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.