I’ve been gathering short items into Tidbit collections over a course of however long it takes, but one such tidbit (which started pretty large for a tidbit anyway) grew and grew and became an blog of its own. After the Dreher quote that concluded that blog, Dreher goes on, in the essay from which the quote is drawn, in unusual self-disclosure mode.
I’ll just try to give you a flavor of now-Orthodox Dreher’s fervent defense of Roman Catholic teachings on the subjects du jour – fervent precisely because he was by his own account sexually promiscuous, and Pope John Paul II’s teaching brought him to repentance.
Dante isn’t the Magisterium of the Church — he was a poet, not a theologian — but I see there is reason that sins of lust are punished in the outer rings of Hell, meaning that God considers them less than sins of malice and violence and fraud. But they are still enough to get one damned. The sins of lust are not my sins, not anymore, but only because they were burned away in hard repentance, over years. But sins they were, and sins they are.
This is personal with me. When I was in college, and right out of college, it was precisely the sins of lust that kept me away from God. I wanted to be a Christian in the worst way, but I did not want to sacrifice my sexual liberty. I was surrounded by churchgoers who insisted that God Is Love, and that these things did not really matter … Eventually I quit going to church, because I knew I was lying to myself. It was really all about me wanting the psychological comfort of religion without having to sacrifice the hardest things.
…
During that entire period of my life — from around the age of 18 to my finally turning resolutely against my old life, and beginning the process of dying to myself — the only figure in public life who kept me honest was Pope John Paul II … He … would not let me lie to myself about what I was doing, and the obstacles I put between myself and the love of God — a love that saves and transforms.
(Emphais added) Powerful stuff. Thanks Rod.
Rod’s disclosure reminds me of another I read years ago, this one from a gay man in San Francisco, whose account of the “affirmation” of his homosexual behavior, received within the Episcopal Church as he moved toward priesthood, was titled “I was in hell.” He remains a faithful Orthodox Christian many years later.
There are hard teachings that seem like obsessions to the unrepentant but can be life savers to the repentant.
I didn’t go seeking a companion piece to the preceding item, but here it is anyway (it found me):
When I started blogging earlier this year, it took me all of 2.5 posts to realize celibacy is a pretty uncool topic to write about. For one: it’s kind of an unknown world, and it seems many Christians can’t wrap their minds around the idea that someone would be gay and always gay and come to terms with lifelong-non-romance. (Which explains girls night out when they all gush about their men and then turn to me with a silent pause to say: “Jules, how’s your job?” and we all laugh because we know it was their way of including the gay in the straight talk, which was awkward but sweet of them). More than that: I don’t like talking about celibacy because I was seriously confronted with frustration from those who believe celibacy is a death sentence—that the message itself creates shame and despair in other gay people. That shut me up on this topic because the last thing I ever want to do is cause someone to feel shame and despair. I want every single person who ever feels despair to come sit on my couch, pour out their hearts, laugh with my neighbors and drink all my beers. It breaks my heart that God’s plan for His children is often internalized as a burdensome message of misery to searching souls. It keeps me up at night.
… I don’t know what to do with the fact that I’m a relational being living in world that says the fullness of redemption is only experienced when you lose yourself in the romance narrative. I don’t have the answers for how we’re to be intimately connected with others in the way we’re created to thrive. I don’t know how I’ve lived this thing out in light of how fickle my commitment feels and how counterintuitive the whole thing seems.
But here’s what I do know: I wouldn’t trade my life for anything in the world. It’s all kinds of awkward and uncharted and (worst of all) offensive to people who don’t get why I live the way I live. But I wouldn’t trade it because the whole gay celibacy thing happens to be where I most deeply experience the presence of God. This is what forces me daily to ask: What was God’s vision for how we would thrive? How do I live into His story with the whole of my life? How do I honor Him with my heart, mind, body, and soul? What could possibly carry this inadequate hooligan other than God’s grace and His grace alone?
(Julie Rogers, Surprised by Celibacy) I liked the insight of this, especially “awkward and uncharted.” I love it that people like Julie are (re-?)drawing the charts.
A friend in the health insurance industry predicts an upsurge in identity theft in the coming year, as “gatekeepers” without background checks prove more efficient at getting names and social security numbers to organized crime than at getting people insured. Too many corners being cut to arrive on time.
The White House says that won’t happen, but remember that’s the same White House that said launching tomahawk missiles into Syria wasn’t “war.” On the other hand side of the mouth, friends of Obamacare say to expect “glitches” (as in “someone with my name, Social Security number etc. withdrew my $2 million 401k!”?)
Federal officials responded to a Tuesday letter Perry sent to state Insurance Commissioner Julia Rathgeber. The governor said it is imperative that the state adopt more stringent regulations than the federal government’s to protect Texans and their confidential information, including birth dates, Social Security numbers and financial information.
That would be Governor Rick Perry of Texas, and the response of Federal officials was “no, it’s not important to protect Texans’ confidential information,” though that’s my paraphrase.
Make Ray Kurzweil your Director of Engineering and the next thing you know, his bee in the bonnet is your bee in the bonnet.
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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 