronts, now is not the time to give up on educating and informing ourselves about acceptance and inclusion in our churches and places or worship. In fact, the more we reflect on these questions as a broader church community the better we'll be able to move forward in our ability to serve and reach out to others.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, it is vital that each of us inform our consciences and not just automatically give our consent to the pronouncements of authority figures, whether secular or spiritual. History shows us that such blind obedience can be dangerous and destructive and so in each individual life and each new generation it is incumbent on all of us to pray and educate our consciences in order that the Good News of God's love might be actualized again in our time.

In that spirit, I suggest this series of videos gathered by Soulforce, a national organization dedicated to non-violent struggle for justice in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. Whatever you might currently feel about the LGBT cause in your church or place of worship, I invite you to examine some of these videos with an open mind and heart. The anti-LGBT perspective has been privileged and is still often the dominant narrative within our society, and in our churches and places of worship.

For that reason, how about giving another perspective a chance? How about at least listening and considering what these videos have to say? These stories may be challenging at times but in the end they're simply suggestions made in good will - reflections in favor of women and men who aspire to the same things so many of us do - peace, hope, freedom, and the chance to love and be loved in the context of a deep and life-affirming faith in God.

Peace,

Padre Chuck

A Working Bibliography

One of my greatest hopes in writing this blog is that it will help other people who may find themselves in situations similar to my own several years ago - when I first came out of the closet and started to wrestle with the question of how to reconcile my identity and my faith. Doing so took a great deal of prayer and reflection plus the love and support of some wonderful people who have walked the journey with me. Additionally, as with many things in life, coming to peace with both myself and my faith also required a little bit of homework.

Reading about others' stories and informing myself about the ongoing conversations about these questions both within and outside of the church helped me to realize that I wasn't alone. Reading and reflecting also made me aware that there are many options available to all of us. As I've mentioned in previous postings, some of us may be called to worship in new settings and even change our life's path in significant ways as a result of our prayer and study. Others may feel called to stay where we are but to live prophetically in challenge to teachings and attitudes we know are destructive of hearts and souls.

Wherever our own path may take us - in whatever ways God calls us to walk - one of our primary responsibilities is to inform and educate our consciences and remain open to new possibilities. In that spirit, especially for those from a Catholic background, I'd like to offer the following list of books that have been helpful to me in my journey toward full acceptance both of my own personal identity and of God's love and compassion:

Biographies:
Fenton Johnson, Keeping Faith
John J. McNeill, Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair
Darren Main, Hearts and Minds
Dugan McGinley, ed. Acts of Faith, Acts of Love
Mark Tedesco, That Undeniable Longing

Theology & Spirituality:
James Alison, Faith Beyond Resentment and Undergoing God
Daniel Helminiak, Sex and the Sacred
Mark Jordan, The Silence of Sodom
John J. McNeill, The Church and the Homosexual, Taking a Chance on God, and Freedom, Glorious Freedom
Thomas Stevenson, Sons of the Church

May God speak to each of us and lead us each through our personal journeys of prayer and discernment to a place of integral freedom and peace - a place from which to go forth to serve, praise and glorify God with our lives.

With love and peace,

Padre Chuck

A Light in the Darkness

I was saddened to learn in a recent news story of the reinstatement on the part of the Pope of several ultra conservative bishops, including one who has made a number of comments in denial of the Holocaust. How sad that it's more of a priority for the Pope to "reconcile" with persons such as these while at the same time courageous priests like Fr. Roy Bourgeois are threatened with excommunication for daring to suggest that women should finally be able to exercise ordained ministry in the church.

Truthfully, however, the saddest thing of all for me is seeing how far we as a church can sometimes stray from the fundamental mission and message of Jesus - love and compassion for those who are weakest and most marginalized. If there is any message of the Bible, any essence of faith surely this must be it - to love God with our whole mind, heart and soul and love our neighbor as ourself. Sadly we - myself most definitely included - far too often neglect this most central truth of our faith. We get caught up in our own little worlds, trying to control, attempting to get our way and often losing sight of what's most essential.

For that reason, I give thanks to God for true saints - authentic living witnesses who awaken us from our slumber and show us by their lives what it means to live to our full potential as human beings. One such person was Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from extermination during World War II, for which he paid a high price in his own life, experiencing the rejection of his own government and dying in poverty and obscurity.

As a human being, a person of faith and someone humbled by the call to serve others, it is the example of people like Aristides de Sousa Mendes that gives me hope for humanity. Some religious and secular leaders in positions of power may make their calculated decisions and persist in the illusion that they are in control but, whether we're comfortable with it or not, deep down we all know that there is really only one thing that's necessary in this life, only one thing that really matters in the end - having a soul: acknowledging our own brokenness and imperfection, allowing God to touch our hearts and heal us, and surrendering to the process that can shape us each day into more faithful servants of compassion, mercy and love for our fellow human beings.

With hope and peace,

Padre Chuck

Be The Light

Be The Light

We’re in a day, we’re in a time,
we’re in a world that’s lost its mind
Where is our soul? Where is our heart?
We each need to pray to find our way,
there is a way out of the dark

Be the light, be the light, let the flame that burns inside of you
Change somebody’s life Be the light, be the light,
You may be the only candle in the night, but you be the light

When you are loved, when you are whole, someone will see
And they will believe like a fire so strong it will catch on

Be the light, be the light, let the flame that burns inside of you
Change somebody’s life Be the light, be the light,
You may be the only candle in the night, but you be the light

Shine, shine, show the way
Open your heart, don’t be afraid

Be the light, be the light, let the flame that burns inside of you
Change somebody’s life Be the light, be the light,
You may be the only candle in the night, but you be the light

One of the hardest things for me about writing this blog is feeling sometimes like the battle we're engaged in is overwhelming. There is so much ignorance and such fear out there that at times if feels like things will never change. And then there are the voices of doubt that return from time to time - aren't there other, more important issues to address? why fight what feels like a losing battle?

And yet at my best moments - when I'm most at peace and can feel the love and mercy of God present in my life - it's then that I know that the battle's not my own. God alone can change hearts. God alone can help the church and society to realize and celebrate the dignity of all people, whatever their race, religion, language, culture or sexual orientation. God alone can touch our souls and liberate us from the oppression we inflict on others - especially those who are weakest and most marginalized in our churches and in society.

In the meantime, all we LGBT people of faith can do is simply live and give witness with our love and our lives how God is working wonders for us. As the song I've shared here by Jason and deMarco says, "When you are loved, when you are whole, someone will see, and they will believe like a fire so strong it will catch on." Simply loving our partners and families and friends and receiving their love, we give witness to God's love as well and hopefully ever so gradually we also help to change hearts and minds...

One final thought that I'd like to address to readers from a Catholic/Christian background...Perhaps you're reading this and feeling a bit uncertain, thinking that maybe you'd like to support recognition of loving, monogamous commitments for LGBT people within your church. You might feel a little torn, not knowing if it's okay to disagree with authority figures and find a way to support what your prayer and discernment have led you to conclude is right. As an ordained person I've struggled mightily with those same questions and all I would share is that in the end it's okay to disagree in conscience with those in authority within the church - St. Paul, St. Catherine of Siena, Martin Luther, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and countless others have - and even to take steps to find a community that's more reflective of your conscience.

Granted, unity among believers in Christ is essential and our leaders are there for a reason. But unity is not the same as uniformity. For that reason, don't be afraid to let God lead you to a place where you can be at peace spiritually. Perhaps that might mean staying in the church you were raised in, working in your own way for justice and dignity. Or perhaps it might mean beginning a new journey that will lead you to find a spiritual home that preserves the essentials of the Christian faith and also allows you to worship God in a community that is inclusive and welcoming.

There is no one answer that fits for everyone - each of us must discern this question both individually and with our partners and families and allow God's Spirit to guide us. In the end, none of us knows how the journey to LGBT equality will unfold within the church. All we know is how the story ends, just as it always has throughout history for oppressed people - in freedom, liberation and joy. For LGBT people this will mean that all of us will finally be welcomed into our spiritual homes just as are and will no longer be subjected to the senseless psychological and spiritual torture of attempts to make us into something we're not. In the end, love will prevail, we shall overcome, and God will be praised and glorified in the sweet freedom we all share.

In the meantime, all each of us can do is what the song I've shared here proclaims - be the light - love and be loved, sing our songs, live our lives and allow God to shine through us and finally lead us forth into peace, love, freedom and the joy that no one can ever take away from us.

With hope in God's goodness and compassion,

Padre Chuck

Getting To Know Us

In my own personal experience one of the things that's really helped many family members and friends to come to support LGBT rights is just having someone in their life who is gay and who remains the same person they've always known and loved. We still may respectfully disagree on some things but at least knowing me and realizing that I'm the same person I've always been, with the same desire to serve God and others, I think helps others to see that being gay is okay - that it's just a normal thing that some people experience as the way we were created and how we view the world.

In any case, I wanted to share this video testimony and also the following website from a group that's working to get stories about LGBT folks out there: Get To Know Me First. This group was founded after the unfortunate passing of Proposition 8 in California, in an effort to show how LGBT folks also love our families and simply long for the same things all of us do - love, justice, peace and a hopeful future for our families and friends.

May God grant us the strength of the Spirit as we continue to grow in mutual respect and dialogue on our journey of faith, hope, and love together.

Peace,

Padre Chuck

A Prayer for Today

Today as I watched the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, I couldn't help but be moved by the historic character of the occasion. When just a few decades ago the possibility of an African-American president was still a distant hope, it's an amazing privilege to be alive to see the day when Dr. Martin Luther King's dream is finally starting to come true in a very tangible way.

Although I was saddened by the inclusion of Rev. Rick Warren as part of the ceremony (Warren has made repeated anti-LGBT slurs and in my view his participation in today's events marred an otherwise momentous occasion), I let my own prayer focus on the moving contributions of Aretha Franklin and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery. In particular, I thought Dr. Lowery's prayer was especially powerful as it reflected his own experiences on the front lines of the civil rights struggle and also included some welcome levity and humor toward the end.

May Dr. Lowery's prayer and Aretha Franklin's voice echo in all of our hearts and help us to work together as a nation for the betterment of our country and our world in the days and months ahead.

With peace and hope,
Padre Chuck

Honoring the Dream

With today's blog post I would like to give thanks for and honor the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a true hero both for the U.S. as a nation and for humanity as a whole - a prophet who stood up for equality and justice when it was not easy to do so and gave us hope for a world where discrimination, hatred and prejudice will be overcome.

There is still much work to do to end racial discrimination and injustice in this country and of course there are many other fronts in the fight against prejudice and intolerance. May God awaken us to the ways in which we continue to participate both individually and collectively in the oppression of our sisters and brothers and grant us the true freedom of the children of God - the freedom to be found in serving and caring for others.

In peace,
Padre Chuck

A Threat to Humanity?

For today's entry I must beg of my readers a little forbearance as I indulge in some mild sarcasm of tone. Although I don't normally appreciate sarcasm, I thought it might be appropriate in emphasizing a point I would like to make.

In any case, as a dear friend and I like to joke sometimes, we're often amazed at how gravely threatened humanity and the earth must be, what with the likes of "dangerous" homosexuals like me and others around. Granted, no group of human beings is perfect and the LGBT community is certainly no exception, but on the other hand - despite our flaws - many of us queer people actually do manage to contribute something once in a while to society and, dare I say, even to our church communities.

Take my day today, for example. So this morning I got out of bed, had breakfast, went to get a computer fixed and am now in the midst of working. This evening I'm going with my husband to cook food for a homeless shelter and then getting ready for church tomorrow. Pretty dangerous, eh? The foundations of society are crumbling, no?

Now I'm far from the most virtuous or dedicated person in the LGBT community. There are countless queer folk out there who, whether spiritual or not, are serving their communities, raising their children, and contributing to society in remarkable ways. For that reason, perhaps the most important thing anyone who's not familiar with the movement can do is just get to know some of us. No, we're not perfect, but then again last time I checked neither was the straight community. Maybe in meeting some of us and our families you or others you know might come to see that we're people just like you - folks who just long for the same things all of us do - love, peace, justice and the chance to live lives that make a difference for our families, friends and communities.

Many thanks as always for reading and now I'm off to go extend my pernicious influence in the world...okay, end of sarcasm...for now! :)

Love and peace,
P. Chuck

The Power of Love

"One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposites - so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."

From: Address to the Tenth Anniversary Convention of the SCLC in Atlanta on August 16, 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sums up for me the way that I feel about many things that are going on in the larger church community, especially around the issue of liberation for queer people of faith. Honestly, despite the challenges I and many other LGBT people of faith have had to face, I feel incredibly honored and humbled to be part of a movement that I am convinced at its best embodies exactly what Dr. King is talking about here.

Although it's been a hard journey of coming to accept myself as I am and realizing that God truly loves me, it's also been incredibly liberating to know that it's okay to be who I am and that I'm part of a larger movement that's seeking justice for others in ways that are both powerful and loving. In fact I must say that I really don't know if there's a deeper and more meaningful joy in this life than knowing that you're part of a community of people who are all working together for the good of others -- to promote both justice and to do so in ways that are powerful precisely because they are rooted in love. Communities like that are always opposed and oppressed -- that's one of the lessons we learn from Dr. King, Gandhi, and so many others. And yet in a way it's such a blessing -- feeling like you're part of something that's really promoting human liberation in the best possible sense.

Of course neither the larger LGBT community nor smaller communities of faith that are welcoming of queer people are perfect in themselves. Moreover, there are so many other issues of justice and peace that need our attention, too. And yet, there are times and moments for me at least when it really hits me how blessed and fortunate I am -- to be witnessing in my own lifetime the coming day of justice and new beginnings for LGBT people in churches and communities of faith; to be seeing how queer people of faith are rising up, claiming our inheritance as daughters and sons of God and starting to work together for justice and the freedom to love and be loved for all God's people.

May God send abundant blessings of the Spirit into all of our hearts now and always, encouraging us with hope for the future and inspiring us to work for justice, love, and peace in our world.

Peace,
P. Chuck

Down To the River

One of the great things about writing a blog like this is that you get to share the things that really mean a lot to you, even if perhaps they don't appeal to everyone and might get a bit repetitive. If that's the case with all the music that I share here then I do beg forgiveness from those of you who've been faithful followers of my blog. It's just that, for me, music is a path to God - a way that God speaks to me and helps me to know that all will be well and that there are so many reasons to be grateful and to find hope and peace within.

In any case this song, "Down To the River," is a folksong that refers to the Christian rite of baptism, usually metaphorically but also sometimes literally performed in an actual river. This song is very meaningful to me because it is one I sang recently as part of a homily I gave in the church where I now am both attending regularly and also serving from time to time. It really is so meaningful to me to be able to be there both to worship and praise God in a place where my husband's and my love is recognized as sacred and where I can also continue to serve in ordained ministry.

For many years I never thought it would be possible to combine those two things -- love for and service to God and self-acceptance and affirmation -- but God certainly has had Her surprises for me along the way and I know She continues to work similar miracles of grace in the lives of many others, too. May all of us know God's grace and peace in our hearts and allow God's Spirit to move in us and call us forth into lives of faith and service.

Peace,
P. Chuck

Watch Us Fly

For me what I'd like to say in today's post is both a bit humorous and also profoundly meaningful. Many years ago now, when I first began to sense that I was gay but didn't know how to accept myself, I also started to discover the music of some amazing "divas" who helped me find dignity and hope within at a a time when it wasn't easy to affirm either.

For many gay men, divas like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and many others all provide a sense of solace and comfort as examples we can identify with - people who'd often normally be rejected or marginalized by society but who find extraordinary dignity and strength somewhere deep inside, from which they rise up and overcome the forces that keep them down. And for me it's a bit humorous because without a doubt I'm no exception to this diva rule. As a young person I loved the music of Barbra and Judy and Liza I think precisely because it gave me a way to escape from my personal fears and sense that I too could learn to overcome self-hate and dejection some day.

One film that was particularly moving to me at that time was Yentl, Barbra Streisand's directorial debut and the story of a young Jewish woman in 19th-century Eastern Europe who disguises herself as a man in order to study theology, falls in love with one of her fellow students and ultimately finds peace with herself and hope for a bright future. The last song, "A Piece of Sky" is Yentl's song of triumph over her fears and the narrow attitudes that had kept her from realizing her dreams. Additionally, it's also the theme of one of the first essays I wrote as I learned to find my own voice as a writer. Although it took me many years to finally begin to come full circle and understand what this song really means, I am profoundly grateful to finally be experiencing something of the hope and freedom it speaks of - the gifts that are our birthright as beloved children of our Creator.

Therefore, with an appropriate dose of diva humor and healthy self-deprecation as well as profound and sincere gratitude to the God who continues to lead us out - from despair into hope, from darkness into light, from death into life - I dedicate this song to all the LGBT folk who are still "in" and afraid of what it might mean to live as who they really are. May God grant us all the grace to find true freedom, self-acceptance and peace, the capacity to realize we are loved and cherished exactly as we are and the courage we need to accept one of life's most profound truths - that deep within us and all around us have everything we need to overcome and be free, that each of us has the wings we need to truly fly.

With love and blessings,

Padre Chuck

A New Direction

As I mentioned in my last blog posting, I'd like to shift a little bit from now on in the focus of what I write. Although I'll still be returning from time to time to issues of church teaching and governance, I'd mostly just like to move on and share more of my own story and how I and other LGBT people of faith are finding ways to put discrimination and prejudice behind us and build lives of hope and blessing together in our communities.

Another factor I wanted to share is that this semester I'll be preparing for my qualifying exams in the graduate program in which I'm studying. Preparations for the exam will be taking up a lot of my time but my goal is to still keep blogging here fairly often, just more on topics around mine and others' personal stories and less on institutions and situations that no longer need to keep any of us from finding peace, joy and support in communities of faith and in loving committed partnerships.

As always thank you for listening and walking with me in this journey. I look forward to continuing to pray and grow in God's love here together.

Peace,

Padre Chuck

Some Food for Thought

As a way to conclude the series of reflections I've been offering in my recent postings, today I'd like to offer some further thoughts on the two primary reasons usually cited for opposition to loving same-sex commitments in the church and society. The first of these arguments holds that the Bible unequivocally condemns same-sex relationships. However, when we examine more carefully what the Bible actually says, it becomes clear that what appear to be anti-LGBT passages from Scripture are in truth either condemnations of temple prostitution and other rites practiced by the non-Jewish cultures that surrounded the ancient people of Israel and the early Christian church or are statements based on the disinclination of these same cultures to see men as in any way resembling women, since to do so would have threatened men's privileged position within these ancient patriarchal cultures.

As the above video excerpt from the popular television series "The West Wing" demonstrates quite compellingly, this first reason to oppose loving same-sex relationships (namely, the belief that Scripture condemns these relationships) is simply no longer valid. Solid biblical scholarship and conscientious discernment on the part of women and men of faith has demonstrated that the Bible simply has nothing to say (at least in the negative) regarding loving commitments between persons of the same sex.

So then that leaves just the second reason that's sometimes cited for opposing same-sex relationships: namely, that love between two people of the same sex is somehow unnatural. Proponents of this position (including the current Pope) hold that it is unambiguously self-evident from nature that the only legitimate way to exercise God's gift of sexuality is between persons of the opposite sex - love between two men or two women does not conform to this standard and is therefore to be condemned. However, the difficulty with this position is that it does not appear to be sustainable when its implications are considered. For instance, both the record of history and the testimony of women and men of faith and good will of our own time show that neither human life nor nature itself are as rigidly categorizable as the Pope and others would portray them. Many people experience primary sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex but a significant minority simply do not. Moreover, even those who do experience primary attraction to the opposite sex are not always "perfectly" masculine or feminine - many men and women display characteristics of the opposite sex that do not detract from their dignity but rather enhance and enrich it.

For that reason, the question then becomes one of the sustainability of the argument that holds that nature somehow preordains all males to feel attracted to females and vice versa and condemns as unnatural all who do not conform to this norm. If this were true and those with primary same-sex attraction are truly disordered and in need of restriction to a life of involuntary abstinence from sexual intimacy, then it follows that approximately 300 to 600 million of the world's inhabitants (5-10% of the world's population of around 6 billion) can legitimately be forced to remain celibate since it is self-evident that what they experience as their God-given heart's desire for meaningful relationships of love and commitment constitutes a tendency that is both perverse and unnatural and therefore to be condemned.

Now it seems fairly clear that this position would be difficult to sustain in reality. Of course, some may object that it wouldn't be surprising if few people chose to follow what they might say is a difficult demand of the Gospel - all of us who are Christians are called to carry our own cross after all, right? Now this is of course true. All believers in Christ must take up their cross and respond to the challenge to live lives of virtue, justice and peace in their own time. What I and not a few others would argue, however, is that what the current Pope and others are trying to impose on LGBT people is not the carrying of the cross but instead the perpetuation of a situation of grave injustice and oppression that has been sustained against us for many centuries.

Here's another way to think about it. What if Jesus had said to the many lepers, outcasts, demoniacs and others he healed that rather than be healed of their afflictions it was instead their destiny simply to "carry their cross" and accept their afflictions without question? Now this of course is absurd. In fact, it was the very healing and reaffirmation of their dignity these people experienced from Jesus that turned them into some of his most ardent defenders and most dedicated disciples - willing to risk their lives and carry their true cross. Or, what if Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s in the U.S. had told the people they served that they should "carry their cross" and meekly accept the oppression that afflicted them? Or what if Mahatma Gandhi had recommended to the people of India that they accept British rule indefinitely as an expression of their rightful place as servants of their oppressors.

Now of course we know that neither Jesus nor Martin Luther King nor Gandhi did this. Instead, they knew that the authentic way to elicit heroic virtue in human beings is not by perpetuating the oppression of their spirits but instead by freeing them of the forces that keep them down and helping them to rediscover their dignity as children of God. From there, from that liberation of spirit, virtually nothing is impossible.

In the particular case of the LGBT community, examples are already abundant of the inspiring things individuals and communities are capable of once they come into contact again with their dignity as beloved children of God. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people carry their true cross everyday all around us as they care for each other and their children, serve their churches, communities and countries, rise up for the liberation of other oppressed minorities, and persevere in dignity against all the odds in the face of the misguided statements and sentiments expressed against them, many of which only perpetuate the mindless hatred and violence that follows in their wake. Granted, the inclusion in the church and human society that the LGBT community is fighting for represents a change in some ways. There are of course important questions to discern together but the essence of the matter is that it is simply no longer a helpful strategy for the church in particular to bury its head in the sand and pretend that loving same-sex relationships don't exist and aren't already giving witness to the liberating power of God's love and thereby giving God glory and praise.

Without doubt God is already being glorified in this way. Without doubt a community is already rising up. Without doubt the first followers of Jesus, the African-American community fighting for its civil rights, the people of India arising for their liberation, and now the rising up of LGBT people all over the world all give witness to the amazing power of human dignity liberated from oppression manifesting itself in nonviolent and therefore unconquerable ways. May God continue to grant us all the strength to realize our dignity, arise from our oppression and give glory to God with our lives.

Now to those brave few who've read all the way to here I say thank you. I've felt in this first series of my blog entries that I just needed to articulate something of the position that LGBT people have come to in the church and the human community. I've wanted to show that it's not at all self-evident that Scripture, church tradition, or nature condemn loving, committed same-sex relationships and also that those who perpetuate such arguments are in fact the ones whose positions must be seriously examined in the light of faith and reason. I am far from the most qualified or adequately gifted person to articulate the position of LGBT people of faith but my hope is that some of my entries may have planted a few seeds and perhaps may help you or others you know to help begin your own journey of prayer, refection and study of these important questions. From now on in my blog I will focus less on articulating arguments for the LGBT position and will simply share more about my own path and reflections as a person of faith who also happens to be ordained, married and experience primary same-sex attraction.

Many thanks again for reading and I look forward to continuing to journey together in faith, hope, and love.

Padre Chuck

Some Reflections on Diversity

Today's video reflection comes from news coverage of a protest that took place last year in St. Paul, MN in the wake of anti-LGBT comments made by Archbishop John C. Nienstedt. Whether inspired out of true pastoral concern or not, the difficulty with the Archbishop's comments as well as the press release quoted near the end of the video is not so much the feeling behind them (whether good or bad) but the assumptions on which they're based.

As I've reflected on in several previous blog entries, the difficulty with current church teaching on homosexuality is that there is simply no acknowledgment of the diversity of the human community. For example, some women are gifted with aspects of themselves that are what we might traditionally understand as masculine and some men with aspects of themselves that are more traditionally feminine. There is nothing wrong with those of us who are this way. It's just who we are. It's simply how God made us. In fact, quite often it's the place within our souls where we experience most deeply God's love and freedom.

For that reason, although it's important to hold onto tradition and defend essential values, at the same time it's vitally important for the church not to become so rigid that it forgets that human life is much richer and more diverse than any of the categories we sometimes impose on it. Granted, categories and rules are necessary but without a complementary openness to diversity the rules start to lose their anchoring in reality and become an end in themselves.

May God grant all of us as a community of believers the grace to find ways to offer a vision of human sexuality that both challenges us to lead lives of virtue and offers us the chance to cultivate loving partnerships that will help us all to grow in our common call to holiness.

Peace and good wishes,
P. Chuck

Let It Shine

I thought that for my first posting of the year I'd share this short video, which brings together a number of images and scripture passages in support of LGBT liberation in churches and places of worship. There's still so much work to do and yet it's comforting to know that more and more people are beginning to see the light - realizing that there is simply no justification for discrimination and hate against people who simply want to love and serve God in the context of a loving partnership with another person.

Peace and blessings for the new year,

P. Chuck