a priest's musings on the journey

For me celibacy is about choice, sacrifice, and spiritual discipline. I realize that it is quite a counter-cultural way of being, particularly in the gay community. My hope is that it also serves as a prophetic witness to both the gay community and the straight community. What I find fascinating is that many of the conservative Christians who condemn me as an immoral abomination, either practice or turn a blind eye to heterosexual promiscuity. One of the fruits of my fasting is, I hope, a dismantling of the negative stereotype that the religious right places on all gays. We are not all promiscuous, sex hungry, depraved animals (even if ++Akinola wants to describe us as such). Many of us live productive, holy, responsible lives. All of us are certainly not celibate, but many of us abide by the virtues of fidelity and monogamy- which are in themselves prophetic statements against a culture of lust and human objectivity.

Make no mistake, though, my choice to be celibate does not make me holier or better than any other person. Monogamous sexual relationships within the bonds of holy matrimony and covenanted same sex unions are as sacred as the vow of chastity. All the springs from love's fountain in honorable and holy. The truth is, that even if I were totally free to be sexually active, I would still practice chastity in singleness. I am so passed promiscuity and the need to have sex for sex's sake; I want more than that for myself. I love and respect myself too much to settle for a quick roll in the hay with some guy I just met at the bar. I deserve commitment, fidelity, intimacy, compassion, and the kind of exclusive love that drives a person to forsake all others to be given completly to another. I may never be able to experience that: that might be what I choose to fast for a greater good. But if not, I will not settle for anything less just for a quick thrill.

That's my choice: my lifestyle: my desire. It does not make me better, but bit does make me authentically me.

pax padrerob+

You are an inspiration - rereading this has helped me a lot.