Healing Political and Religious Homophobia
August 13, 1998
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
#And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
There is nothing in the Bible, or the United States Constitution for that matter, promoting homophobia as modern scholarship and common sense show. (See for instance The Good Book by Peter Gomes, the Chaplain of Harvard.) The following quote from an Op/Ed piece in the August 13th New York Times, written by Bishop J. E. Spong of Newark, is a good summary: "...Christianity once decried the discoveries of Galileo and Darwin, supported such institutions as slavery and segregation and was an agent in the oppression of women, the mentally ill and even left-handed people. These strange attitudes were all based on literal readings of the Bible."
So what's up with all the homophobia now cascading out of political and religious groups?
For one thing, Gay people are finally coming into their own and it is perhaps inevitable that traditionalists will resist. But we all have to face our involvement with everyone else in the modern world — as the song says, "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you..." Mrs. Eddy has given us a scientific description of this unfoldment of man's destiny: "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed." (Science and Health, pg. 340:23-29)
We discerned in the recent homophobic outbursts, a whiff of adolescence. Thus the African and Asian bishops sending a strong message to the American church to exclude homosexuals from the life of the church had the stridency of teenagers rebelling against parents (colonial oppressors) they dared not cross directly, so they gay bashed instead. Congressfolk, particularly young ones, preening and posturing in homophobic garb, had the same feel.
One of our members recalled with some pain how he, as a gay 14-year old led a group of teenagers in defacing the home of a gay boy who had suddenly been removed from school and sent to a school out of state when his and other parents discovered the boy to be "queer". This sudden and cruel termination of a warm friendship should have provoked strong anger against the parents — not the boy! But what choice did he have in that atmosphere?
In healing this type of homophobia we felt we could draw on the experience of families who have had to deal with troubled teenagers — standing by them and loving them while fully maintaining the facts of being. (See Science and Health, pg. 563:7 — not standing aghast at nothingness — and pg. 97:1 — holding crime in check.)
We also delineated a type of homophobia in high places emanating from people who are like extinct volcanoes who have chosen an elderly lifestyle, unblessed by wisdom, but still managing to lash out at anything new and vital. Prelates and potentates of this sort can be infuriating, but again we can make them part of the family and just "love the devil out of them".
Our own meeting then suddenly erupted into a lot of pronouncements about the excessive sexual appetites of gay men; how this lessens our political impact and stunts our spiritual growth. Some in attendance spoke in favor of a full sex life — the tantric and Dionysian possibilities therein. Others spoke of 12-step recovery for those afflicted by problems in many areas like eating, drinking, gambling, as well as sex. The theory in all these is that the affliction is actually a spiritual quest — as Mrs. Eddy states in many places throughout her writings. For instance, "Desire is prayer..." (Science and Health, pg. 1:10) The healing is in seeing that desire, a human trait, is the counterfeit of the divine fact that satisfaction is already fully in place.
The meeting ended with fissures visible — a risk we take in this kind of free for all, but the struggle for truth is surely worth it. In a way we had our own mini-Lambeth conference and could experience first hand the difficulties involved in discussing human sexuality and spirituality, which like jealous suitors vie for our affection. Does one dare say that politics, religion and sex are, at root, all the same — seeking and finding the oneness of the allness — living the I that is Us.
Healings
One member had a major career breakthrough as he lovingly engaged a former employer in dialogue over a period of months after being suddenly laid off. He kept reminding the bosses of his long years of service, his effectiveness on the job, but did not blame them — indeed he constantly found good things to say about them. Well, they wrote him this week to come on back in and they'll work together to design a new position for him.
Another member was troubled by tobacco smoke filling his room every night as he prepared for sleep. At first he loudly banged the window shut hoping not only to keep out the smoke but to perhaps convey a message of displeasure to the offender. It didn't work — the smoking continued and the shut window was no real impediment. One evening he thought about tobacco being a sacramental substance among the Indians — it symbolized peace. He just knew that the smoker and he both already were at peace and that atmosphere is completely divine. The smoke immediately cleared and the air was pure. He felt that this same vision can be used with the noxious fumes of homophobia or anything else.
But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.
In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice. The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.
Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science will endure to the end. As material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.
The broadest facts array the most falsities against themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its inarticulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.
Sin makes deadly thrusts at the Christian Scientist as ritualism and creed are summoned to give place to higher law, but Science will ameliorate mortal malice. The Christianly scientific man reflects the divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does violence to no man. Neither is he a false accuser. The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is honest and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind. He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness.
We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil.
Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man's eternal mansion. Such a heavenly assurance ends all warfare, and bids tumult cease, for the good fight we have waged is over, and divine Love gives us the true sense of victory.
[New York World, December, 1900]
INSUFFICIENT FREEDOM
To my sense, the most imminent dangers confronting the coming century are: the robbing of people of life and liberty under the warrant of the Scriptures; the claims of politics and of human power, industrial slavery, and insufficient freedom of honest competition; and ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."