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Tracking Jesus Inside the Empire
Tag: idolatry
Fr. Bryan Massingale: 'I come to this conversation as a Black, gay priest and theologian.'
Bryan N. Massingale is a Catholic priest who holds the Professor
James and Nancy Buckman Chair in Applied Christian Ethics at Fordham University.
Tom Roberts has written an excellent opinion piece in National Catholic Reporter titled It's not about ethics, it's about how we imagine God, on preeminent theologian Bryan Massingale's July address in which he shifts the conversation on LGBTQ Catholics.
"I come to this conversation as a Black, gay priest and theologian," said Massingale at a July 4 talk titled "The Challenge of Idolatry for LGBTQI Ministry," at the 50th anniversary conference of DignityUSA, a group that self describes as "Celebrating the wholeness and holiness of LGBTQI Catholics." DignityUSA also hosted a four-day gathering of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics prior to the conference.
Here is an excerpt from Massingale's email and phone conversation with Tom Roberts:
The major challenge we face as sexually minoritized persons is not a problem of sexual ethics. We tend to think, and we are told, that our problems in church and society stem from our nonconformity with the church's moral code.
But the church has a solution for that issue. If you sin, you can go to confession. You receive forgiveness and absolution. … Our deepest problem — the one that causes us the most pain, alienation, and self-estrangement — is that we've been told a false story about God and have been given false images of God. That's our problem.
Underlying all of the struggles we endure around the world and the stories that we've heard throughout this assembly — stories of being kicked out of parishes, ostracized from our families, and in general being not welcome — underlying all of these experiences is a story that Catholicism tells about itself.
At the heart of this story is that to be Catholic is to be straight. "Catholic" = "straight." Official Catholicism tells a story where only heterosexual persons, heterosexual love, heterosexual intimacy, heterosexual families — only these can unambiguously mirror the Divine. Only these are truly sacred. Genuinely holy. Only these are worthy of unreserved acceptance and respect. All other persons and expressions of love, family life, intimacy, and sexual identity are sacred (if at all) only by toleration or exception.
In effect, we are told that we are "afterthoughts" in the story of creation, not part of the original plan. In other words, we are "children of a lesser god." … Yes, we certainly need to rethink our church's official sexual ethics. But even more, we have to rethink God.—Bryan Massingale
Author Rose Marie BergerPosted on September 10, 2019 September 10, 2019 Categories UncategorizedTags African-American, Catholic, dignity, freedom movement, idolatry, LGBTQ, MassingaleLeave a comment on Fr. Bryan Massingale: 'I come to this conversation as a Black, gay priest and theologian.'
Christian Support for Repealing DADT Is a Double-Edged Sword
Most Americans – including Christians – now support equal rights for gays and lesbians serving in the US military.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center indicates that 58 percent of Americans support equal rights for gays and lesbians in the armed forces. Large majorities of Democrats (70%) and independents (62%) favor allowing gays to serve openly. Republicans are divided (40% favor, 44% oppose).
But let's look at the religious breakdown too:
62 percent of white mainline Protestants support equal rights for gays in the military
52 percent of black Protestants support equal rights
66 percent of Catholics favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly
Let me be clear, I'm very glad to have Christians moving toward a strong stance in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians in all sectors of society. This is a positive step forward for the society at large and Christians should be part of it.
The Pentagon report released yesterday finds significant support for repealing DADT among the the younger "blue collar warriors," while a vocal minority of top brass will be uncomfortable with the shift. And don't get me wrong, I want the churches to continue to support fair and equal treatment for gays and lesbians.
However, there are other sticky questions I want to raise.
Are the Christians that want a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell also supporting gays and lesbians within their own churches? Do they advocate for LGBT justice and liberation? Do they invest in and promote gay and lesbian leadership and open their congregations to new, liberating ways of reading scripture in the context of the LGBT life experience?
Secondly, are the Christians that want a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell also calling into question military service in a era when the U.S. has the second largest standing army in the world (behind China) and has troops stationed on all 6 inhabited continents?
I can support equal rights for gays in the military – but there's the bigger question: As a Christian should I be supporting military participation at all? And how do Christians critique the prevailing "Empire consciousness" and offer instead our "prophetic imagination" or "alternative consciousness," as theologian Walter Brueggemann calls it, on issues of war and peace?
If Christians are supporting the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, then are they also advocating strong teaching in their churches on the Christian pacifist tradition or the rigorous moral "just war" process that any Christian – gay or straight – must go through before participating in any given war?
When Jesus says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God," what does he mean? Or when he says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you"? Or "To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic"?
Early generations of Christians refused to participate in war (though those who did were counseled and sometimes asked not to seek communion for a period of time, but were not cut off from community). Soldiers who subsequently converted to Christianity often left military service, viewing it as incompatible with their new life.
Why? Largely because of idolatry. Military service forced them to put the gods of nationalism ahead of the God of Jesus Christ. Military service also fostered hatred for an enemy, an attitude viewed as antithetical to Christ's teachings. "Love of enemies is the principal precept of the Christian," said the Tunisian theologian Tertullian in the first century. Until the time of Constantine no Christian writing allowed for Christians to participate in war. Military valor was not a virtue. True victory was won through love.
In a democracy that enshrines civil rights and "justice for all," it is right and good for Americans to support the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and promote LGBT civil rights in the society at large.
Christians, however, have another set of values to examine. For traditionalists it may be whether you can be gay and Christian. For progressives, it's whether you can be Christian and 'Army Strong.'
Rose Marie Berger, author of Who Killed Donte Manning?, is a Catholic peace activist and regular writer on faith and justice.
Author Rose Marie BergerPosted on November 30, 2010 December 1, 2010 Categories UncategorizedTags Christians, civil rights, DADT, empire, idolatry, Jesus, just war theology, LGBT, military, Pew Research Center, pragmatic pacifism, repeal, Tertullian, Walter BrueggemannLeave a comment on Christian Support for Repealing DADT Is a Double-Edged Sword
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