My Brush with Fame & Scandal

I call this blog a Gay Spirit Diary. My goal is to integrate sex, love and faith in God, ideally through Christian same-sex marriage. I’m (slowly) writing a book about it, and here I explore some ideas — which is all a bit of buildup to telling you about my chat this afternoon with a [...]

Maine Catholics Lobby Against Gay Marriage

UPDATE: The legislature in Maine passed the Gay marriage bill May 6 and Gov. John Baldacci signed it. Whaddaya know, Democrats who act like Democrats. Hooray for Maine!

Richard Malone, Bishop of Portland, Maine.
I guess it’s no surprise, the Catholic Church hates Gay people, and calls us such charming phrases as “intrinsically disordered.”
In your being, [...]

God’s Total Approval of Us

Mark Dukes: Wedding Icon, St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco
This post is going to be the most experimental yet, because I’m writing about something I barely know. And yet I do know it, it’s just hard to pull together facts to cite to back up my claim.
God approves of Gay sexuality, exactly [...]

What’s So Bad about Lust?

I have no idea whether I’ll even hit Publish on this one, it’s pure speculation and wondering. The audience is me, not you.
But I know to make it as honest as I can, to get the most out of writing it. It’s funny, I have a fictional character (Kent) who doesn’t always know what [...]

James Purdy Has Died

The American writer James Purdy has died after a considerable illness, according to The New York Times, quoting his “close friend and assistant,” John Uecker. (Other sources call Mr. Uecker Purdy’s companion. Rather a difference, don’t you think?)
I knew about Purdy from two novels in the ’50s and ’60s, Eustace Chisholm and the Works, and [...]

My house is clean. Am I okay?

Ellen doing her Donna Reed impression
If cleanliness is next to godliness, I must be halfway to heaven by now.
I don’t know what’s come over me. I don’t even have laundry to do. Is that disgusting or what?
I say my prayers every day. There must be a virus going around.
For months I’ve been resisting God every [...]

Anglo, Not Catholic

Roman Catholicism would be just ducky if it didn’t include so many unbiblical concepts invented for logical consistency.
Purgatory? It’s not in there. It doesn’t exist.
And it’s profoundly un-graceful. God so loves us that s/he’s willing to forgive us again and again and again. Greater than our capacity to sin is God’s desire to forgive. [...]

Female Mutilation: We Don’t Know Why We Do It, but Religion Tells Us To

Sheelan, second from right and age 7, thinks her mother’s giving her a party. But she’s about to get cut.
Here’s the religious bone-chiller of the day, from the Washington Post:
For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual
The Widespread Practice of Female Circumcision in Iraq’s North Highlights The Plight of Women in a Region Often Seen as [...]

Obama & Warren: Way Too Cute

I’ve found myself since Friday posting a lot of comments on newspapers’ websites concerning the incoming President’s selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural.
I’ve used phrases like “megachurch huckster,” so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve also posted my displeasure on Obama’s “transition” website, change.gov.
This is not just an [...]

A Prayer Before Sex, a Song of Songs

For Those About to Make Love
Immortal One, now we’re getting naked, as you made us in deep affection, so that we can make holy love to one another: We praise you for the gift of this relationship; nothing reveals you more clearly to our souls than the face and body and spirit of our loved [...]