The Power of Speaking and the Power of Listening – New Ways Ministry

From Frank DeBenardo, at New Ways Ministry:

Three Catholic LGBTQ leaders have proposed “Kick-starting a new Catholic conversation” on sexuality and gender, with the focus of the discussion being the first-hand personal experiences of LGBTQ people instead of church teaching.

Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson penned an essay for The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in which they call for a conversation where LGBTQ people, not church figures, will be the primary authorities.  They write:

“We are Catholic lesbian/queer women who enjoy our sexuality and rejoice in our relationships. We love out loud. It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority, whose lives are not circumscribed by clericalism, people who are free to be honest and transparent.

“We need wisdom from many Catholic perspectives, not limiting ‘Catholic’ to institutional church teaching on matters on which the vast majority of Catholics have left the hierarchy behind. It is time to grow up and use ‘I’ statements instead of making pronouncements or pretending to be above the fray.”

Frank’s point is well made. The call to tell our stories is sound – I think it was the theologian Alain Thomasett who described it as a form of “narrative theology”. The Catholic writer Dugan McGinley called his account of published gay Catholic stories, “Acts of faith, acts of love”. Indeed, telling our stories do amount to acts of faith, even as “sacred texts“– testimony. What surprises me with this call, is that it described as “kick-starting a new conversation”. In fact, we’ve been telling our stories for decades. The problem as you point out, is that for too long, not enough senior Catholic leaders have listened. Thankfully, there are now signs that this is finally starting to change.

 

More at :  New Ways Ministry

 

 

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Kick-starting a new Catholic conversation | National Catholic Reporter

The sorry state of the Catholic conversation about same-sex love prompts us to make a constructive proposal. If we have any hope of moving the discussion in a justice-seeking direction, we need a new approach to the problems of homohatred and heterosexism that begins not with church teaching but with real people’s lives. Rehashing old arguments on the morality of sexual activity, about which there is substantial and deeply hurtful disagreement, is useless.

It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority.

We are Catholic lesbian/queer women who enjoy our sexuality and rejoice in our relationships. We love out loud. It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority, whose lives are not circumscribed by clericalism, people who are free to be honest and transparent.

Source: Kick-starting a new Catholic conversation | National Catholic Reporter

Waiting Until Marriage: Gay Christians Navigate Faith and Sexuality

They met on OkCupid. At the time, Constantino Khalaf, now 37, lived in New York City, and David Khalaf, now 39, lived in Los Angeles. But the distance didn’t faze them. The couple, now married, had found two shared traits in each other: They were both Christian, and they were both waiting until marriage to have sex.

“You can use sex to control someone or denigrate a person. Or you can use sex to say something beautiful like ‘I love you,'” Constantino Khalaf said. “Sex can be used to say ‘I am yours, you are mine’ — the idea of a marriage covenant.”

Their beliefs in sex are rooted in a theology of marriage that reserves sexual intimacy until they make that sacred covenant. In a traditional evangelical sexual ethic, virginity is meant to be a gift for your partner after the sacred marriage covenant — a belief that is interpreted to be a biblical directive.

Read more at NBC News

Gay, Catholic and Proud

It’s that time of year again. The beginning of summer marks the time of year when every major city hosts its LGBT Pride Parade. The cities will explode in a Molotov cocktail explosion of pink confetti, diva music, and piñatas filled with condoms. Or so I’ve heard.

For the first time I will be participating in the festivities. Not because for the first time in my life I’m gay, but for the first time in my life, I’m verging on something adjacent to pride when it comes to my sexuality.

For the longest time, I didn’t know what that meant. How could someone be proud of their sexuality? Did straight people walk around proud of the fact that they wanted to have heterosexual intercourse? Unlikely.

But really what was there to be proud of when it came to sexuality at all? It is an uncontrollable fact bestowed upon each of us. It’s like celebrating my red hair or freckles. Those don’t bring me a sense of pride. They’re just facts. I’m proud of accomplishments. My graduation from college, my job, the relationships I’ve built with those around me, my dedication to watch all of season 2 of True Detective no matter how bad it got. Those required work.

My gayness didn’t require work. It required being born.

But then I thought again.

Source: Gay, Catholic and Proud

WATCH: Gay Christians speak out – “Here I am”

A new documentary is showing the lives, loves, struggles and experiences of LGBT Christians as they really are – not the stereotypes they are often portrayed as.

Parents, children, partners, couples and supporting pastors and psychologists speak from the heart about the experience of coming out in a Christian environment.

“It was my idea after a mother with a gay son asked what she could do to help others,” says the Here I am video’s producer John Wallace.“

Coming out can be a difficult time for Christian families, individuals and those close to them. They often feel completely alone in the world,” he explains.

“I thought we need more resources and it grew from there. I think it’s timely with the debates going on at the moment.”

Source: Sme-same