tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37352318466825433932024-03-21T06:02:52.652+00:00Queer Saints and Martyrs (and Others)A celebration of Queer people in Church HistoryTerencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-56955142516650023962012-12-08T14:21:00.000+00:002012-12-10T17:19:32.273+00:00James Stoll, Unitarian Pioneer of LGBT Inclusion in Church<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rev. James Lewis Stoll, who died on December 8th 1994, was a Unitarian Universalist minister who became the first ordained minister of any religion in the United States or Canada to come out as gay. He did so at the annual Continental Conference of Student Religious Liberals on September 5, 1969 in La Foret, Colorado. Later, he led the effort that convinced the Unitarian Universalist Association to pass the first-ever gay rights resolution in 1970. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">After training at Starr King School for the Ministry, in Berkeley, followed by ordination, he served as pastor at a church in Kennewick, Wash., from 1962 until 1969. For reasons that have not been disclosed, he was asked to resign, and then moved to San Francisco, where he shared an apartment with three others.</span></div>
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In September of 1969, he attended a convention of college-age Unitarians in Colorado Springs. One evening after dinner, he stood up and came out publicly as a gay man. He declared his orientation, stated that it was not a choice, that he was no longer ashamed of it, and that from then on, he would refuse to live a lie.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“On the second or third night of the conference,” according to Mr. Bond-Upson, “after dinner, Jim got up to speak. He told us that he’d been doing a lot of hard thinking that summer. Jim told us he could no longer live a lie. He’d been hiding his nature — his true self — from everyone except his closest friends. ‘If the revolution we’re in means anything,’ he said, ‘it means we have the right to be ourselves, without shame or fear.'</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">“Then he told us he was gay, and had always been gay, and it wasn’t a choice, and he wasn’t ashamed anymore and that he wasn’t going to hide it anymore, and from now on he was going to be himself in public. After he concluded, there was a dead silence, then a couple of the young women went up and hugged him, followed by general congratulations. The few who did not approve kept their peace.” ’</span></i></blockquote>
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After the convention, Stoll wrote articles on gay rights, and preached sermons on the subject at several churches. The following year, the full annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association passed a resolution condemning discrimination against homosexual persons, beginning a gradual but irresistible move towards full LGBT inclusion. </div>
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No action was ever taken by the church against Stoll, and so he remained a minister in good standing, but he was never again called to serve a congregation. It is not clear whether this had anything to do with lingering prejudice against his orientation. It could also be on the grounds of some suspicions of drug abuse, or of inappropriate sexual behaviour.</div>
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Later, he founded the first counseling center for gays and lesbians in San Francisco. In the 1970s he established the first hospice on Maui. He was president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1990s. He died at the age of 58 from complications of heart and lung disease, exacerbated by obesity and a life-long smoking habit</div>
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Stoll's name is not well known today, but for this brave and honest public witness, he deserves to be better remembered.In declaring himself, he was not the first ordained clergyman to come out, but he was the first to do so voluntarily, and the first in an established denomination. His action undoubtedly made it easier for the others who followed him, and to the formal acceptance by the Unitarians of openly gay men and lesbians in the church, and to the now well-established process to full LGBT inclusion in so many denominations.<br />
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He was not a Catholic, but in Catholic tradition today would be considered his "die natalis", or day of new birth in Christ. Remember him.</div>
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<i>S</i>ource:</div>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/us/18beliefs.html">Haunted Man of the Cloth, Pioneer of Gay Rights</a> <i>(NY Times)</i><br />
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-36768355046114981582012-12-01T23:31:00.000+00:002012-12-12T06:19:34.799+00:00Blessed Charles de Foucauld<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (Brother Charles of Jesus) was born in Strasbourg, France on September 15th, 1858. Orphaned at the age of six, he and his sister Marie were raised by their grandfather in whose footsteps he followed by taking up a military career.</blockquote>
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He lost his faith as an adolescent.His taste for easy living was well known to all and yet he showed that he could be strong willed and constant in difficult situations. He undertook a risky exploration of Morocco (1883-1884). Seeing the way Muslims expressed their faith questioned him and he began repeating, “My God, if you exist, let me come to know you.”</blockquote>
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On his return to France, the warm, respectful welcome he received from his deeply Christian family made him continue his search. Under the guidance of Fr. Huvelin he rediscovered God in October 1886.He was then 28 years old. “As soon as I believed in God, I understood that I could not do otherwise than to live for him alone.”</blockquote>
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A pilgrimage to the Holy Land revealed his vocation to him: to follow Jesus in his life at Nazareth.He spent 7 years as a Trappist, first in France and then at Akbès in Syria. Later he began to lead a life of prayer and adoration, alone, near a convent of Poor Clares in Nazareth.</div>
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Ordained a priest at 43 (1901) he left for the Sahara, living at first in Beni Abbès and later at Tamanrasset among the Tuaregs of the Hoggar. He wanted to be among those who were, “the furthest removed, the most abandoned.” He wanted all who drew close to him to find in him a brother, “a universal brother.” In a great respect for the culture and faith of those among whom he lived, his desire was to “shout the Gospel with his life”. “I would like to be sufficiently good that people would say, “If such is the servant, what must the Master be like?”</div>
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On the evening of December 1st 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders who had encircled his house.</div>
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He had always dreamed of sharing his vocation with others: after having written several rules for religious life, he came to the conclusion that this “life of Nazareth” could be led by all. Today the “spiritual family of Charles de Foucauld” encompasses several associations of the faithful, religious communities and secular institutes for both lay people and priests.</div>
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-Vatican News Service</div>
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For a possible gay connection, through his close friend Louis Massignon, see <a href="http://gaymystic.blogspot.com/2010/08/blessed-charles-de-foucauld-1858-1916.html">Gay Mystic</a>.:<br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Sometime ago, however, I received a personal communication via a White Father with many years experience in North Africa, (who is normally very defensive about the church and unwilling to relate negative comments about saintly figures) that Foucauld's death was caused in part as revenge for his practice of entertaining handsome young Tuareg men in his hermitage in the evenings. Rumors also suggest that the 15 year old boy was something other than a guard. This source did not affirm any improprieties on Blessed Charles' part, (and I for one, would not believe them, if they did), but they do suggest a predilection for beautiful young males. The rumors, like swirls of dust in the desert, are difficult to credit because of Charles' own dissolute early life and female lovers, but then, who knows? Read below of his very close connection to the great Islamic scholar, Louis Massignon, who underwent a great psychological crisis because of his own homosexuality, and who partly attributed his conversion to Christianity to Charles de Foucauld. Blessed Charles would later name Massignon the executor of his will and Massignon was responsible for publishing Charles' Rule for the Little Brothers of Jesus.</span></i></div>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-85551362659369614852012-11-30T09:51:00.000+00:002012-12-12T06:20:36.229+00:00Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos: "The Spouse of Christ"<div style="text-align: justify;">
In Catholic spiritual tradition, there is an important and honoured place for the idea of "The Bride of Christ". At one level, we are taught to think of the Church as a whole as such a bride of Christ, and the wedding at Cana as a metaphor for the marriage of Christ to his bride, the Church. At another level, religious women think of themselves as forgoing human marriage, to become brides of Christ. The image is a powerful and valuable one, in developing that personal relationship with the Lord that we seek - but where does it leave men, who may find it difficult to imagine themselves as brides?</div>
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Surprisingly perhaps, Catholic tradition provides an equivalent route for men - at least, for gay men, and others who are not threatened by thoughts of homoerotic attraction. Gerald Loughlin has described a medieval German tradition in which the wedding at Cana was seen as celebrating the wedding of Christ and his "beloved disciple" (assumed to be John the Evangelist). St John of the Cross used extensive homoerotic imagery in his mystical writing. Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos combined both of these ideas, taking them to their logical conclusion. As Kittredge Cherry noted at Jesus in Love blog, <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2011/11/blessed-bernardo-de-hoyos-mystical-same.html">in a valuable post for his feast day</a> (yesterday, November 29th), Blessed Bernardo saw himself, in a mystical vision, as marrying Christ - as a man, becoming not a bride, but a "Groom of Christ". </div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Always holding my right hand, the Lord had me occupy the empty throne; then He fitted on my finger a gold ring.... “May this ring be an earnest of our love. You are Mine, and I am yours. You may call yourself and sign Bernardo de Jesus, thus, as I said to my spouse, Santa Teresa, you are Bernardo de Jesus and I am Jesus de Bernardo. My honor is yours; your honor is Mine. Consider My glory that of your Spouse; I will consider yours, that of My spouse. All Mine is yours, and all yours is Mine. What I am by nature you share by grace. You and I are one!”</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">(quoted at Jesus in Love from “The Visions of Bernard Francis De Hoyos, S.J.[Image]” by Henri Bechard, S.J.)</span></i></div>
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Kittredge observes, quite correctly,<br>
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<span 20px="20px" class="Apple-style-span" line-height:="line-height:"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><i>While the Catholic church refuses to bless same-sex marriages, the lives and visions of its own saints tell a far different story -- in which Christ the Bridegroom gladly joins himself in marriage with a man.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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Michael Bayley at the Wild Reed, who drew my attention to Kittredge's post, thinks that we should declare Bernardo the patron saint of Catholic for Marriage Equality, MN. Why not the patron saint of marriage equality - period?</div>
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<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2011/11/blessed-bernardo-de-hoyos-spouse-of.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-71987408285187754062012-11-27T09:42:00.000+00:002012-12-10T17:14:56.747+00:00Harvey Milk<em>b. May 22, 1930</em> <br /><em>d. November 27, 1978</em><br />
<img height="4" src="http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/2006/images/clear.gif" width="10" /><br />
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<strong>Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected to a significant public office when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He served eleven months before he was assassinated.</strong></blockquote>
<img height="4" src="http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/2006/images/clear.gif" width="10" /><br />
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<em>"The important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it."</em></div>
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<img height="4" src="http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/2006/images/clear.gif" width="10" /><img height="202" src="http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/2006/thumbs/10a.jpg" width="134" /> </div>
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Harvey Milk was a New Yorker who migrated to San Francisco in the 1970's, when an influx of gay immigrants from across the country was changing the Castro neighborhood into the city's gay village. Milk opened a camera store and founded the Castro Valley Association of local merchants. His willingness to represent the interests of local merchants with city government earned him the unofficial title of "the Mayor of Castro Street." Milk discovered that he had a natural flair for politics. </div>
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Milk was a political outsider and a populist who made his own rules. From his shop in the Castro, he ran grassroots campaigns based on relentless meetings, door-to-door canvassing, and media interviews. His supporters formed "human billboards" by standing along major thoroughfares holding placards. Milk's first three tries for office were unsuccessful, but they gave him increasing credibility with the electorate.</div>
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When Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, a lesbian wrote, "I thank God I have lived long enough to see my kind emerge from the shadows and join the human race."</div>
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Milk was shot to death in his City Hall office on Nov. 27, 1978, by Dan White, a conservative anti-gay former supervisor who also murdered Mayor George Moscone. White was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years imprisonment. City-wide violence erupted in San Francisco when White's sentence was announced.</div>
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Harvey Milk had forebodings of his assassination. He left a tape-recorded "political will" naming his preferred successor on the Board of Supervisors. On that tape he said: "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."</div>
<b>Bibliography:</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.html">Cloud, John, "Harvey Milk," Profile in The Time 100, June 14, 1999.</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VPE70G?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002VPE70G">Shilts, Randy: The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002VPE70G" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> </li>
</ul>
<strong>DVD</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001Y4LDW?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0001Y4LDW">The Times of Harvey Milk (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0001Y4LDW" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; margin: 0px;" width="1" /> </li>
</ul>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-73584077115345821652012-11-09T00:00:00.000+00:002012-11-10T11:17:03.853+00:00Nov 9th: St. Matrona/Babylas of Perge<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">St Matrona /Babylas of Perge is one of a number of female saints in the early church who dressed as men to be admitted to all-male monasteries. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">The stories and motives of these women are remote from our time, and 'transvestite' is not to be confused with 'transgendered'. Still, whatever the full historic truth, it seems to me these are useful stories to hold on to as reminders of the important place of the transgendered, and differently gendered, in our midst. Many of us will remember how difficult and challenging was the process of recognising, and then confronting, our identities as lesbian or gay, particularly in the context of a hostile church. However difficult and challenging we may have found the process of honestly confronting our sexual identities, consider how much more challenging must be the process of confronting and negotiating honestly a full gender identity crisis. Their stories collectively also carry a sobering reminder of the differing regard given by society of the time to male and female lives - else why would women have sought out male monasteries, in spite of the risks and discomfort to themselves of their lives in disguise, if not expectation of some greater spiritual reward than in a female convent? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #500000; font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;">Our Holy Mother Matrona (492 AD):</span></div><div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">She was from Perga in Pamphylia, and married very young, to a youth named Domitian, to whom she bore a daughter. The couple settled in Constantinople. Matrona became so constant in attending all-night vigils in the city's many churches that her husband suspected her of infidelity and forbade her to go out. This was unbearable to Matrona, who fled the house with her daughter. Determined to embrace monastic life, she gave her daughter into the care of a nun named Susanna, disguised herself as a eunuch, and entered the monastery of St Bassian (October 10) under the name of Babylas. Though she amazed all with her zeal and ascetic labors, Bassian one day discerned that she was a woman. Though he reprimanded her severely because of her zeal, he was unwilling to drive her away from monastic life because of her zeal; so he directed her to go to Emesa in Syria to enter a certain women's monastery there.</span></i></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"> Matrona continued to advance in the virtues, and once healed a blind man by anointing his eyes with myrrh from the head of St John the Baptist (which had been miraculously discovered around that time). The miracle became widely-known, and because of it Matrona's husband learned of her whereabouts. When he came to her monastery she escaped to Jerusalem, but he pursued her there too. She fled from place to place, even living for several years in an abandoned pagan temple in Beirut, where she was constantly assaulted by the demons that inhabited the place. In time several pagan women, seeing her struggles, asked to be her disciples, and a small monastic community sprang up in the pagan temple. After a few years she and her disciples made their way back to to Constantinople, where St Bassian received her joyfully and helped her to establish a monastery. There she was visited by the Empress Verina, wife of Leo the Great, and many other noblewomen of the City, some of whom left all to join Matrona in monastic life. Saint Matrona lived to be almost one hundred years old and reposed in peace, having foretold the day of her death. </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #500000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #500000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #500000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">"<a href="http://www.abbamoses.com/months/december.html">God is Wonderful in His Saints</a>"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div></div></div></blockquote></div><div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">For much more on the history of Matrona / Babylas, see the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> <b style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; line-height: 19px;"> <a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=12378&action=edit" mce_href="http://">"</a><strong>The Life of St. Matrona of Perge, </strong>as given by Symeon Metaphrates"<strong>, </strong>(available on-line at the </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/matrona.html">Medieval Sourcebook</a>).</span></span></span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Recommended Book:</span></h6>Talbot, Alice-Mary: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088402248X?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=088402248X">Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=088402248X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Related articles</span></h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/11/nov-1st-all-gay-saints.html">Nov 1st: All (Gay) Saints </a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1017364155">St. Joan of Arc</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/03/st-joan-of-arc.html"> </a></span></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2009/11/trans-martyrs.html">Trans Martyrs</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2009/11/transvestite-saints.html">Cross-Dressing Monks</a></li>
</ul></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=ac823b1c-f409-4110-827b-1a973a08cb8f" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-10058574581692930922012-11-01T19:09:00.000+00:002017-09-27T14:34:09.824+01:00Nov Ist : All (Gay) Saints<div align="justify">
Are there gay saints? Some sources say clearly yes, listing numerous examples. Others dispute the idea, saying either that the examples quoted are not officially recognised, or denying that they were gay because we do not know that they were sexually active. Before discussing specifically LGBT or queer saints, consider a more general question. Who are the “Saints”, and why do we recognise them</div>
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?<img alt="All Saints Albrecht Dürer" class="size-medium wp-image-3464" height="300" src="https://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/all-saints-albrecht-durer1.jpg?w=269" title="All Saints Albrecht Dürer" width="269"></div>
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Richard McBrien gives one response, at <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/steady-ever-renewable-stream-saints">NCR on-line</a>: </div><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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<em><span style="color: blue;">There are many more saints in heaven than the relatively few who have been officially recognized by the church.</span></em> <em><span style="color: blue;">“For every St. Francis of Assisi or St. Rose of Lima there are thousands of unknown and long forgotten mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors, co-workers, nurses, teachers, manual laborers, and other individuals in various kinds of occupations who lived holy lives that were consistent with the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.</span></em> <em><span style="color: blue;">“Although each is in eternal glory, none of their names is attached to a liturgical feast, a parish church, a pious society, or any other ecclesiastical institution. The catch-all feast that we celebrate next week is all the recognition they're ever going to receive from the church.”</span></em> <em><span style="color: blue;">“The church makes saints in order to provide a steady, ever renewable stream of exemplars, or sacraments, of Christ, lest our following of Christ be reduced to some kind of abstract, intellectual exercise.</span></em></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Two things are important here: the category of saints is far larger than just those who have been recognised by a formal process; and the reason for giving them honour is to provide role models. It is not inherent to the tradition of honouring the saints that they should be miracle workers, or that we should be praying to them for special favours – although three officially attested miracles will help the formal canonization process. This formal process did not even exist in the early church: it was only in the 11th or 12 the century that saint making became the exclusive preserve of the Pope.</span> <span style="color: black;">It now becomes easier to make sense of the gay, lesbian and transvestite saints in Church history, and their importance.</span> </div>
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For some, their official recognition is not important – all that counts is their value as role models. If they are widely seen as such, we are entitled to call them so, even without clear canonized status.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Their </span>sexual conduct (celibate or non-celibate) is equally irrelevant to the label “gay.” There are some notable monks and priests who had deep, emotionally intimate love affairs with men but were known to remain celibate. This does not change their orientation, making them gay, any more than a celibate heterosexual is somehow not straight. With that out of the way, it becomes possible to recognise (and welcome)a wide range of lesbigaytrans saints in Christian and Jewish history, from Biblical times to the 21st century. It is important that we do so, to remind ourselves that we have always been a part of the church, that we have not always been rejected by the religious bigots, and that we can live lives of honour and holiness within the truth of who we are.<br />
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<strong>Some examples to think about:</strong> </div>
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<strong>David and Jonathan</strong>: A well-known story of biblical same-sex love. The possible sexual nature of this love is disputed : but this story, and that of Ruth & Naomi, remain the longest love stories told in Scripture </div>
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<strong>Ruth & Naomi</strong>: See above <a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/gay-saints/ss-sergius-bacchus/" target="_blank">SS Sergius & Bacchus </a>Roman soldiers, lovers and martyrs. These are the best known of the gay saints , and are often regarded as patronal saints by gay Christians. </div>
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<strong>Felicity & Perpetua</strong>. Two Roman women martyred together, they are often named as counterparts to Sergius & Bacchus </div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/st-paulinus-of-nola-gay-bishop/" target="_blank" title="Edit “St Paulinus of Nola, gay Bishop.”"><b>St Paulinus of Nola, gay Bishop.</b></a> Paulinus is well accepted as a recognised Catholic saint, with entries in all the standard Catholic reference books recording his ministry and hsi highly regarded poetry. What these don't tell you, is that some of this was erotic love poetry addressed to his boyfriend.<br />
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/saint-apollinaria-transvestite-saint/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Saint Apollinaria: Transvestite Saint?”"><b>Saint Apollinaria: Transvestite Saint?</b></a></div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/ss-symeon-of-emessa-john-hermits-saints-lovers/" target="_blank" title="Edit “SS Symeon of Emessa & John: Hermits, Saints & Lovers”"><i><b>SS Symeon of Emessa & John: Hermits, </b></i></a><a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/ss-symeon-of-emessa-john-hermits-saints-lovers/" target="_blank" title="Edit “SS Symeon of Emessa & John: Hermits, Saints & Lovers”"><i><b>Saints & Lovers</b></i></a><i><b> </b></i><i><b><a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/saint-apollinaria-transvestite-saint/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Saint Apollinaria: Transvestite Saint?”"></a></b></i></div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/aelred-of-rievaulx-12th-january/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Aelred of Rievaulx: 12th January”"><i><b>Aelred of Rievaulx: 12th January</b></i></a><i><b> </b></i></div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/gay-saints/st-anselm/" target="_blank" title="Edit “St Anselm”"><i><b>St Anselm</b></i></a><i><b> </b></i></div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/cardinal-newman/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Cardinal Newman”"><i><b>Cardinal Newman</b></i></a><i><b> </b></i></div>
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<strong>Some Modern Saints<em> (discussed at "Jesus in Love " blog)</em></strong> </div>
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<a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2009/09/gay-saint-of-911-mychal-judge.html" target="_blank">Fr Mychal Judge</a> (NY fire service Catholic chaplain, died in twin towers.) </div>
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<a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2009/10/modern-gay-martyr-matthew-shepard.html">Matthew Shepard: Modern Gay Martyr</a> (Murdered in hate crime. Now remembered in Mathew Shephard Crimes Bill)</div>
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<strong>Previous posts (at<i> Queering the Church</i>):</strong> </div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/gay-saints-do-they-exist-do-they-matter/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Gay Saints: Do they exist? Do they matter?”">Gay Saints: Do they exist? Do they matter?</a> <a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/gay-saints/" target="_blank" title="Edit “'Gay Saints & Others'”">'</a></div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/gay-lovers-in-the-church-history/" target="_blank" title="Edit “Gay Lovers in Church History”">Gay Lovers in Church History</a> </div>
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<a href="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php" target="_blank" title="Edit “Gay Bishops, Gay Marriage: Catholic Church Consecrates Openly Gay Bishop in France!”">Gay Bishops, Gay Marriage: Catholic Church Consecrates Openly Gay Bishop in France!</a> </div>
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</b></div>
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<strong>Other Sites:</strong> </div>
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<strong><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20001205163500/www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-gaysts.html" target="_blank">Calendar of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Saints</a></strong></div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-53664409436006506462012-10-30T14:15:00.000+00:002012-12-10T17:15:57.088+00:00David Morley, Twice Martyred Gay Barman?<div style="text-align: justify;">
Saint Sebastian is unique among the recognized saints of the church for having been martyred not once, but twice. In the modern context, perhaps we can say the same of David "Sinders" Morley. Working and well-known as a gay barman, there is no doubt at all that Morley was openly gay. Living openly, he was bearing witness to the possibility of living honestly and openly as a gay man in London. In 1999, it almost cost him his life - and may have done five years later, in 2004.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-WQzL7h9_0g7mT30LSK4Io7mucp1-S0ydvZWzJABc-CnOmwFzxXV3UdYCyvFCCSx-S2JItKIFgcJofBShHIaQNLD-CvwCVxMe2jZl4-9WmX0BEFQbQ7v94Qu_JOTRPYdKm3o-xjEsmvg/s1600/David+Morley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-WQzL7h9_0g7mT30LSK4Io7mucp1-S0ydvZWzJABc-CnOmwFzxXV3UdYCyvFCCSx-S2JItKIFgcJofBShHIaQNLD-CvwCVxMe2jZl4-9WmX0BEFQbQ7v94Qu_JOTRPYdKm3o-xjEsmvg/s320/David+Morley.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On 30th April, 1999, Morley was on duty at the Admiral Duncan pub in London's Old Compton Street when it was hit by a nail bomb attack, which killed three people and wounded about 70 others. Morley was injured, not killed, and ignoring his own burns, he set about helping others who were more seriously wounded as best he could.<br />
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Five years later, he was killed in a late night assault, which may have been prompted by homophobia, by a group of teenagers outside Waterloo station. </div>
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Religious leaders who rant about the supposed "evils" of same-sex love need to know that this is irresponsible. Such talk promotes hatred, hatred breeds violence. </div>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-81490775586606552852012-10-30T13:13:00.000+00:002012-12-12T06:21:41.222+00:00Ramon Navarro ( 1899 – 1968), Victim of the Catholic Closet.<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ramon Navarro was once the leading Latin actor in movies after the death of Rudolph Valentino, starring in several major silent films and early talkies, in the late 1920's and early 1930's. He was killed on October 30th by two sex-workers he had hired from an agency, in attempt to extort from him some of his perceived, but non-existent wealth. I see this tragic death as a sad symbol of the dangers of life in the closet, which had been forced on him by the twin pressures of his conflicts over sexuality and this Catholicism, and the constraints of the Hollywood publicists.</div>
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Those of us who are able to live out and proud in spite of the Vatican's disordered sexual teaching, are able to form sound, healthy and adult relationships. Those who live in the closet are forced to live alone in solitude, or in sham marriages - such as the system of lavender marriages imposed by Hollywood on its sex-symbol gay and lesbian stars. </div>
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Some Catholics living alone will attempt to live a strictly celibate life in accordance with Catholic teaching - some may even succeed. Many others straddle an uneasy divide, between attempted celibacy, and sexual encounters in the closet. Especially for older men, sometimes the only feasible outlets are the seedier ones, in public toilets, or with commercial trade. Both can be dangerous.</div>
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Ramon Navarro resisted the Hollywood pressure to enter a Hollywood marriage, and for a time was able to sustain a meaningful, but closeted relationship with his publicist, Herbert Howe, until the latter's death in 1959. <br />
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Some years later, in October 1969, he hired two brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson (aged 22 and 17, respectively), to come to his home for sex. Mistakenly believing that there was a large sum of money in the house, the two then assaulted and tortured Navarro for some hours, hoping to force him to reveal the whereabouts of the cash. They eventually left with just $20. Navarro died of asphyxiation, having choked on his own blood.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">It is probable that what most offends opponents of the "gay lifestyle" is its association in their minds with the kind of anonymous, impersonal sexual activities that take place in public toilets, backroom bars and in commercial transactions. What they fail to observe, is that these are less typical of gay men in open and publicly affirmed partnerships, than of those who remain closeted. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">The best way to reduce the seedier, and more dangerous, elements in gay lives, is to support marriage equality.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/99tqAsa6HsY" width="420"></iframe><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Novarro">Raymond Navarro</a>. Wikipedia</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="http://www.glbtq.com/arts/film_actors_gay.html">Film Actors, Gay Male</a>, glbtq encyclopedia </span></span></div>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-30230680391268560372012-10-27T14:54:00.000+01:002012-10-27T09:25:57.614+01:00Allen R Schindler Jr,. Naval Gay Martyr<div style="text-align: justify;">
Radioman Petty Officer Third Class in the United States Navy. On October 27, 1992, he was killed in a public toilet in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan by shipmate Terry M. Helvey, who acted with the aid of an accomplice, Charles Vins, in what Esquire called a "brutal murder". Schindler was gay, and had previously complained to naval authorities of harassment, including death threats in comments such as "There's a faggot on this ship and he should die". Conscious of the dangers to his personal safety, he had begun separation process to leave the Navy, but his superiors insisted he remain on his ship until the process was finished. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> The good military man that he was, he obeyed orders, and remained in the Navy, waiting to be discharged. Instead, he was murdered for being gay - a modern gay martyr, killed for not hiding his sexuality.</span></div>
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Prior to the attack, President Bill Clinton had promised to sign an executive order to permit gay service members to serve openly in the military - but did not keep his promise. Perhaps it was encouragement from this suggestion of a change in the military climate that encouraged him to complaint to his chain of command, but if so his action backfired badly. Instead of protection from dismissal, his commanding officer simply threatened him with a dishonourable discharge - and within days, news of the complaint, and with it confirmation that he was indeed gay, was public knowledge all over the ship.</div>
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On the day of the attack, Helvey and Vins had purchased (between just two people) two large bottles of whiskey, a bottle of schnapps, a bottle of vodka, orange juice and a six-pack of beer and went drinking in a park, where they saw Schindler, and followed him into a public restroom. In a completely unprovoked attack, Helvey assaulted Schindler with fists and feet, leaving him so badly mutilated that medical evidence described the body as similar in its wounds to those that might be sustained by being stomped on by a horse, or from a high speed car crash, or even in a low speed aircraft accident. The body was so badly mutilated, that Schindler's family were unable to recognize him, except by tattoo marks on his arms.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">During the trial Helvey denied that he killed Schindler because he was gay, stating, "I did not attack him because he was homosexual" but evidence presented by Navy investigator, Kennon F. Privette, from the interrogation of Helvey the day after the murder showed otherwise. "He said he hated homosexuals. He was disgusted by them," Privette said. On killing Schindler, Privette quoted Helvey as saying: "I don't regret it. I'd do it again. ... He deserved it."</span></i></blockquote>
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After his death, the naval authorities that had failed to protect him, continued to behave shamefully, initially denying that they had received any complaints of harassment. They refused to speak publicly about the case or to release the Japanese murder report, and were "less than forthcoming" even to Schindler's mother.<br />
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Truth however, will out. Helvey and Vins eventually faced a trial in open court. Helvey received a life sentence for murder, and Vins served a 78-day sentence before receiving a general discharge from the Navy in plea bargain to lesser offences, including failure to report a serious crime and to testify truthfully against Terry Helvey. The captain who kept the incident quiet was demoted and transferred to Florida.<br />
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The case was one of the impulses to the passing of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which for all its manifest faults, was initially an attempt to provide some form of protection to gays and lesbians in the military (provided they "didn't tell".<br />
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(Also see Kittredge Cherry's reflection at Jesus in Love, and a wonderful painting of <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2011/10/allen-schindler-gay-martyr-and-military.html">The Murder of Allen Schindler</a> by Matthew Wettlaufer)<br />
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_R._Schindler,_Jr.">Allen J Schnidler</a>, Wikipedia,<br />
<a href="http://www.auschwitz.dk/Allen.htm">Allen Schindler, in memoriam</a>, at Auschwitz.dk<br />
<a href="http://andrejkoymasky.com/mem/schi/all1.html">Allen R. Schindler, Jr.,Petty Officer Third Class, United States Navy</a> at Matt and Andrej Koymasky's Memorial Hall<br />
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-9304874543721019602012-10-27T10:50:00.000+01:002017-09-27T14:34:52.606+01:00Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam<div style="text-align: justify;">
Erasmus, born on the 27th October 1466, was a Dutch humanist and theologian, who merits serious consideration by queer people of faith.<br />
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Born Gerrit Gerritszoon, he became far better known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam: Erasmus was his saint's name, after St. Erasmus of Formiae; Rotterdam, for the place of his birth (although he never lived there after the first few years of early childhood; and "Desiderius" a name he gave himself - "the one who is desired".</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Erasmus, the "gay icon"?</h3>
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Some LGBT activists have hailed Erasmus as a gay icon from history. <a href="http://www.circa-club.com/gallery/gay_history_icons_desiderius_the_desired_one_erasmus.php#">Circa Club</a> for instance has no doubt, using that precise term and including Erasmus in it's collection of historical gay icons. The primary basis of the claim is a series of <a href="http://www.erasmatazz.com/TheLibrary/ErasmusTheHero/NotGay/Servatius/Servatius.html">passionate love letters</a> he wrote to a young monk Servatius Roger, and allegations of improper advances made to the young Thomas Grey, later Marquis of Dorset, while employed as his tutor.</div><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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Others are unconvinced, pointing out that the nature of friendship between men, and the form of expressions of affection between them, were very different in Erasmus' day to ours. They also point out that there were never any direct allegations of physical relations with Grey, or with anyone else. This argument largely rests on the assumption that in a time of marked public opposition (and official persecution) of "sodomy", any suggestion of homosexual intercourse would have provoked strong denunciation and even prosecution. I am not convinced by either side.</div>
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Erasmus was certainly not "gay" in any modern sense. The use of the term "gay icon" for any man of the Renaissance period, and particularly for a priest, is clearly anachronistic, and inappropriate. It is also true that expressions of "love" in the letters to Servatius may be no more than expressions of Platonic affection, expressed a little more effusively (but not much more so) than was customary at the time. We cannot say for certain that he was sexually active with men.</div>
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But the absence of proof also does not disprove the hypothesis. As a priest, Erasmus was expected to be celibate. There is also no evidence of sexual relations with women, but that does not disprove that he was heterosexual. The claims that the strong climate of opposition to sodomy "would have" resulted in public exposure are also invalid. Over several centuries, thousands of "sodomites" were tried and executed - but the meaning of the term was vague and variable, including everything from "unnatural" (i,e, anal or oral) intercourse between husband and wife, to witchcraft and heresy, to treason. In post-Reformation England, it was even sometimes used interchangeably with "popery", as Catholicism was also viewed as treason against the English monarchy. In fact, many of those convicted may have been the victims simply of malice and grossly unfair criminal procedures, and completely innocent of sexual non-conformity - and very many more who were indeed engaging in homosexual activities were left entirely unhindered.</div>
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The matter of Erasmus' sexual activities is at best undecided - and also irrelevant. To focus on "did he or didn't he" is to make the mistake of the homophobes, who are convinced that homoerotic relationships are all about genital sex. It is enough for me to note that whatever the physical relationship may or may not have been, there was a definite, powerful and emotionally intimate relationship between Erasmus and Serviatus.</div>
I also like this quotation, from his "In praise of marriage":<br />
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">I have no patience with those who say that sexual excitement is shameful and that venereal stimuli have their origin not in nature, but in sin. Nothing is so far from the truth. As if marriage, whose function cannot be fulfilled without these incitements, did not rise above blame. In other living creatures, where do these incitements come from? From nature or from sin? From nature, of course. It must be borne in mind that in the appetites of the body there is very little difference between man and other living creatures. Finally, we defile by our imagination what of its own nature is fair and holy. If we were willing to evaluate things not according to the opinion of the crowd, but according to nature itself, how is it less repulsive to eat, chew, digest, evacuate, and sleep after the fashion of dumb animals, than to enjoy lawful and permitted carnal relations?</span></em></div>
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-In Praise of Marriage (1519), in Erasmus on Women (1996) Erika Rummel</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Erasmus, the scholarly reformer.</h3>
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It is not his sexuality that most impresses me, but his legacy as a scholar and church reformer. His career spanned the years leading up to, and after, Luther's break with the Catholic Church that became the Protestant Reformation. Prior to the split, Erasmus had himself been fiercely critical of the Church, arguing forcefully for reform of the many and manifold abuses. He had close relationships with Luther and many other leading members of the Reformation movement, which his ideas strongly influenced. However, when the break came, he chose to remain formally inside the church structures, and not outside of it.</div>
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LGBT Christians are often attacked by others for remaining inside a religion which is seen as inimical to gay interests, and so to be siding with the enemy of gay liberation, but this is simplistic. Erasmus' response to the reformers was that it was the abuses that needed to be destroyed, not the church itself - an argument that applies equally strongly to the situation today, in respect of sexuality. The restricted, misguided view of sexuality promoted by some claiming the authority of religion, is not inherent in the Christian religion, but has been imposed on it to promote a particular heterosexual agenda. It is this abuse that we must oppose, not Christianity.</div>
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In doing so, we should also learn from Erasmus' methods. Among his criticisms of the Church was its heavy dependence on medieval scholastic theology, with its elaborate structure of speculative philosophy. Instead, he went back to the sources, to build his theology on a sounder structure of evidence. Recognizing the inadequacies of the Latin Vulgate bible, he devoted himself to the study of Greek, and eventually published a more reliable Latin translation (which came to replace the Vulgate, with a parallel Greek text), He also wrote a series of treatises on several of the church fathers.</div>
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Queer theologians today are doing something similar. Instead of sitting back meekly and accepting the received ideas on the Bible's supposed condemnation of homosexuality, they have gone back to the roots of Biblical scholarship, closely studying the texts in the original Hebrew and Greek, and paying close attention to the full literary analysis and contextual considerations. They have demonstrated the weaknesses of the traditional interpretations, and have earned the concurrence of many heterosexual colleagues. This reassessment of the Biblical evidence has been one of the important factors in the present moves to greater LGBT inclusion in church, as pastors or in rites for recognizing same-sex unions. Other theologians have resisted the received opposition by ignoring scholastic monolith, and going back to the source of the Christian religion - Christ himself, as revealed in the Scriptures. Others again, emphasise the importance of a personal relationship with God, through prayer, in place of unthinking deference to the human authority of clerical oligarchs.</div>
<h3>
Erasmus, the man in the middle.</h3>
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In the build-up to the Reformation, Erasmus aimed to avoid taking sides in the split. His thinking was a definite influence on the reformist cause, and was later accused of having "laid the egg that hatched the Reformation". His response was that he had hoped it would lay a different bird. He worked hard to retain good relationships with both sides and to keep the peace between them, but in the end, his reward was to be viewed with some suspicion and resentment by both sides. By Catholics, for having fostered the reformist thinking in the first place, and by Reformists for having deserted them at the end.</div>
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Queer people of faith will sympathise. We too aim to straddle two camps- and are frequently attacked from both sides: by some traditionalists Christians for our supposed sexual sin, and by secular gay activists for siding with the enemy,</div>
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May the example of Desiderius Erasmus sustain us in our endeavour.<br />
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">Books:</strong></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Boisvert, Donald :</strong> </strong><a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829815236/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0829815236" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829815236/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0829815236" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Sanctity And Male Desire: A Gay Reading Of Saints</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829815236&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829815236&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">Boisvert, Donald :</strong> <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829813691/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0829813691" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829813691/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0829813691" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Out on Holy Ground: Meditations on Gay Men's Spirituality</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829813691&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829813691&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">Boswell, John: </strong><a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226067114/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226067114" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226067114/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226067114" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality</a></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">Boswell, John:</strong> <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679751645/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0679751645" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679751645/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0679751645" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679751645&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679751645&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">Bray, Alan</strong>: <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226071812/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226071812" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226071812/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226071812" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Friend</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226071812&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226071812&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Cleaver, Richard:</strong> <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0664255760/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0664255760" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0664255760/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0664255760" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Know My Name - A Gay Liberation Theology</a></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Jordan, Mark D:</strong><a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226410412/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226410412" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226410412/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0226410412" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226410412&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226410412&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; color: #444444; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"> </span></div>
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<strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;">O'Neill: </strong><a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426925050/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1426925050" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426925050/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1426925050" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People</a><img alt="" data-mce-src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1426925050&camp=217145&creative=399349" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1426925050&camp=217145&creative=399349" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px;" width="1"></div>
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<h4 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Related articles at Queering the Church, and at Queer Saints and Martyrs:</strong></h4>
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<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-queer-family-in-the-book-of-ruth/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-queer-family-in-the-book-of-ruth/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Queer Family in the Book of Ruth</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queertheology.blogspot.com/2011/03/transformation-of-christian-response-to.html" href="http://queertheology.blogspot.com/2011/03/transformation-of-christian-response-to.html" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Transformation of Christian Response to Homoerotic Love</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2011/04/23/the-queer-passion-in-art-the-crucifixion/" href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2011/04/23/the-queer-passion-in-art-the-crucifixion/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Queer Passion, in Art: The Crucifixion</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queeringthechurch.com/queer-saints-martyrs-and-others/queer-saints-and-martyrs-thematic-groups/gay-lovers-in-church-history/" href="http://queeringthechurch.com/queer-saints-martyrs-and-others/queer-saints-and-martyrs-thematic-groups/gay-lovers-in-church-history/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Same Sex Lovers in Church History</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2010/03/08/the-spiritual-gifts-of-gay-sexuality/" href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2010/03/08/the-spiritual-gifts-of-gay-sexuality/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;" title="Edit “The Spiritual Gifts of Gay Sexuality”">The Spiritual Gifts of Gay Sexuality</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2009/08/29/the-homoerotic-catholic-church/" href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2009/08/29/the-homoerotic-catholic-church/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Homoerotic Catholic Church</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2010/12/14/st-john-of-the-cross-14th-december/" href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2010/12/14/st-john-of-the-cross-14th-december/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;" title="Edit “St John of the Cross: 14th December”">St John of the Cross: 14th December</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/nov-ist-all-gay-saints/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/nov-ist-all-gay-saints/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">November 1st: All (Gay) Saints</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-story-of-the-queer-saints-and-martyrs-synopsis/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-story-of-the-queer-saints-and-martyrs-synopsis/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">The Story of the Queer Saints and Martyrs (Synopsis)</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/calendar-of-queer-saints-and-martyrs/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/calendar-of-queer-saints-and-martyrs/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Calendar of Queer Saints and Martyrs</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/catholic-queer-families-ss-bernard-of-clairvaux-and-malachy/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/catholic-queer-families-ss-bernard-of-clairvaux-and-malachy/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Catholic Queer Families: SS Bernard of Clairvaux and Malachy</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/some-gods-of-homosexual-love/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/some-gods-of-homosexual-love/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Some Gods of Homosexual Love</a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/sergius-bacchus-october-7th-patron-saints-of-gay-marriage/" href="http://queersaints.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/sergius-bacchus-october-7th-patron-saints-of-gay-marriage/" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;">Sergius and Bacchus, Patron Saints of Gay Marriage</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-80558445160867035732012-10-24T13:56:00.000+01:002012-10-27T09:28:17.120+01:00Jerome Duquesnoy II , Burned October 24th, 1654<div style="text-align: justify;">
On 24th October, 1645, the sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy II was bound to a stake in the Grain Market in the center of Ghent, strangled and burnt. His crime (which he strenuously denied) was sodomy, with two boys, assistants who had been working with him on what should have been his masterpiece , the mausoleum of Antoine Triest, bishop of Ghent. </div>
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From a modern perspective, the issue here is that of child abuse, but that is not the way it would have been seen in the 17th century: similar activities with girls of the same age would have passed without comment. The issue then was same-gender sexual activity. The age of his partners was of minor importance - in many similar cases, the boys were also punished for their part in the "crime". In common with thousands of other men between the fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries, he was executed for no other reason than the allegation that his sexual life was directed at his own sex. </div>
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Most of these men are known to us only by the sketchiest of details, but with Duquesnoy we know more than with most, thanks to his family background, and his own artistic legacy. His father, also Jerome Duquesnoy, was a notable sculptor, famed today for the statue "Mannekin pis", so beloved of tourists in Brussels. Jerome II, and his brother François , were also sculptors, like their father.<br />
<br />
François today has a definite place of his own in art history: his brother Jerome in all likelihood would have done so too. Like his brother, he served an apprenticeship in their father's workshop, and studied alongside François in Rome, under some of the greatest sculptors of the age. Later, he attracted the attention and patronage of powerful figures, including the king of Spain, and the bishop of Ghent, before the accusations and subsequent execution abruptly ended his career.<br />
<br />
His reputation as a sculptor was tarnished by the circumstances of his death. In common with the practice of the time, his name was removed from many of his works, and his career literally was forgotten, but he is now re-emerging from the artistic shadows as a result of work by dedicated twentieth-century scholars. :<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4xasMdW9thOFFsloTSbyu6QHgclyG8Z8ZNk9fLAwL2RGMkjYrhxF96U5-PLN23R7FZxeNnLBw7DXDAkW9pjDsEjIhma4L-i6W8WVEsXk_Gt_BOIUFGsN38tvBtZN4P5c-3M9EiGM9f74/s1600/Infant+Hercules+Struggling+with+a+serpent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4xasMdW9thOFFsloTSbyu6QHgclyG8Z8ZNk9fLAwL2RGMkjYrhxF96U5-PLN23R7FZxeNnLBw7DXDAkW9pjDsEjIhma4L-i6W8WVEsXk_Gt_BOIUFGsN38tvBtZN4P5c-3M9EiGM9f74/s400/Infant+Hercules+Struggling+with+a+serpent.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infant Hercules<br />
struggling with a serpent</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote>
<i style="color: blue;">The execution of the Belgian sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy the Younger (1602-1654) must have served as a warning to other artists about the consequences of any "improprieties" in their lifestyles or their works. Although his reputation is today eclipsed by that of his elder brother, François, Jérôme Duquesnoy was widely regarded as a prominent sculptor during his lifetime.</i><br />
<br />
<i style="color: blue;">.....Duquesnoy's exuberant and appealing statues of young boys, such as Hercules Fighting with Serpents (ca 1650), attest to his sexual proclivities, which led to his downfall. In the Pietà (ca 1640), he envisioned a beautiful young angel, passionately kissing the arm of a sensual Christ. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Richard B Mann, </span><a href="http://www.glbtq.com/arts/eur_art1_baroque.html" style="color: blue;">glbtq encycloedia</a></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">......<span class="Apple-style-span"> he produced such famous works asGanymede and the Eagle of Jupiter (ca 1540-1545) andChildren and the Young Faun (ca 1542-1547). Many of Duquesnoy's works depict strong, muscled male figures in the Hellenic tradition, the polished bronze often seeming to mirror the sculptor's innate fondness for the form he was creating.</span></span></span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><i>For centuries after his death, Duquesnoy's reputation was both tarnished and repressed, and it is only recently that his works have enjoyed critical attention. A sculptor of remarkable talent, Duquesnoy's vigorous body of work finally serves to celebrate that talent rather than stand as a reminder of the sad end to a very promising career.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: right;">
<span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://michael%20g.%20cornelius/">Michael G. Cornelius, glbtq encycopedia</a></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;">
<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=4e7ab68d-9cfb-470f-9d0f-7165eb971093" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-47647637081048631172012-10-13T00:00:00.000+01:002012-10-14T17:58:25.352+01:00Théodore Beza, Calvinist Theologian and Church Reformer (June 24, 1519 - October 13, 1605)<div style="text-align: justify;">
If Théodore Beza had been Catholic, and honoured as a saint, the October 13th would be regarded as his "die natale", or day of new birth in heaven. He was not Catholic, but a Calvinist pillar of the Reformation, and so definitely not a recognized Catholic saint. He is honoured by Calvinists for his reformist theology, and deserves to be remembered by modern gay and lesbian Catholics as one of us: he had a male lover, Audebert, at a time when the Swiss Calvinists of Geneva were burning sodomites as enthusiastically as the Inquisition had done earlier in Spain and Italy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><i>Théodore De Bèsze, born at Vezelay (8 miles west-south-west of Avallon), in Burgundy, settled at Geneva, where he worked with Calvin, and succeeded him in 1564, as head of the reformed church at Geneva, a post he resigned in 1600. He wrote in defence of the burning of Servetus (1554), translated the New Testament into Latin, and presented in 1581 a 5th century Graeco-Latin manuscript of the Gospels and the Acts, the Codex Bezae, to Cambridge university.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biob3/beza01/beza1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biob3/beza01/beza1.jpg" /></a></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">His lover was Audebert. He published a collection of Latin poems, a book of amorous verse, <i>Juvenilia</i> (1548), which made him famous, and he was everywhere considered one of the best Latin poets of his time. In a poem in this collection, <i>De sua in Candidam et Audebertum benevolentia</i> he tells he is uncertain if to hug his friend Audebert or his friend Candida... and he concludes he embraces both of them, even though he prefers Audebert.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
-<a href="http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biob3/beza01.html">Matt & Andrej Komasky Living Room, LGBT Biographies</a></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-47996636974948788752012-10-09T20:58:00.000+01:002012-10-14T15:57:26.393+01:00Saint John Henry Newman?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span 17px="17px" class="Apple-style-span" line-height:="line-height:"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Blessed John Henry Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI at a Mass in Cofton Park, Birmingham on Sunday 19 September 2010. At the request of the Bishops he has been included in the National Calendar for England on 9 October as an optional memorial.</span></span></div>
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<img alt="cardinal-newman-ouless-405x600" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1408" height="300" src="http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/files/2009/07/cardinal-newman-ouless-405x600.jpg?w=202" title="cardinal-newman-ouless-405x600" width="202"></div>
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Newman deserves particular attention from LGBT Catholics for two reasons:</div>
<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2012/10/saint-john-henry-newman.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-31455153879171225312012-10-08T09:45:00.002+01:002012-10-08T09:45:57.045+01:00Hildegard of Bingen: Doctor of the ChurchWith the news that Hildegard of Bingen is one of the two people that Benedict has just named as doctors of the church, I repost below a portion of <a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2010/09/19/hildegard-of-bingen/">my post on her</a>, in my series on "Queer Saints and Martyrs".
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<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hildegard's name is one to be reckoned with. Although today we usually use the term "Renaissance Man" to indicate one with a wide range of learning to his credit, perhaps we should also recognize in a similar way some extraordinary medieval women -such as Hildegard, and others who entered convents and applied themselves with distinction to learning over many fields.</div>
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</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="600" src="http://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/410px-Hildegard.jpg" width="410" />
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</div>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have known a little (very little) about Hildegard for some time, and have come across suggestions of her possible lesbianism, but have not had enough knowledge to write about her myself. I was delighted then to find that my colleague <strong>Kittredge Cherry</strong> has done some digging, and produced a wonderful <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/09/hildegard-of-bingen-mystic-who-loved.html?showComment=1284832009693#comment-c6194682460003250695">extended post on this great woman</a>.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We need to be careful though not to confuse this undoubted emotional attachment with a sexual relationship. T<span style="text-align: justify;">he medieval church sanctioned and publicly approved many particular friendships between monks, and between nuns. These were not necessarily sexual. Although some undoubtedly were, others equally certainly were fully celibate. Indeed, there is much of value to reflect on in this connection, of relevance to modern gay men and lesbians.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kittredge Cherry, in the the post I took as my starting point, stated that "Some say she was a lesbian because of her strong emotional attachment to women". Sexuality, and its expression as emotional or sexual attachments, are two distinct issues. In modern terms, it is perfectly possible to be both gay and celibate (as a notable proportion of Catholic priests are), just as it is possible to be heterosexual in orientation, but celibate.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is a problem here in the use of the word "lesbian", a word, like "gay", which perhaps has inappropriate connotations when applied to earlier historical periods. However, what Kittredge has drawn attention to, and that I see as important, is the undeniable evidence of a powerful emotional (not sexual) attachment to women - and to one in particular.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With her newly elevated status, which draws attention to the enormous but neglected contributions of so many influential women, we also need to take another look at her specifically religious contribution. Sadly, I am unable to do this today - but will return to it later.</div>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">
Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/sisterrosemovies/2012/10/st-hildegard-of-bingen-prayer-supper-movie-with-a-saint/" target="_blank">St. Hildegard of Bingen: prayer, supper & movie with a saint</a> (patheos.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2012/09/hildegard-of-bingen-woman-loving-nun.html" target="_blank">Hildegard of Bingen: Woman-loving nun gets new honor from Pope</a> (jesusinlove.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.anamchara.com/2012/09/17/the-feast-of-saint-hildegard/" target="_blank">The Feast of Saint Hildegard</a> (anamchara.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/newest-doctor-of-the-church-her-visions-her-writings-and-her-secret-languag/" target="_blank">The visions, writings, and secret language of the newest Doctor of the Church...</a> (ncregister.com)</li>
</ul>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=15c51ac9-82ff-4320-afd8-aa31b3d9310e" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-80288495053433396092012-10-07T00:00:00.000+01:002017-09-27T14:30:27.709+01:00Sergius & Bacchus, October 7th: Patron Saints of Gay Marriage?<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sergius and Bacchus are by a long way the best known of the so-called gay or lesbian saints - unless we include as "saints" the biblical pairs David and Jonathan, and Ruth and Naomi. We need to be careful with terminology though: the word "gay" can be misleading, as it certainly cannot be applied with the same connotations as in modern usage, and technically, they are no longer recognised as saints by Western church, as decreed by the Vatican - but they are still honoured by the Orthodox churches, and by many others who choose to ignore the rulings of Vatican bureaucrats. The origins of saint-making lay in recognition by popular acclaim, not on decision by religious officials.</div>
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Whatever the quibbles we may have, they remain of great importance to modern queer Christians, both for their story of religious faith and personal devotion, and as potent symbols of how sexual minorities were accepted and welcomed in the earliest days of the Christian community.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
They are particularly important in the movement to marriage equality, for their significance in early rites of blessing same-sex unions in church, which may point a way to making a modern provision for something similar without necessarily changing the traditional understanding of church marriage to that between a man and a woman - with its link to child-bearing.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
(And, as I have written before, <a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/uncategorized/sergius-bacchus-and-me/" target="_blank">I have a very special personal connection</a> with this pair of early saints and martyrs for the faith. Like so many queer Catholics, it never occurred to me that there could even exist gay or lesbian Catholics until I heard of SS Sergius and Bacchus. Some months after first hearing of them, I read their story in John Boswell, and wondered when was their feast day. I investigated - and found by wonderful serendipity that it was that very day. That began for me a continuing exploration of the other LGBT saints, of the rest of gay history in the churches, of more general gay and lesbian theology - and this blog. By further serendipity, I discovered this week that today, the feast day of Sergius and Bacchus, is also the birthday of - Dan Savage, well known for his work to combat homophobic teen bullying. If Serge and Bacchus may be regarded as patrons saints of gay adults, is Dan Savage a modern patron saint of gay teens?).</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SerBac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:left;"><img alt="A modern icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus by..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" src="https://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/SerBac15.jpg" height="327" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="264"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 264px;">A modern icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus by the gay, Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz (Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SerBac.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
The Lovers' Story</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sergius and Bacchus were third /fourth century Roman soldiers, and lovers. This alone is worth noting in any discussion of homoerotic relationships and the early Christians: in the Roman world, as in most of the Mediterranean region, such relationships were commonplace. What mattered in questions of sexual ethics and social approval (or otherwise) had little to do with the gender of the partners, but with their respective social status.</div>
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They were of high social standing, good enough to have a close personal relationship with the emperor, Tertullian. This provoked jealousy. They were also Christians, which gave their enemies a useful pretext to denounce them to the Emperor. He ordered them to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, which they refused to do. Their refusal provoked the wrath of the emperor, who began to exact a series of penalties, culminating in the sentence of death. The first to be killed was Bacchus, who was flogged to death. Serge was subjected to further torture, before being killed himself. The fifth century "Passion of Sergius and Bacchus" describes many details, and also some supposed miraculous interventions, such as the dead Bacchus appearing to Sergius in a vision, where he admonished his partner for grieving, and promised that they would soon be together again:</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: navy;"><em>Why do you grieve and mourn, brother? If I have been taken away from you in body, I am still with you in the bond of union, chanting and reciting, "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shall enlarge my heart". </em></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Boswell makes two points about the trial and passion of Sergius and Bacchus that are especially relevant to their significance for queer Christians: in all the legal and theological arguments over the charges against them, the matter of their relationship was simply not an issue. The complaint was that they had refused to honour pagan gods. Their sexuality was of no consequence at all. Later, when the Greek hagiographer has the dead Bacchus appear to Sergius to comfort him with the prospect of paradise, the greatest joy of the promised afterlife is to be reunited with his male lover. Neither the Roman jurists, nor the fifth century Christian writer who recorded the passion, have anything at all to say against the relationship - and the Christian celebrates the quality and value of their love.</div>
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<h4>
Sergius and Bacchus & Gay Marriage</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is simply historically untrue that marriage has always been between one man and one woman, or that same-sex marriage is a modern invention. Among many counter-examples that easily disprove that belief, is the tradition of liturgical blessings, in church, of same-sex unions as described by the ground-breaking historical work of John Boswell. While these were not in any way an exact counterpart to modern marriage (nor were heterosexual unions from the same period), they do no need to be considered carefully in modern responses in faith to the questions around marriage and family equality. Sergius and Bacchus are significant here, for being mentioned by name in many of the liturgies for these rites that have survived, along with numerous other, less familiar examples of same-sex couples from church history.<br />
<br /></div>
There are also surviving texts of ancient and medieval hymns to the couple. Boswell quotes one from the sixth century, which has the opening verse ,<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: navy;"><em>Of Serge and Bacchus,<br />
</em><em>the pair<br />
filled with grace</em>, </span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>let us sing, O ye faithful!<br />
Glory to Him who worketh<br />
through his saints<br />
amazing and wonderful deeds! </em></span></blockquote>
The full hymn is too long to quote here in full, but one verse in particular emphasises the importance of their mutual devotion:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: navy;"><em>It was not desire for this world<br />
that captivated Serge for Christ,<br />
nor the empty life of worldly affairs<br />
[that captivated] Bacchus;<br />
rather, made one<br />
as brethren<br />
</em><em>in the bond of love<br />
they called out valiantly to the tyrant,<br />
"See in two bodies<br />
one soul and and heart,<br />
one will and virtue.<br />
Take those that yearn to please God.<br />
Glory to Him who worketh<br />
</em><em>through his saints<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><em>amazing and wonderful deeds!</em></span></em></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The words "made brethren" in this verse are a reference to the literal translation of the greek name for the rite, that of "making brothers". This has been taken by some commentators as disproving Boswell's claim that these rites have any connection to marriage, and are instead simply a joining in spiritual brotherhood. (A claim that Boswell himself anticipated and countered in the text himself).<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whatever the original connotation of the words though, that there was some concept of marriage involved is clearly shown by another hymn from the ninth century, quoted and discussed at "<strong>Obscure Classics of Latin Literature</strong>", on a page for <a href="http://latinitasobscura.obscurelatin.com/Carolingian_Poetry.html" target="_blank">Carolingian poetry</a>.</div>
<br />
<blockquote>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
Hymn of SS. Sergius and Bacchus</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em>– spuriously attributed to Walahfrid Strabo (c. 808 – 849 CE)</em></div>
<span style="color: navy;"><em>I. O ye heavens, draw up the marriage contract as our voices resound with odes</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>And let us make manifest the gracious rewards of the Lord.</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>We who are below shall celebrate the saints with an illustrious hymn</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>From our very hearts.</em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>II. Holy martyrs shining by virtue of your merits, Sergius and Bacchus,</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>As partners you wear God's crown, you have transcended</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>Together the enclosure of the flesh; and now you are</em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>Above the stars.</em></span></blockquote>
"O ye heavens, draw up the marriage contract" seems pretty explicit, to me.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em>Glory to Him who worketh<br />
</em><em>through his saints<br />
<em>amazing and wonderful deeds!</em></em></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><em><em><br />
</em></em></span><br />
Indeed.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>(At Jesus in Love, Kittredge Cherry has a fascinating post on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/at%20St.%20Martha%E2%80%99s%20Church%20in%20Morton%20Grove,%20Illinois">depictions of Sergius and Bacchus in art</a>, featuring in particular a wonderful stained glass window of the pair, at St. Martha’s Church in Morton Grove, Illinois. This was donated to the church by its LGBT parishioners, and is believed to be the only representation of them in any United States Church). </i></div>
<h4>
Books</h4>
<strong>Boisvert, Donald: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829815236/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0829815236">Sanctity And Male Desire: A Gay Reading Of Saints</a><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829815236&camp=217145&creative=399377" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><label id="showTextCategoryLinkPreview_l1"> (See all </label><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Catholicism-Christianity-Books/b/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399385&creativeASIN=0829815236&ie=UTF8&node=12304">Catholic Saints Books</a>)<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0829815236&camp=217145&creative=399385" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><br />
<br />
<strong>Boswell, John:</strong> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679751645/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0679751645">Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe</a><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679751645&camp=217145&creative=399377" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><label id="showTextCategoryLinkPreview_l1"> </label><br />
<br />
<strong>Jordan, Mark:</strong> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691123462/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0691123462">Authorizing Marriage?: Canon, Tradition, and Critique in the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions</a><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0691123462&camp=217145&creative=399373" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><br />
<br />
<strong>O'Neill, Dennis</strong>: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426925050/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1426925050">Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People</a><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1426925050&camp=217145&creative=399373" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><br />
<br />
<strong>O'Sullivan, Andrew:</strong> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679776370/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0679776370">Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con: A Reader </a><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679776370&camp=217145&creative=399377" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><br />
<br />
<h4>
Related articles</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/uncategorized/sergius-bacchus-and-me/" target="_blank">Sergius and Bacchus - and Me</a> (<em>Queering the church</em>)</li>
<li><a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/uncategorized/gay-lovers-in-the-church-history/" target="_blank">Gay Lovers in Church History</a> (<em>Queering the church</em>)</li>
<li><a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/uncategorized/gay-saints-do-they-exist-do-they-matter/" target="_blank">Gay Saints: Do They Exist? Do They Matter?</a> (<em>Queering the church</em>)</li>
<li><a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/08/story-of-our-queer-saints-martyrs-and.html">The Story of Our Queer Saints & Martyrs (and others)</a> (<em>Queering the church</em>)</li>
</ul>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2010/10/honoring-and-learning-from-passion-of.html">Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus</a><a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/uncategorized/gay-saints-do-they-exist-do-they-matter/" target="_blank"> (<em>The Wild Reed</em>)</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/10/gay-saints-and-lovers-sergius-and.html" target="_blank">Gay Saints and Lovers: Sergius & Bacchus</a> (<em>Jesus in Love</em>)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://glbtcatholics.blogspot.com/2010/10/sts-sergius-bacchus.html" target="_blank">Sts Sergius & Bacchus</a> <em>(GLBT Catholics)</em></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://thehouseofvines.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/happy-saint-bacchus-day/" target="_blank">Happy St Bacchus Day</a> <em>(The Church of Vines</em>)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://rogueclassicism.com/2010/10/07/this-day-in-ancient-history-nonas-octobres-2/">This Day in Ancient History: nonas octobres</a> <em>(Rogue Classicism)</em></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2010/10/07/saints-sergius-and-bacchus-martyrs/" target="_blank">Saint Sergius & Bacchus, Martyrs</a> (<em>The Scriptorium</em>)</li>
</ul>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-80068755324782057792012-10-05T15:27:00.003+01:002012-10-05T15:27:39.116+01:00Queer Francis of Assissi: Breaking Boundaries<div style="text-align: justify;">
At Jesus in Love, Kittredge Cherry has uncovered more ground-breaking work on opening up the previously hidden history of queer elements in the lives of the saints - in this case, <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/francis-of-assisis-queer-side-revealed.html">Francis of Assisi</a>, whose feast day was yesterday, October 4th. The evidence she has quoted, comes from an unpublished master’s thesis “Gender Liminality in the Franciscan Sources” by the Franciscan scholar, Kevin Elphick.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="zemanta-img" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Francis_of_Assisi_by_Jusepe_de_Ribera.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="St. Francis of Assisi (circa 1182-1220)" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured aligncenter" height="379" src="http://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/300px-Saint_Francis_of_Assisi_by_Jusepe_de_Ribera.jpg" title="St. Francis of Assisi (circa 1182-1220)" width="300" /></a>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reference to "queer" elements in the story and example of Francis are not intended as equivalent to the modern term "gay", which would be completely anachronisitic, or to imply any specific sexual activity. We must always remember that although some writers use "queer" loosely as a synonym for gay and lesbian, or for the acronym LGBT, in fact it's application in queer studies, and in queer theology, is much broader. Correctly used, the term does not refer to any specific sexual orientation or gender identity, but to a complete rejection of arbitrary definitions for sexuality or gender. In this sense, it is about breaking down boundaries - including boundaries outside of sex and gender, such as ethnicity, race or class.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So it is, that the Gospel message of radical inclusion and equality for all, is intrinsically a very queer one indeed. The theologian Robert Goss, who is identified by Elisabeth Stuart as initiating the transition from gay and lesbian theology to queer theology, rooted his thinking firmly in Christology, as indicated by the titles of two of his books, "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060633190/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060633190&linkCode=as2&tag=qbc05-20%22%3EJesus%20Acted%20Up:%20A%20Gay%20and%20Lesbian%20Manifesto%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060633190%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E">Jesus Acted Up</a>", and "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556351615/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1556351615&linkCode=as2&tag=qbc05-20%22%3EQueering%20Christ:%20Beyond%20Jesus%20Acted%20Up%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1556351615%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E">Queering Christ</a>". St Francis of Assisi is renowned for his passionate commitment to embracing this Gospel message of breaking down boundaries, and an embrace of a materially simple life in imitation of Christ's own. To see him as "queer" in this broadest sense, follows naturally.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The queer identity of both Francis and Christ, his model, is neatly illustrated in an image posted by Kittredge, of Francis embracing a Jesus with AIDS, on the cross. I quote here Kittredge's description of Francis, and of the image:</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Francis was born to a wealthy Italian family in 1181 or 1182. As a young man he renounced his wealth, even stripping off his clothes, and devoted himself to a life of poverty in the service of Christ. He connected with nature, calling all animals “brother” and “sister” and celebrating them in his famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_of_the_Sun">Canticle of the Sun</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He saw the face of Christ in lepers, the most reviled outcasts of his time, and nursed them with compassion. <a href="http://www.fatherbill.org/">William Hart McNichols</a> puts Francis’ ministry into a contemporary context by showing him embracing a gay Jesus with AIDS in “St. Francis ‘Neath the Bitter Tree,” pictured here. Words on the cross proclaim that Christ is an “AIDS leper” as well as a “drug user” and “homosexual,” outcast groups at high risk for getting AIDS. The two men gaze intently at each other with unspeakable love as Francis hugs the wounded Christ. It was commissioned in 1991 by a New Jersey doctor who worked with AIDS patients, and is discussed in the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-That-Dares-Jesus-Christ/dp/1933993294?ie=UTF8&tag=jesusinloveor-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/irtjesusinloveor-20amplbtlampcamp213689ampcreative392969ampo1ampa1933993294" width="1" /> by Kittredge Cherry.</div>
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/McNichols-Bitter-Tree.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-32736" height="320" src="http://queeringthechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/McNichols-Bitter-Tree.jpg" title="McNichols, Bitter Tree" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
“St. Francis ‘Neath the Bitter Tree”</div>
<div style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">
By William Hart McNichols © fatherbill.org</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kittredge's post goes further, noting that Elphick's thesis shows how some aspects of Francis' life were "queer" even in a narrower sense, breaking down gender boundaries in particular, applying female terms to men, and male terms to some women admitted as brothers in the male community (a reminder here, of the <a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2011/04/04/some-trans-saints-martyrs/"> earlier biologically female saints</a> who lived as men, in male monasteries).</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Other Franciscan friars referred to Francis as “Mother” during his lifetime. He also liked to be greeted as “Lady Poverty.” He encouraged his friars to live as mothers with children when in hermitage together, and used other gender-bending metaphors to describe the spiritual life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Francis allowed a widow to enter the male-only cloister, naming her “Brother Jacoba.” (Details about Jacoba are at the end of this article.) His partner in ministry was a woman, Clare of Assisi, and he cut her hair in a man’s tonsured style when she joined his male-only religious order.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
-<a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/francis-of-assisis-queer-side-revealed.html">Jesus in Love</a></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is also evidence of an emotionally intense relationship with another man, described in the earliest known biography of Francis, by one of the saints own followers, who knew him personally:Francis allowed a widow to enter the male-only cloister, naming her “Brother Jacoba.” (Details about Jacoba are at the end of this article.) His partner in ministry was a woman, Clare of Assisi, and he cut her hair in a man’s tonsured style when she joined his male-only religious order.</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Now there was a man in the city of Assisi whom Francis loved more than any other, and since they were of the same age and their constant association and ties of affection emboldened Francis to share his secret with him, he would often take this friend off to secluded spots where they could discuss private matters and tell him that he had chanced upon a great and precious treasure. His friend was delighted and, intrigued by what he had heard, he gladly accompanied Francis wherever he asked. There was a cave near Assisi where the two friends often went to talk about this treasure.”</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
Thomas of Celano, quoted at <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/francis-of-assisis-queer-side-revealed.html">Jesus in Love</a></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Elphick is careful to describe this relationship as "homoaffectional", and not as "gay":</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The relationship is inescapably homoaffectional, describing a shared intimacy between two Medieval men. That this first companion disappears from the later tradition is cause for suspicion and further inquiry.... The tone in Celano’s earliest account captures the flavor and intimacy of this relationship, perhaps too much so for an increasingly homophobic church and society.”</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
Kevin Elphick, quoted at <a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/francis-of-assisis-queer-side-revealed.html">Jesus in Love</a></div>
</blockquote>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">
</h6>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">
Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2012/09/13/gays-for-jesus-catholic-and-evangelical/" target="_blank">Gays for Jesus: Catholic and Evangelical</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/queer-saints-martyrs-and-others/queer-saints-and-martyrs-synopsis/">Queer Saints and Martyrs: Synopsis</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2011/04/04/some-trans-saints-martyrs/">Trans in Faith: Some Cross-Dressing Saints and Martyrs</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2012/10/francis-of-assisis-queer-side-revealed.html" target="_blank">Francis of Assisi's queer side revealed by historical evidence</a> (jesusinlove.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2012/10/francis-and-wolf.html" target="_blank">Francis and the Wolf</a> (thewildreed.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2012/09/tony-de-carlo-artist-affirms-gay-love.html" target="_blank">Tony de Carlo: Artist affirms gay love with saints, Adam and Steve, and marriage equality paintings</a> (jesusinlove.blogspot.com)</li>
</ul>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-25763422073210986772012-10-04T21:00:00.000+01:002012-10-14T18:13:37.849+01:00SS Benedicta, (6 May) and Galla (5 October), Roman nuns - and lovers?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One of the curiosities of the Catholic tradition of honouring our saints and martyrs, is how hagiography seamlessly combines historical biography, myth with collective amnesia. The stories of Saints <a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/03/st-patrick-gay-role-model.html">Patrick</a> and Brigid of Ireland, for instance, are replete with well-known legends that have absolutely no verifiable foundation in historical fact, and the delightful story of St <a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/07/uncumber-or-wilgefortis-2007.html">Wilgefortis</a> (aka Uncumber), the crucified bearded woman, turns out to have a much more plausible basis in reality. For many other saints, the distortions of hagiography are not just the accretions that are added by popular imagination, but the important details that are so often omitted in the transmission down the ages. <a href="http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/06/st-paulinus-of-nola-bishop-poet-saint.html">St Paulinus</a>, for instance, is widely honoured for his missionary work and for the impressive quality of his Latin devotional poetry. The standard Catholic sources on the saints, however, discreetly omit any reference to his other poetic legacy - equally fine homoerotic verse addressed to his boyfriend, Ausonius.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The story of Saints Galla and Benedicta of Rome may be another example of this selective memory. </span></div>
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<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/12/ss-benedicta-6-may-and-galla-5-october.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-69459871756292472582012-09-17T00:00:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:10:47.092+01:00Hildegard of Bingen<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hildegard's name is one to be reckoned with. Although today we usually use the term "Renaissance Man" to indicate one with a wide range of learning to his credit, perhaps we should also recognize in a similar way some extraordinary medieval women -such as Hildegard, and others who entered convents and applied themselves with distinction to learning over many fields.</div>
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Even in some distinguished company, Hildegard stands out. Her music is highly regarded, as are her literary output and her mystical writings - which of course is what makes her particularly honoured inside the church. To round out her skills, she was also recognized as a notable poet, artist, healer and scientist. What makes her of particular interest at this site, is that she also had an intense attachment to a fellow nun, Richardis, who may have inspired some of her finest writing.</div>
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I have known a little (very little) about Hildegard for some time, and have come across suggestions of her possible lesbianism, but have not had enough knowledge to write about her myself. I was delighted then to find that my colleague <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittredge_Cherry" rel="wikipedia" title="Kittredge Cherry">Kittredge Cherry</a> has done some digging, and produced a wonderful extended post on this great woman. As one of Kitt's readers put it in a comment,</div>
<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/09/hildegard-of-bingen.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-14898352414366002852012-08-29T10:15:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:20:55.668+01:00Martha and Mary, July 29th<div style="text-align: justify;">
The household of Martha, Mary and Lazarus is well known to us from the Gospels, where they are described as "sisters" and their brother Lazarus. They are also known to us as Jesus' friends, and their home as a place he visited for some rest and hospitality. The problem is, that the story is perhaps too familiar: we are so used to hearing of them and their home since childhood, that we automatically accept the words and visualize the family in modern terms, just as we did as children. To really understand the significance of this family, we need to consider the social context.</div>
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"<a href="http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/beuckela/martha.html">Christ in the House of Martha and Mary</a>, BEUCKELAER, Joachim (1565)" </div>
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<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/07/martha-and-mary.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-51135724276236227642012-08-27T10:49:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:16:53.314+01:00Modern Heroes: Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon<address style="line-height: 12pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Del Martin</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></address>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">b. </span><st1:date day="5" month="5" year="1921"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">May 5, 1921</span></st1:date><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></address>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">d. </span><st1:date day="27" month="8" year="2008"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">August 27, 2008</span></st1:date><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></address>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">b. </span><st1:date day="10" month="11" year="1924"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal;">November 10, 1924</span></st1:date><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></address>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– <st1:city><st1:place>San Francisco</st1:place></st1:city> Mayor Gavin Newsom</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Martin_and_Phyllis_Lyon" rel="wikipedia" title="Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon">Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon</a> founded the first lesbian organization in the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="color: black;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="color: black;"> and have fought for more than 50 years for the rights of lesbians and gays. On </span><st1:date day="16" month="6" year="2008"><span style="color: black;">June 16, 2008</span></st1:date><span style="color: black;">, Martin and Lyon became the first gay couple to be legally married in </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="color: black;">California</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Martin and Lyon both earned degrees in journalism. While working as journalists in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: black;">Seattle</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: black;">, the two became romantically involved. The couple relocated to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: black;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: black;"> and moved in together on Valentine’s Day 1953.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">In 1955, finding it hard to develop a social network in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: black;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: black;">, Martin, Lyon and a small group of women founded the first lesbian organization, called the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughters_of_Bilitis" rel="wikipedia" title="Daughters of Bilitis">Daughters of Bilitis</a>. The name was inspired by Pierre Louys’s “Songs of Bilitis,” a collection of poems celebrating lesbian sexuality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Though it was intended to be a secret society, Martin and Lyon wanted to make the Daughters of Bilitis more visible. The group began publishing a monthly magazine, called <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ladder_%28magazine%29" rel="wikipedia" title="The Ladder (magazine)">The Ladder</a>, which was the first-ever lesbian publication. As editors of the magazine, they capitalized the word “lesbian” every time it appeared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">In 1964, while fighting to change </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="color: black;">California</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="color: black;"> sex laws criminalizing homosexuals, the couple joined religious and gay community leaders to form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH). This organization was at the forefront of the movement to gain religious support on gay rights issues. Both women served on the founding CRH board of directors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">In 2004, when gay marriage was offered in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: black;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: black;">, Martin and Lyon were the first to wed. A </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="color: black;">California</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="color: black;"> appellate court ruling subsequently invalidated their marriage. Then in May 2008, a California Supreme Court decision provided same-sex couples the right to marry. On </span><st1:date day="16" month="6" year="2008"><span style="color: black;">June 16, 2008</span></st1:date><span style="color: black;">, they were the first same-sex couple married in </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="color: black;">California</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="color: black;">. The wedding was officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Martin and Lyon have published two books together, “Lesbian/Woman” (1972) and “Lesbian Love and Liberation” (1973). On their 50th anniversary, the documentary “No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon” premiered. In 2005, the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lesbian_and_Gay_Journalists_Association" rel="wikipedia" title="National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association">National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association</a> inducted Martin and Lyon into the LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame for their pioneering work on The Ladder. In 2007, they received the 2007 Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Pioneer Award.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<strong>Bibliography</strong></div>
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“<a href="http://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?A=K&ID=124">Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon</a>.” (The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network).<br />
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Kornblum, Janet. “<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/2004-03-03-gay-trailblazers-usat_x.htm">Gay Activists Blaze Trail for half century</a>.” USA Today. March 4, 2004</div>
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“<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/16/samesex.couple/">Lesbian Pioneers Wed at San Franciso City Hall</a>.” CNN. June 17, 2008</div>
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Streitmatter, Rodger. “<a href="http://www.nlgja.org/halloffame/phyllis_del.html">Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin</a>.” National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association: LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame. June 5, 2008</div>
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<strong>Articles</strong></div>
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Gordon, Rachel. “<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/16/MNDB118S9N.DTL">Lesbian Pioneer Activists See Wish Fulfilled</a>.” San Francisco Chronicle. June 16, 2008</div>
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Marshall, Carolyn. “<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E2D6113AF930A25751C0A9629C8B63&scp=9&sq=del%20martin%20phyllis">Dozens of Gay Couples Marry in San Francisco Ceremonies</a>.” The New York Times. February 13, 2004</div>
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McKinley, Jesse. “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/us/17weddings.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=del%20martin%20phyllis%20lyon&st=cse&oref=slogin">Same-Sex Marriages Begin in California</a>.” The New York Times. June 17, 2008</div>
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<strong>Books</strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/091207891X?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=091207891X">Lesbian/Woman</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=091207891X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1972)</div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006W2XLG?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0006W2XLG">Lesbian love and liberation (The Yes book of sex)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=qbc05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006W2XLG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1973)<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0912078707?ie=UTF8&tag=qbc05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0912078707">Battered Wives</a> (1976)<br />
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<strong>Other Resources</strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424309/">No Secrets Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon</a> (2003)</div>
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<a href="http://groundspark.org/films/onewedding/ow_filmdocs.html">Groundspark: Igniting Change Through Film. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons's Wedding Video</a></div>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-14427490852539184032012-08-09T00:00:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:17:58.151+01:00Edith Stein, "St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross"<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today, Aug 9th, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of "St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross" - better known to most people as Edith Stein, Jewish convert to Catholicism, and nun who died in the Nazi gas chambers on August 9th 1942, and was later canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998.</div>
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There is nothing that directly links her to gay or lesbian Catholics, but indirectly I was struck, when reading her story this morning, of how many parallels and points of similarity there are between her situation and ours, that offer abundant material for reflection. This is a new idea for me, which I still need to think through and investigate - but as her day is still fresh, I offer them raw, as they are, while still topical. Perhaps some readers would like to help me to think this through further.</div>
<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/08/edith-stein-st-theresa-benedicta-of.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-56822603112079545952012-08-07T10:13:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:18:59.255+01:00Paul Abels (August 4, 1937 - March 12, 1992) U.S.A<div align="justify">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A striking feature of LGBT Church history, is how after a long period of invisibility, in the years following Stonewall, gay clergy followed other gay men and lesbians in coming out of their closets. Facing the prospect of so much more hostile reaction than those in some other professions, and with housing as well as income and career at stake, these people were embarking on acts of rare courage. In doing so, they were simply bearing witnessing to the truth of their lives, and its integration into their faith. In doing so, they can truly be regarded as modern martyrs. Paul Abels was one of the first. Like many others, he ultimately lost his career through his prophetic witness, and was forced to rebuild a new one outside of the church.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The fruits of his martyrdom though, live on. Many more gay (and later, lesbian) clergy were forced out of ministry or refused ordination on the grounds of orientation or gender identity. However, even in the beginning, they were able to gather some supporters who contested this injustice. Over time, these supporters grew in number, until we reached the current position where several mainstream Protestant denominations have accepted the value of including openly gay, lesbian or trans clergy, and others denominations are at least conducting serious discussions around LGBT ordination and even church recognition of same sex unions. Thanks to the early sacrifices of Paul Abel and others like him, the struggle for queer inclusion in church has become a broad –based and growing movement. </span></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Paul was the pastor of the Washington Square Unitd Methodist Church in New York City from 1973 to 1984, and was the first openly gay minister with a congregation in a major Christian denomination in America. This congregation in Greenwich Village was locally known as the Peace Church for its opposition to the Vietnam War and for its large gay and lesbian membership.</span></span> </em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">In 1973 Paul was appointed pastor of Washington Square United Methodist Church. While at Washington Square, he initiated a $1.5 million restoration campaign, planned the church's 125th anniversary, and worked with the many community groups housed in the building, including the Harvey Milk School, a parent-run day care center, and many lesbian/gay support and social groups.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">On Sunday, November 27, 1977, Abels was featured in a New York Times article entitled "Minister Sponsors Homosexual Rituals." The article told about four "covenant services" that Paul had performed in recent months. And in the article Paul identifies himself as a "homosexual."</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Controversy arose throughout the denomination with many critics calling for his removal. Bishop Ralph Ward asked Paul to take a leave of absence. Paul refused and his appointment was upheld by vote of the New York Annual Conference. The bishop then appealed to the Judicial Council, highest court in United Methodism, which ruled in 1979 that Abels was in "good standing" and in "effective relation" and could remain as pastor at Washington Square.</span></em> </div>
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(Read more at <a href="http://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=2">LGBT Religious Archives</a>".) </div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-88845388219830338342012-07-24T22:16:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:24:16.997+01:00Ss Boris & George<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many gay men and lesbians are familiar with the names Sergius & Bacchus, the Roman soldiers and martyrs who are the best known of the queer saints. Somewhat fewer are familiar with SS Polyeuct and Nearchos, who were also Roman soldiers and martyrs, in a very similar story. But hardly anyone, I find, is familiar with Boris and George. This is sad, as it comes from a period and a region where there are not too many others, but reminds us that the queer saints were not only a feature of the earliest church, as it sometimes appears.</div>
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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNURWgMWkJZ6lIZQHp1zv6lEAcqAtF32bT_8YjXenSyv9XEmKDozNbrdHtS66jLuDlamhYra3ZYmBy6IIfAd4XcYut8SIU7N21PnAXBvlqR6cJAOcqhuNqjB32g-h4_w5uWu0dqs3XDC4/s1600/Lentz,+Boris+and+George.jpg" width="274" /></div>
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I fear I have been rather neglecting the calendar recently, and so I almost forgot to place a celebratory post for their feast day. Fortunately for us all, Kittredge Cherry at Jesus in Love is clearly better organized than I am. You will have to read the story there. Here is her openining:</div>
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<span style="color: blue;">The love between Saint Boris and George the Hungarian ended in tragedy in 1015 in medieval Russia. Their feast day is July 24. Boris was a prince and gifted military commander who was popular with the Russian people. He was married, but he had enormous love for his servant George the Hungarian. Slavic professor Simon Karlinsky has highlighted their gay love story in his analysis of the medieval classic, “The Legend of Boris and Gleb” compiled from 1040 to 1118. Karlinsky writes:</span></blockquote>
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<em><span style="color: blue;">Boris had a magnificent gold necklace made for George because he “was loved by Boris beyond reckoning.” When the four assailants stabbed Boris with their swords, George flung himself on the body of his prince, exclaiming: “I will not be left behind, my precious lord! Ere the beauty of thy body begins to wilt, let it be granted that my life may end.”</span></em></div>
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-(Read the full story at "<a href="http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/07/sts-boris-and-george-united-in-love-and.html">Jesus in Love</a>")</div>
Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-33286707787662253852012-07-21T11:41:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:25:12.689+01:00SS Symeon of Emessa and John: Hermits, Saints and Lovers<ins datetime="2010-02-05T07:53:49+00:00"></ins><br />
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The information for this pair of same sex lovers is sparse, but the story important. I quote directly from the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20001205163500/http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-gaysts.html#symeon">LGBT Catholic Handbook Calendar</a> of gay & lesbian saints :</div>
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<span style="color: navy;">"</span><span style="color: navy;">The story itself is about a same-sex relationship. Symeon..and John.... meet on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They become friends and "would no longer part from each other". In fact they abandon their families and go together to dedicate their lives to God. In the monastery they first join, they are tonsured by the abbot who <strong>blesses them together</strong> (Krueger 139-141, 142). This seems to refer to some early monastic version of th<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: navy;">e </span><em><span style="color: navy;"><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelphopoiesis" rel="wikipedia" title="Adelphopoiesis">adelphopoiia</a></span></em><span style="color: navy;"> ceremony."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Twenty nine years later, they part and their stories diverge. Simeon wants to leave John, as he had earlier left his wife, and becomes know as a "fool for Christ". But:</span></div>
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<span style="color: navy;">The extent of the relationship is revealed at this point. John is not keen for Symeon to leave. He says to Symeon "…...Please, for the Lord's sake, do not leave wretched me….Rather for the sake of Him who joined us, do not wish to be parted from your brother. You know that, after God, I have no one except you, my brother, but I renounced all and was bound to you, and now you wish to leave me in the desert, as in an open sea. Remember that day when we drew lost and went down to the Lord Nikon, that we agreed not to be separated from one another. Remember that fearful day when we were clothed in the holy habit, and we two were as one soul, so that all were astonished at our love. Don't forget the words of the great monk…Please don't lest I die and God demands an account of my soul from You."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Halsall states clearly that this was not a sexual relationship, but it is clearly an emotionally intimate, same sex relationship. At a time when "marriage" did not carry the same meaning that it has today; when many religious married couples, even outside holy orders, were encouraged to remain celibate; and given that they had entered a monastery before living together as hermits, this is unremarkable.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">But as an intimate relationship over nearly thirty years, consecrated by the abbot in a rite of <em>adelphopoiia, </em>their story, vague and indistinct as it is, must surely be taken as yet another dimly remembered tale of gay lovers, buried in the history of the Christian Church, that modern scholarship is beginning to uncover.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><em>Their feast days are celebrated together on 21 st July (Orthodox calendar).</em></span></div>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">
Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queerhistory.blogspot.com/2010/10/gay-lovers-in-church-history.html">Gay Lovers in Church History</a> (queerhistory.blogspot.com) </li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://queering-the-church.com/blog/gay-catholics-christians/queer-saints-and-martyrs/sergius-bacchus-7th-october-patron-saints-of-same-sex-lovers/">Sergius & Bacchus, 7th October: Patron Saints of Same Sex Lovers?</a> (queering-the-church.com) </li>
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Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3735231846682543393.post-84718339269981556182012-07-20T23:39:00.000+01:002012-10-14T16:27:07.762+01:00Uncumber [or Wilgefortis] 20/07<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A wonderful example of a sainted bearded lady?</span></span></h3>
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<img alt="Wilgefortis" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1956" height="300" src="http://queeringthechurch.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/wilgefortis.jpg?w=211" title="Wilgefortis" width="211"></div>
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<a href="https://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/07/uncumber-or-wilgefortis-2007.html#more">Read more »</a>Terencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07504439119402756448noreply@blogger.com1