My super-introvert lesbian friend and I spent some time exploring a local bookstore a few weeks ago. As a fellow very introverted person, of the best things about bookstore shopping with super-introvert lesbian friend is that there is no need to tag alongside her and talk (or be talked to) constantly. Instead, we can experience bookstores as God intended: quietly perusing shelf after shelf, getting lost in the floor-to-ceiling used-book basement, paging through promising reads.
“Look what I found!” [Here at this point, I would usually write ‘exclaimed friend,’ but super-introvert lesbian friend doesn’t really ever exclaim things. Things that most people would exclaim, friend just states with a slight inflection of enthusiasm and a half-smile.] Friend handed me a really, really large, heavy book with a beige cover. My knees buckled under the its weight. “It’s Terry Castle’s The Literature of Lesbianism! The [university] library doesn’t own a copy” she said, with a grin.
One thousand one hundred and ten pages of ALL THE LESBIAN STORIES. Gertrude Stein, Sappho, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf. And…the Book of Ruth. I looked at friend: “Wait…the book of Ruth? Why is that in here?”
“Oh, Ruth and Naomi are total queers,” said friend. As we left the bookstore I was quieter than usual (which is pretty damn quiet). I am a religious person. I have years and years of Sunday school under my belt. Yet it had never occurred to me to look in the Bible for examples of same-sex or queer relationships.
The lesbian or queer reading of Ruth rests on a few verses: “…but Ruth clung to her [Naomi]” (1:14), “Do not press me to leave you, or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die - there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” (1:16-17). The Hebrew word for “clinging” “clung,” is dabaq or davka (which has several meaning - to cling to is only one). However, this specific meaning for dabaq - to cling - is used in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” This describes, clearly, the union between a man and a woman - new and separate from the nuclear family of birth, and profoundly intimate. Therefore, it is possible to examine Ruth’s action in which she clings (dabaq/davka) to Naomi as the same sort of intimacy. Ruth turns her back on her own culture and people to follow Naomi, to become a pair with her. Additionally, the text from verses 1:16-17 is often used in (heterosexual) marriage ceremonies.
Mona West’s reading of Ruth (The Queer Bible Commentary) notes that “Ruth is our Queer ancestress” (191). For West, Ruth is not specifically lesbian, but a person who resists heterosexist, patriarchal family structures and redefines her relationships according to what will be most effective for her and for Naomi. When Boaz, Naomi’s kinsman and Ruth’s eventual husband, enters the picture, West sees the relationship as a Queer triangle: “Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz provide our community with an ancient example of the ways in which we have been creating our families” (193).
What The Literature of Lesbianism and The Queer Bible Commentary most impart to me is that same-sex relationships are not new. They are indeed ancient - not unnatural, and not even really that unusual. They are marginalized, but visible for those who look.
Book #5: Castle, Terry, ed. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. New York: Colombia University Press, 2003. Print.
Book #6: Guest, Deryn, Robert E. Goss, Mona West, and Thomas Bohache, eds. The Queer Bible Commentary. London: SCM Press, 2006. Print.
One thing that I have realized through self-reflection and discernment on this song and these words, is that if your Church is Welcoming, Affirming, Reconciling.
It needs WELCOMING, AFFIRMING, and RECONCILING to ALL LGBTQIA people. Especially the TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR, the DRAG QUEENS, the FAGGOTS, the SEX WORKERS, the FEMMES, the QUEERS, and the QUEENS.
If your Church only welcomes the Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris Gays you are failing the entire LGBTQueer community and the LGBTQueer movement.
It is hard for me to speak towards conversion to Catholicism because I was raised in the faith and in the culture, but I will try my best! There is no easy answer. Historically the Catholic Church has fucked over the queer and gay community time and time again. There is a unique and powerful history there, but yet queer and gay Catholics still exist.
I do want to tell you, that every queer/gay/sexual and gender minority Catholic integrates their faith identity and their gender/sexual identity differently. For me, my queerness and my Catholicism aren’t contradictory or bring conflict into my life. This is not saying that how the two co-exist is one without turmoil, but rather it is in the tension created by this existence, that I have come to understand God* and Christ.
I love God*. I love Christ. I find the most feeling of being whole during the Eucharist at Mass. Mass is a time to be in solidarity with Catholics all around the world, while simultaneously being in a close personal union with God. The journey to experience the Church in this way hasn’t been easy. I went through a period where I hated God, I hated myself. I have worked for the Church almost my entire post-high school career and have almost been fired, called a heretic, forced back into the closet over and over and over again. It got so bad that at one point I would have panic attacks during mass. I would sit in the pew crying and shaking, paranoid that everyone in my community didn’t want me there. That I was “too out”, “too gay”, not a “good enough” Catholic. And the only time the panic would stop was during the Eucharist, and as soon as the meditation period after Communion would end the panic would come back. But I remained.
What that time in my life taught me is that there is no such thing as a “good Catholic”. The “holier-than-thou” mentality is one developed in insecurity. And through coming to terms with who I am and how I hold my faith in my hands, my life changed for the better.
Being queer or gay in the Catholic Church is not easy. Some take the route of embracing their sexuality in line with Catholic Doctrine, they don’t identify as gay but rather individuals with “Same-Sex Attraction” (often abbreviated to SSA). For them that is how they integrate, what our world says are two separate identities, and come to terms with who they are. Focusing their attention onto friendships and fostering holiness through celibacy and chastity.
Others are denounce the Church, say they are “non-practicing” and embrace the Rainbow flag with open arms and open hearts, but there is a culture in Catholicism that is hard to let go of. I once found a collection of short stories, essays and poems all written by Queer Catholics and their narratives are filled with pain, sadness, joy, love, confusion, and revelation. They haven’t let go of the Church entirely, and if they have, that’s okay.
And then there are some like me. I don’t see my sexuality in conflict with my religion. I don’t see that my communities are entirely separate. My sexuality is Catholic and my religion is Queer. I am chaste but not celibate. I am loved by God* and those who have a problem with that, need to unpack some shit. I am wholely holy. No part of me was unintended by God*. And as I dive deeper theologically with my life I am being tested, but that is one truth that God* has revealed to me.
Queer Catholics, and Queer people of Faith, have an important role in the world. We experience the world through a plethora of lenses all at once; finding liberation in things that society has tried to ingrained as filled with hate. We have a unique perspective of compassion. We have a unique perspective on the power of prayer. We have a story to tell and this coming era is the time to finally let our narratives be shared.
I will not sugar coat this response with “The Catholic Church is a beautiful community of love and support! Please Come Join Us!” because for queer folk thats not always true. But I will say that the challenges that have been placed in my life because of my faithfilled sexuality and my sexual faith, have allowed me to experience the world in a much more fulfilling way. It has made me socially conscious. It has made me re-think history, the present, and the future. It has taught me the meaning of community, of solidarity, of self-love. I will stand with you if you decide to enter this Church and I want you to know that I will be sending you prayers/good feels/positive thoughts, what have you, for your entire journey. It is a long one. And know that your sexuality is not your cross to bear. The cross is the oppression, the pain, the loneliness brought on by society and the joy of the Catholic Church is that we never bear our crosses alone.
….found this and had to share and invite answers to the questions below.
Did You Know This About The Catholic Church?
When Catholic Church was founded, there were no hospitals. Today, one out of five people in this country receive their medical care at a Catholic hospital.
First. By opening your post with “Not trying to bash other religions but”. You should have stopped yourself, because just saying that makes your post rude, hurtful, and extremely ignorant.
Second. Your “understanding” of Catholic Church history is all sorts of flawed. As well as failing to recognize the extreme anti-Catholic mentaltity that most of the US has been/is being raised with. The US is not and has not been a warm and receptive place for Catholics.
Also your piece on Catholic schools. I went to Catholic School. 14 years of Catholic School. You know what I learned. How to be self-destructive, racist, homophobic, and how not to do long division. Catholic schools are not better than non-catholic schools. And when the Catholic Church was founded SCHOOLS EXISTED. JESUS WENT TO SCHOOL. What world do you live in, where Catholics created schools. Same goes for hospitals. Hospitals existed before the Catholics. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese all had hosptitals WAY before Catholicism and Christianity reared its head. So, yeah. Catholics did not create hospitals or schools. Get you shit right.
I don’t even want to go into the heterosexist Catholic Adoption Agency or address Obama.
What I am really pissed about its this line. “I am asking all of you to go to the polls in 2014 and be united in replacing all Senators and Reps with someone who will respect the Catholic Church, all Christians, and all religions besides Islam.” WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. Who are you to make ignorant and hurtful attacks on Islam? And the part about “MUSLIM HERITAGE IN AMERICA”. FUCK YOU. You are an ignorant and disrespectful excuse for a Catholic. CATHOLICS TO NOT SHAME ANOTHER PERSONS RELIGION. Catholics have been the oppressed and are now the oppressor. That is not what Jesus called us to do. Go pray to God because You need a refreshing course not on how to be a decent Catholic but a decent Human being.
to ask God* what pronouns God* uses?
.
Queer people of faith are often questioned as to why we remain with institutions of religion that from some parts spew hate and bigotry. We stay because we know this urgency - the necessity to resist the notion that God’s compassion is reserved only for heterosexuals, the necessity to help all connect with the Sacred who created fluid sexuality, the necessity to transform a culture which still seeks to subjugate queers as “abnormal” and, therefore, “sub-human.” Yes, we queer people of faith know the urgency to stake our claim in an empire which stands against discrimination, hate, and humiliation and stands for acceptance, love, and liberation.
David K. Popham (thebibleindrag.blogspot.co.uk)Mr. Spencer, I refuse to let you give up. I will sit at the altar and cry out on your behalf every week if I have to.
There are only two times where I’ve been unable to control my tears
1. When my father was sick
2. When I pray for you
My heart is breaking for you sir and I can’t stand to…
Please Reblog! And keep Mr. Spencer and my friend and her family in your guys’ thoughts and prayers!!!
So one of my friends is doing a project on intersectionality of identity and she asked if she could interview me on the intersections of my Queer Identity and my Catholic Identity. I, of course, said yes, and she just sent me the list of questions that she will be asking so I am not freaked out when I am being interviewed. She also said we will have 5-7 minutes for the interview… I talk way to much for that, so that is going to be a challenge. ANYWAYS, to help me prepare myself I am going to answer the questions on Tumblr before I answer them in my interview…
THIS^^^^^ this man GETS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a wonderful, easy to read, critical and historical analysis of the Catholic (Christian) Church’s relationship with the complicated understanding of what is “Sexuality”. Its inspiring, informative, and overall a good read to broaden one’s mind in regards to how one can view sexuality in regards to their faith.
You know what sucks… not being able to got Mass because you don’t feel safe. Not being able to go to an event you have gone to every year since your sophomore year of high school because you are afraid they will bring up politics and you don’t want to feel alienated and alone. Not being allowed to have space for your voice to be heard and yet simultaneously be expect to educate others on “your experience” when it is not your responsibility to educate.
As much as I miss being apart of the Newman, I keep remembering why I left.