Richard R. Mickley

2011 LGBT Pride March in Manila

2011-12-05T16:06:00.000+08:00

As we made the turn off Roxas Boulevard (service road) onto Pedro Gil, a woman came running toward our contingent. I could not believe it was my long-time friend Margie Holmes who was hugging me – and all the gays and lesbians in Father Regen Luna’s church were chanting, “Margie! Margie!” No doubt they were thinking, as I was, of all the hope and affirmation so many thousands of gays and lesbians felt over the years upon reading Margie’s books before anyone else was so publicly and beautifully affirming them.

At the same time in Australia the ruling party was approving same-sex marriage – and the government of Nigeria was approving anti-gay laws. And the US military acceptance of gay and lesbian people into the service was working smoothly. In many ways the world was the same as in 1994; in other ways there was much progress. The protestors were seemingly pleasant this year with their smiles while insulting us with their posters.

Here we were in our little niche of the world – in Manila, Philippines – marching along the bay by the thousand in the 17th year of the observance of the type of LGBT Pride March that started in 1970 a year after the Stonewall riots – and 25 years later started in Manila in 1994.

It was a large and colorful parade, with 75 organizations represented, rather hastily put together by Raffy Aquino and fellow TFP members. Well can I remember the days when Danton and Malu and Cris and Ging and Angie and Germaine and Babaylan and Anne, Venir, Bruce, Giney, Mike, Jack, and I (and I will be in trouble for not mentioning a dozen more names) – when in the early years of Task Force Pride we met and planned and raised money and worried and networked for six to eight months or a year each year to prepare for the annual Pride March.

2011 was a good parade. Eye-catching and ear-catching were the sights and sounds of the hyperactive flashy red-uniformed band who set the pace. The program was fast moving and snappy, no speeches, lots of music and dancing, lines of history inserted in between. Oscar and I were introduced in one of the intervals as the ones who started it all.

Along the parade route, I had photo-ops with Margie, Danton, Oscar, and Bemz and so many beautiful people, including the honorary gay mayor of Davao, Father Regen Luna and his congregation, and my old friend, Reggie. I missed my friends Neil Garcia and Ricky Lee this year. I awoke the next morning to find photos already posted on Facebook by Outrage Magazine and others.

My lesbian friend, Chris Salvatierra, took me under her wing and kept coming over bringing me water, flavored mineral water, sandwiches. Bless you, Chris.

The weather was perfect. And to think that the next day it rained all day!

Great Parade! And program! Thanks to you, Raffy and all you young workers of Task Force Pride. Thank you. Thank you.

I was surfing today and accidentally searched OnespiritCatholic.org.richardmickley – and discovered an interview with me at the 2009 Manila Parade. A team from New York, Project Walk with Pride, she – a journalist-blogger, he – a photographer, attended our parade and interviewed me. (They are documenting Pride Marches around the world. In 2011 they are in Moscow.) This is what I found today on Internet.

http://wwpproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/wwp-media-kit2.pdf

Interview with Fr. Richard Mickley,
retired MCC minister
Posted on December 27, 2009

Helping people sign up at the 2009 Manila Pride March, Fr. Richard Mickley continues to show his support for the LGBT movement, as he has done for the last 40 some years.

With first-hand experience of the founding of MCC Philippines, along with memories of starting the first Manila Pride March in 1994, Fr. Richard took the time to share these reflections and others with me recently concerning his involvement with MCC.

Fr. Richard at the 2009 Manila Pride March

1. Can you tell us about the history of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in the Philippines? What do you believe makes the ministry different from others?

Well, now there are four MCC churches in the Philippines. I am so proud that each of them is pastored by a fine Christian young man (in this case). MCC Philippines (Manila, Makati) with Pastor Art, MCC Quezon City, with Pastor Ceejay, MCC Dasmarinas with Pastor Regen, and MCC GB (Greater Baguio) with Pastor Myke. All have websites and Facebook listings with photos.

I was pastor of MCC Auckland in New Zealand in 1991, and had a thriving church with several capable ministers on staff, and the Lord kept telling me to check out the Philippines because the word got to me that gay and lesbian people in the Philippines were hurting — with no one to publicly tell them God loves them unconditionally; God welcomes them into the full embrace of God’s friendship; that nobody can take God’s love away from them.

Yet, of course, such a supposed separation from God is what gays and lesbians perceive to happen in a church which rejects them, in a church which does not welcome them (at all, or fully as the case may be). And since the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, the well-known prejudice of the Catholic Church prevailed everywhere to the detriment of the mental, spiritual health of Filipino LGBT people.

So in May, June, and early July 1991, I scraped up some money for an exploratory visit to the Philippines. I did not know a single person here. I came and began to network. On June 26, 1991, at the high altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Child, 50 people gathered for the first ever full-blown public Gay and Lesbian Pride Mass in the Philippines, I preached of how Rev. Troy Perry started MCC and how MCC was spreading around the world with the message of God’s love for LGBT people.

When I left July 5, 1991, I was carrying a petition signed by 43 gay and lesbian people for me to come back and begin an MCC ministry here. I took the petition to MCC headquarters in Los Angeles. The Elders and officers were thrilled that the people of the Philippines wanted a church. But they sadly informed me there was no budget at that time. Then I remembered I was old enough to begin collecting US Social Security benefits, and would be able to support myself and my ministry. My mission to the Philippines was approved.

On September 7, 1991, I conducted the first official MCC service (after approval by the headquarters). I had gone back to New Zealand, resigned as pastor, gave up my house, my car, my salary, and came here where the people had promised a bed and at least a bowl of soup every day.

I kept the ministry going on my Social Security income (and later occasional supplements from headquarters) until I reached (surpassed) the MCC mandatory retirement age in 1995.

In 1995 I founded The Order of St. Aelred to supplement the work of MCC, but never replace it. I never offered a “parish,” (as MCC is), but if anybody, and many did, came to me for parish services, I referred them to MCC. Even today, many of the MCC leadership are those whom I referred or encouraged to worship in MCC.

2. How many pride parades have you participated in? And, what was your role in this year’s parade?

All of them. So, today, at 81, I am a retired MCC minister, and an ordinary member, invited from time to time to preach or celebrate the worship service in one of the four MCC churches.

In 1994, one of the gay activist board members of MCC, Oscar Atadero, and I discussed that it was the 25th anniversary of Stonewall and high time for a Pride March in the Philippines. On June 26, 1994, His “other” organization where he was an officer, ProGay Philippines, and MCC co-sponsored the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in the Philippines. We later learned that it was the first Gay and lesbian Pride March in Asia. It was a rainy day, but 50 some brave and proud LGBT people immortalized the first march from EDSA along Quezon Avenue to Quezon Memorial Circle where I celebrated a Pride Mass and spoke, and Oscar was MC (master of ceremonies) for the Pride Rally and Program. There are still photos floating around of this historic occasion.

3. What were your thoughts on this year’s Manila Pride Parade? How did it compare to past marches?

I was filled with pride, even before the march, when I talked with your husband, looked around the big Remedios Circle (the march gathering area), and saw such a huge crowd assembling.

I could not avoid thinking back to the first march in 1994, especially as I hugged Oscar Atadero, and I am sure we both felt a tinge of pride as we a shed a little tear of wonder and gratitude and pride.

I marched with the MCC contingent. The MCC contingent was larger than the entire number of marchers in the first Pride March. Praise the Lord.

There have been big and bigger Pride Marches over the years. One of the biggest was in 1998, under the leadership of Jomar Fleras and Reachout AIDS Foundation, when the Gay and Lesbian Pride March was part of the Centennial celebration of the Republic of the Philippines. There was a huge People’s Parade, and the Gay and Lesbian Pride March was invited to march in front of the President of the Republic (along with thousands of others). As far as we know that was history also as the first Pride March in the world scheduled to march in front of a Head of State.

From 1999 onwards, the Task Force Pride, a coalition of Gay and Lesbian organizations and our friends planned and carried out the annual celebration. This year the Task Force was headed by Great Ancheta, coordinating the work of many organizations and individuals. (These organizations have expanded to dozens since MCC was founded in 1991 as the first openly gay and lesbian organization in the country.)

4. What were your feelings at seeing protesters using religion to put down the marchers?

This is nothing new to me. I attended some of the earliest marches after Stonewall in the early 1970’s. In LA as early as 1972 and 1973, the same religious bigots were there with the same signs. I actually thought I was having a flash back this year in Manila. Some of us tried to bring them to their senses by asking them if Jesus would discriminate? But, actually they continued their bigotry, can I say, good naturedly? (As in holding a sign with a very hateful message on it, while keeping a smile on their face) which in a way makes it more palatable (if that is possible), but more inexplicable.

What I have learned in my ministry over these nearly forty years in LGBT work is it is counter productive to argue or try to reason with prejudiced people. They have already judged (prejudged = prejudice), and it is a waste of time to exchange shouts with them. Some bigots are converted; some atheists are converted, but in a setting quite different from a Gay and Lesbian Pride March.

5. Do you think in the future mainstream churches will become more inclusive towards the gay community?

It is interesting that you use the expression “mainstream” churches. I am sure the definition varies from locale to locale. Ever since the beginning of MCC, Rev. Perry and the leaders (and even I as a teacher in the MCC seminary in the early years) consistently claimed that MCC is a mainstream church. By that we mean we uphold the historic Apostles Creed and the Nicean Creed, for example (which sets us apart from Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons which have quite different sets of beliefs).

So, “mainstream” puts us side by side with Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Independent Church of the Philippines, Methodists, Lutherans, and United Church of Christ in the Philippines (and their counterparts in other countries). Some of these “mainstream churches have adopted an “understanding” attitude, which is only slightly different from “tolerant.” Some are outright intolerant.

The next question about your question is: what do you mean by “more inclusive”? It’s a good question. But to hope for full “inclusiveness” of LGBT people in some “mainstream” churches is as hopeless, for example, as hoping for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Unitarian Universalist Church in the Philippines (and in the world) is visibly “inclusive,” (as they even participated in the Pride March in the Philippines this year and last year). (But, frankly, you cannot legitimately call them “mainstream” as defined above.)

In a church like the Roman Catholic Church where the “doctrine” comes from an international headquarters (Rome), it seems very unlikely that church “doctrine” would accept “inclusively” LGBT people.

On the other hand, there are interesting handwritings on the walls of history. One example, in a country, described as a Catholic country, Spain, the government has approved same-sex marriage along with divorce and contraceptives. (Of course we are not speaking of a change in church attitude there. We, to be honest, are noting the diminished influence of the church.)

In the Philippines, on the other hand, also described as a Catholic country, the government, the congress, the policy makers are so much under the domination of the Catholic bishops (who dominate volumes of votes), that there is neither divorce (the only country in the world besides Malta), nor approval of contraceptives, nor same-sex marriage (God forbid!).

The answer to your question is a flat no in the Philippines for the Roman Catholic Church. I see it as open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in the other mainstream churches.

Thank you Fr. Richard!

http://wwpproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/wwp-media-kit2.pdf

Project Walk with Pride founders are Charles “Chad” Meachem (photographer) and Sarah Baxter (journalist-blogger).

Some thoughts at 83 after 20 years sa PH

2011-11-12T21:22:00.002+08:00

As I looked around at LeAP’s magnificent Giting Awards dinner party, I realized that among the LGBT Who’s Who in that magnificent restaurant, Adarna Food and Culture, I was the one most gifted by the Creator with years, but there before me was the whole array of those younger warriors who have given gifts of themselves in some wonderful ways for the good of the LGBT people in the Philippines.

Attached (below) is a photo of one table of many tables full of the pillars of the Philippine LGBT Who’s Who (see photo description) myself, easily recognizable as the one with the most gray years.

At beautiful Adarna Food and Culture, 29th October 2011, at the Giting Awards from Lesbian Activism Project, Inc. (LeAP!).

From left seated: Malu Marin, long-time activist, founding member of Task Force Pride (TFP), Lagablab, Ladlad; Jack Hernandez, long-time activist with us here in Manila, now active for Ladlad in the province; Bemz Benedito, current chairperson of Ladlad Party List; Edmond Osorio, executive secretary of Ladlad; Danton Remoto, founder of Ladlad Party List, founding member of Task Force Pride (TFP), Lagablab, author, journalist, inspiration to LGBT people; myself. Background right: Giney Villar, long-time activist, founding member of Task Force Pride (TFP), Lagablab, Ladlad, chef and owner of Adarna Food and Culture with partner, Beth Angsioco.

Honestly when I opened the first openly gay and lesbian LGBT organization in Manila on September 7, 1991, my vision was limited. I could not have imagined that on this memorable day in October in 2011 I would be a pebble on the beach amidst such a multitude of those who now openly help our LGBT people towards that kalayaan and “better life” we are all working for, and among whom I was nominated for a Giting Award.

Of course I did not know what God had in store for me when I was still a farm boy milking cows and making hay in the hills of Danville, Ohio. I suppose my parents had a clue: when most gay boys of 12 would be dressing up in their mother’s finery, I was making paper Mass vestments and dressing like a priest. I still did not know even when I was lying in a tent or foxhole 5000 yards from the enemy line in the war in Korea. Even when I was a Latin teacher winning a scholarship to study Latin and archeology in Rome (after publishing the results of “The Mickley Survey,” a survey I did of the status of Latin teaching in 1500 schools in Ohio), it was still far away from my ultimate calling. When I was a successful businessman, owning two restaurants, two cars, and a big house, I thought I had arrived.

I saw on Facebook the other day Germaine’s question, “We know what Ladlad has done. What has been done for the religious good of the LGBT people of the Philippines?”

From the day my work officially began here 20 years ago to this day (the beginning of my 84th year) I have worked, araw-araw, for the LGBTiq people of the Philippines. In that LGBT assemblage in one of the top restaurants in the country closely linked to our movement, I saw the new hope of our movement and our people in this land which is still dominated by the Fr. Damasos and modern day “friars,” so powerfully lamented by our national hero. I knew that I did not need validation or even remembrance. My work from the start has been the work of the Holy Spirit. The real “Giting” is seen in LeAP, Ladlad, MCC, Rainbow Rights and the numerous individuals and organizations who are tackling head-on various aspects of the LGBT drive for equality.

It surely was God who motivated Michael Santos of San Juan to write that letter that brought me here in 1991. “When is MCC coming to the Philippines? There is no one here helping us gays and lesbians when people and churches are persecuting us.”

That did it. I borrowed money and I came to check it out, not knowing one person in the country. Within six weeks 43 LGBT people signed a petition for me to come here. I gave up my job, my house, my car, my salary – and came, September 7, 1991 – with none of the above. I came because I knew that was what God wanted me to do, what God was empowering me to do, build a community dedicated to announcing God’s unconditional love for LGBT people. That was the beginning of the first openly gay and lesbian organization in Manila.

The following year Oscar Atadero got ProGay started, and he became a member of the Administrative Board of MCC Manila. Together MCC and ProGay set up the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in Asia on June 26, 1994 culminating in the Quezon Memorial Circle where I gave the keynote speech and led a Queer Pride Mass. (I had celebrated the first Pride Mass in the Philippines on June 26, 1991 with a speech about the world-wide work of MCC in the Cathedral of the Holy Child with Jomar Fleras assisting, 50 people in attendance, and a Methodist pastor and an Aglipayan priest concelebrating.) The media coverage of that First Pride March in 1994 was far-reaching – from Mel and Jay to a tabloid newspaper that would not stop putting MCC on page 1 with exaggerations –until I marched down to their offices and demanded an end to the lies – four more priests coming from LA to help with all the gay marriages, etc.

I started same-sex weddings in the Philippines in 1991, never claiming they were same-sex marriage or using the term. Since then 1000’s have expressed vows in a Holy Union and experienced the wedding they always dreamed of – but were always denied (because of the power of the Catholic bishops over the Congress). If it’s meaningful to their relationship and their commitment, so what’s the harm? There is a lot of good and joy.

In mid October 2011, MCC Quezon City, founded by Rev. Ceejay Agbayani, celebrated its fifth anniversary with a solemn Mass and an awards ceremony in which I was awarded the Gawad Dangal Bahaghari (award) for Lifetime Achievement “for his life’s work and invaluable contribution to the LGBT Community in the Philippines.” When a person is in their 80’s, a recitation of even their resume can be very long, so they started their reciting from 1991 for this award. Hehehe If you want the earlier part, the first 60 years, some of it is listed with photos on the LGBT Religious Archive: http://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=247

Some of the things they included for the lifetime achievement award for the Philippine 20 years are given here in brief.

In 1999 I joined Malu, Danton, Ging and other LGBT leaders in forming Task Force Pride to keep the annual Pride Marches going after Jomar Fleras and Reachout Foundation staged the marches for three years (culminating in the first, and, as far as we know, only Gay and Lesbian Pride March in the world which marched past a head of state – in the 1998 Centennial Parade.)

I was one of the first to join Lagablab and later among the first to join Ang Ladlad, and let it be said, that I was excited that the situation of the first openly LGBT organization that I started in 1991 had blossomed and bloomed and ballooned to many organizations and a political party, now Ladlad Partylist, for our political and human rights. And for that I compliment its founder, Prof. Dr. Danton Remoto – and all those who have continued to work with him, Bemz Benedicto, the current chairperson, and all the others up and down the archipelago, including Jack Hernandez who worked with us here in Manila for so many years.

After many years as MCC pastor in the United Sates and New Zealand, I was led to heed the call to bring MCC to the Philippines. The purpose of the church was to have a church community where LGBT people were not rejected, but on the contrary, were welcomed as God’s own children, loved in God’s unconditional love. But it had to be an authentic church, a church which based its Creed on the historic Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed of the Christian church, but it also must be an all-around church of prayer, study, and action. Of course, I look with some pride on the work that the four churches are doing that are carrying on that mission now. MCC in Makati with Pastor Egay and Val, MCC in Quezon City with Pastor Ceejay Agbayani and Marlon, and MCC in Baguio with Pastor Myke Sotero, and CUC/CDOS Pastor Regen Luna and Arlan in Dasmarinas, with works starting in Marikina with Jayson Masaganda, and other works in the offing.

After I passed the MCC retirement age by two years, I founded the Gay Mens’ Support Group which ran without interruption for a dozen years, bringing hundreds of gay men to a richer appreciation of themselves as gay men and their life in the community. We started every meeting for 12 years with “Our Prayer.” “God, lead us all from falsehood to truth; lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us all from hate to love, from prejudice to understanding. Let us build one world of justice for all. Let each of us and all of us together be instruments of your peace and healing.”

We instituted the Pink Feather Awards to recognize each year people, straight (for example, Rep. Etta Rosales) and LGBT (for example Danton Remoto and Ging Cristobal) for outstanding contributions to building a better world for LGBT people.

I spoke at universities and organizations throughout Metro Manila on human rights for LGBT people. I was invited repeatedly to popular TV talk shows – from Mel and Jay to Mel and Joey, Debate, Dong Puno, Chris Aquino, and all the others – to emphasize that the human rights of LGBT people include religious rights, to which Rizal himself made reference.

Some of the most fulfilling work is done in private. You don’t look for or make headlines, win awards, or gain recognition when a very upset young man rings your doorbell, comes in, and with deep emotion tells you, “I am HIV positive. My life is over. What do I do now? Don’t tell anybody.” Too often I heard that story. That is one place where I use directive counseling. I tell them where to go to the Department of Health to get into the best program that will overcome the symptoms and the effects of the virus and let a fulfilling life go on and on.

In Los Angeles I saw 50 of my friends die, with months of caring and care from us, their friends, before any of us knew what was causing it (before the virus was discovered in 1983). Now we know, and we know what to do. I spoke at a national conference of the AIDS Foundation of the Philippines. I headed an Inter-Faith Committee for compassionate care to persons with HIV, and over the years counseled persons with HIV and AIDS, and occasionally, conducted funerals. As the years go by, I urge people to get into the right programs and living-with-HIV lifestyle – and there will be no more funerals.

Some of my published works pointed to the negative effects of sex-negative theology (no masturbation, no condoms, no sex ever) and its resulting in more low self-esteem, driving gay men underground with more HIV. On one occasion an emissary of the Vatican, a Monsignor in the Vatican bureaucracy, approached me after reading some of my writings, And said, “Father Mickley, you are rather hard on the church.” I replied, “Monsignor, I respect the Mass and the Sacraments and the Creeds of the Church. What I denounce is the sex-negative teachings which have subjected gay men to the traumas caused by homophobia and rejection, and driven gay people out of the church and away from the loving arms of God, to the underground secretive sex which has resulted in HIV. That’s what I renounce – the harm that homophobia and prejudice continue to cause.” And he went back to the unchanging Vatican with that unheard message denouncing the unbiblical, un-Jesuslike teachings so blasphemously inflicted in the name of our Loving God of unconditional love.

I offered public seminars, workshops, and retreats on such topics as Self-Esteem for LGBT People, Friendship, How to Be Attractive, How to Know God’s Love, LGBT People Can Be Spiritual Too, Lesbian Spirituality, Sexuality and Personhood and many other topics. Many couples find beneficial my “Sharing and growing, Committed Couples Seminar.” I had written my Masters in Counseling Psychology thesis on that theme, and researched it for my doctoral dissertation, and after our work with several couples’ seminars here, I expanded the book with Filipino input to cover ways and means and exercises for enhancing the relationship in 12 crucial areas of relating. Many found the group and the book helpful for building the strong relationship they always wanted.

One memorable seminar was a day-long event at UP Diliman with many students and professors in attendance, entitled “God, Gays, and the Gospel.” I continue that work in cyber seminars now.

At the conclusion of our Sex-Positive Theology Seminar, it is our prayer that these all-too-short studies and experiences with their refreshing positive and uplifting ambience, will result in enhanced informational competency and polished spiritual acumen – for the battle of life in the battlefield of homophobia, strengthened to serve as certified positive counselors for the betterment of all LGBT people.

On several occasions I joined with other LGBT leaders to speak with members of the Congress (House and Senate) about LGBT rights, initially the Anti Discrimination Bill which Rep. Etta Rosales championed so many years (to be trumped by homophobic power) and now is valiantly carried on by Rep. Teddy Casino. On one such occasion in the House, I politely reminded the members of Congress of the courageous stand of the Parliament of Spain in opposition to the Catholic bishops there – not only approving divorce for the people of Spain, but approving same-sex marriage for the LGBT people of Spain. [Oh how I wanted to mention the unbelievable power of the Catholic bishops to hold and force all Filipino people of all religions and non-religions to observe Catholic teachings on divorce, condoms, and marriage. But, of course, I was too polite to tell them that, that they were spineless to vote their conscience in opposition to the vote-controlling power of the bishops. Of course, I would not do that.]

I was honored for the sake of the religious LGBT people of the Philippines to be ordained by Bishop Jim Burch as the first openly gay Catholic bishop with apostolic succession in order to be able to ordain openly LGBT Filipinos for ministry as deacons and priests to bring sex-positive theology and its healing merits to the LGBT Christians of this country. Fr. Regen Luna was the first openly gay priest ordained for this ministry in the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit in the Philippines. More to follow.

Among the works I had an opportunity to do for our people was to serve as first editor of the LGBT news and information magazine published by Bayani Santos, ManilaOUT, along with Simon Arias as co-editor with journalism credentials from the University of the Philippines. We did full length features on outstanding LGBT leaders like Malou and Danton. Also along with Simon Arias we managed the first full scale commercial LGBT bookstore in the Philippines.

As soon as I heard about Jose Rizal, I began reading, buying all the books on him I could find. I went to the historical Institute and got all his writings, letters, etc. It was an obsession. I began telling everyone, “Here is a man of integrity, a man wh0 deserves to be our national hero -- even if he had not died for us, just because of his character, integrity, and wisdom. I sat down and wrote a full length historical novel on his life. I mentioned him, his views, his patriotism, his insights in my speeches and blogs. I am not finished yet.

For 20 years in my new homeland, the beloved homeland of Rizal, I have done what I have been led to do by the Spirit. When I made mistakes, or hurt people, or was considered bad or unethical, it was when I did it my way, and did not follow Rizal or the Spirit of God. I don’t ask for awards for validation of the call to do what I do, pursuing with unswerving focus and purpose what I have been sent to do. The focus and purpose has always been to build a better world for LGBTqi people.

I am grateful for the awards I have received – for the sake of the work. And I say without hesitation the greatest awarded honor I have received in the Philippines was given to me in 2003. After 12 years as a missionary (with a missionary visa) I found out that a person is eligible to apply to be a Filipino with Permanent Residence after 8 years as a missionary. So I innocently applied to be a Filipino with Permanent Residence. Lo and behold! My Board of Directors was summoned to the Immigration offices by a young woman immigration lawyer. She told them I must leave the country within days because I was conducting illegal marriages. She had read my website, and that website must be removed!

Immediately my Board set about contacting LGBT community leaders, friends and congresspersons who were friends. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of letters of appeal and description of my work were sent to the Commissioner of Immigration. Many people sent copies to us. I was humbled by the outpouring of support from the entire community of LGBT people and friends. That was indeed an honor in itself.

Before long, I received a letter from the Commissioner of Immigration informing me that I was not being deported, but was indeed being made a Filipino Permanent Resident for the “beneficial work you have been doing and are doing for the Filipino people.” That to me was indisputably a high honor. Filipino na ako; Pilipinas kong mahal.

I know it’s best to be realistic. The Catholic Order I belonged to for so many of my younger years has an amazing and wonderful alumni organization of all the former priest-members of the Order, and other members, and we all get all the mailings, prayer requests, and death notices that current members get. Another priest, one of my few remaining classmates was the subject of a death notice the other day. I did not know I was gay then, but now I know I must have had a crush on him. But his passing is one more reminder to keep on working while the Lord gives me strength. The work is never done.

In my retirement, day by day, I continue my mission, counseling, speaking, teaching, officiating at same-sex weddings, and teaching sex-positive thinking seminars, one on one, free, by email (saintaelred@gmail.com). And I might say, in accordance with my mission, I have never charged for a wedding, a house blessing, business blessing, seminar, or other ministry in the twenty years I have been called here. That has always seemed contrary to the mission for me to require payment for what the Holy Spirit has guided and empowered me to do.

Before I knew I was gay, my focus from age 13 was to bring all people within the boundaries of my (future) ministry to know, love, and serve God. When God made it clear that my ministry was with LGBTqi people, I did not swerve. It is no less than the focus of Jesus who said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it fully.”

My only regret is that it took me away from the immediate attention I should have given my own beloved offspring.

A church can be no less than a community finding and knowing and sharing a God of boundless unconditional love and acceptance – our model for being a people of unbounded love and acceptance (and encouragement) for all people around us. And for us, that’s the beloved LGBTqi people who are the beloved LGBTqi people of God.

Those are some of the thoughts I am pondering as I enter my 84th year. My grown children lost their wonderful mother to cancer this year. My regret is that I am so far away and cannot ever fill the tremendous loss they are feeling from that irreplaceable loss.

I am grateful to everyone who has shown me the proverbial Filipino hospitality for these 20 years. It is meaningful to me when those with whom I have had a chance to share a precious moment express their gratitude, as this one did the other day, “You’re appreciated so much for what you have done. It is comforting to know your heart was in it. You never stop caring or making a difference. With your generosity you lift spirits and make smiles appear. Your kindness will always be remembered.”

That’s the Lord’s way. I can do no less. It is the Lord’s work. It is the Lord’s power. Who am I to claim credit? Before my retirement, that was my calling to lead a church in that same mission. As bishop now, I encourage my fellow priests to pursue that same mission with focus and purpose, always keeping our eyes on Jesus. And, so, Germaine, that’s the start of an answer to your question.

And another great honor came my way the other day. I was having a ministry training meeting with a group of protégés. One of them, speaking for the group, said, “Bishop, sometimes you speak of the day when your active ministry will come to an end. We want you to know that your ministry will never end. We will continue your legacy. We will continue the work you have begun for the religious good of the LGBT people of this country.” Wow. What an honor.

Ladlad, a Competent Fighter at Eight

2011-09-27T19:56:00.001+08:00

By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.

The eighth anniversary of Ladlad is a significant milestone in Philippine LGBT history. The celebration was carried out in style at the classy Astoria Hotel off Shaw Blvd. near the Ladlad national headquarters.

The well-attended (250 by my count) event is well documented on the Ladlad website.

I want to ponder for a moment the significance of Ladlad and its strong showing on its eighth anniversary. The post-midnight magnificent speech by Boy Abunda told it all — along with his personal inspiring testimony. I sure hope it was taped to be transcribed and preserved for posterity. It was a masterpiece — with no visible signs of a manuscript.

Looking back for perspective, when Rizal marched between two Jesuits to his execution, we realize he had no way of knowing how and when his beloved patria (homeland) would be free — politically. We all know it happened — boosted by his initiative and martyrdom. But the freedom he dreamed of is still not complete. He assertively told Blumentritt “the friars are the cause” of all the suffering and tears of the Filipinos. That’s a strong statement, and today we can see clearly that it was true.

Rizal did not know all the ramifications of sex-negative theology imposed by the friars. He had heard of NO masturbation, NO pre-marital sex, NO divorce, but some NOs which bug us today — such as NO condoms, NO love for the one you love if the one you love is one of the same sex, NO marriage ever if you and your partner are LGBTq — were not a subject of common cogitation in his day, probably not even for a such a great thinker as Rizal. But those things also descend from the friars whom he bemoaned.

Sadly, despite the Constitution, today the distinction between what is religious and what is political is blurred. This is because the political rights, the human rights of the Filipino people are influenced, abridged, and denied by the power of the modern-day hierarchical “friars” who wield such unbelievable power over the members of Congress — a phenomenon not found in any other non-Islamic country in the world. Yes, that’s what our “friar power” and an “Islamic republic” have in common.

In short, friar power and the imposition of what Rizal called “false religion” did not end when the Spanish lost control of the government. The effects of sex-negative theology, brought by the friars are perpetuated by the hierarchies of today. They continue on two fronts — on the religious front and in the political front (which can be readily observed in the intimidation of the members of Congress).

The leader of today’s sex-negative theology hierarchy, Pope Benedict XVI, recently visited his homeland of Germany. The protests he experienced there boldly proclaim to us that some people in some countries no longer kowtow to sex-negative false religion, including LGBTq rights. The media pointedly commented that people formerly associated with this religion are staying away in droves.

So where does Ladlad come into the picture? LGBTq people here are denied freedoms which have been taken away in the political arena because of the power of the peddlers of sex-negative theology over the people who make the laws (Congress). Ladlad surely will aim to become one voice, one positive influence in Congress to counteract this negative influence. They fight for us alongside Teddy Casino and Akbayan (as Etta Rosales did all the years she was fighting for us in Congress) and the few brave warriors who always fight for us. Now we have Ladlad. Now we can win membership in Congress and fight the battle right there in the halls of power. Thank God, the battle is carried on with competence and dedication by Ladlad, by Bemz Benedito. Danton Remoto, Boy Abunda, and all the officers and members throughout the archipelago.

In the meantime there is the second battlefront — the religious one. Unfortunately, Rizal was right in his day, and he’s still right today. The source of all our troubles arises from the teachings of a religion which has the power to impose its “way” (No, No, No. You know the NOs — you’ve had to live without them all your life). Even worse, they thrust them on not only you and me, but on every person of every religion, every believer and non-believer in the country. (Not just Catholics are denied the right to divorce; all citizens are.)

MCC in the Philippines celebrated its twentieth anniversary in early September.

As little as Rizal could have guessed on that somber December morning in 1896 that some great things were going to happen in his beloved country — likewise as little could we have guessed on September 7, 1991 that on the religious and political front great things would happen in our beloved country for the LGBTq people. When the first openly gay and lesbian organization began to openly welcome people, we knew we had a job to do, but we did not foresee that ProGay would come along in 1992, that MCC and ProGay would sponsor the first Pride march in Asia in 1994, that dozens of LGBTq organizations and LGBTq-friendly groups would rally to the LGBTq cause, culminating in the work of Danton Remoto to set up Ang Ladlad eight years ago.

Now MCC has three congregations (with pastors Ceejay, Myke, and Egay) and the Christian United Church has come along (with pastor Regen), and I do my little part, and we have to do the battle on the religious front. The bottom line is: sex-negative theology is the problem. It must be replaced with sex-positive theology. I teach the subject in free on-line seminars. MCC and CUC are out there on the front lines bringing new hope and peace and joy to lives battered by sex-negative theology.

The solution:

On the political front — Ladlad leads the battle. It would be the beginning of the solution, as they strategize with Boy Abunda and work from the office (with Edmund Osorio) to the nationwide field — if they could free Congress members from the power of the sex-negative hierarchy.

On the religious front — the sex-positive religious organizations, MCC and CUC, could liberate people with a new-found — but always guaranteed as a basic religious and human right — freedom to follow one’s informed conscience to know and do what is right, not what is imposed by sex-negative theology.

September 27, 2011
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.
saintaelred@gmail.com

Comment: Rizal and the Friars

2011-09-23T15:33:00.001+08:00

By Father Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.

In reply to feedback and questions which have come to me by email since my blog about Rizal, 9/11, and modern-day terrorism, I offer the following comments.

I was restrained in that blog. I did not use Rizal’s stronger criticism of the friars. I chose to quote a mild comment by Rizal calling for respect for other people’s (religious) views.

But because I have been challenged to show more specifically how Rizal’s attitude is similar to and a springboard for my sex-positive attitude, I am writing more and quoting his stronger statement.

I use the word attitude because Rizal never heard of suicide bombings or suicide airplane crashes. The issues are different, but the attitude is comparable.

Therefore I call your attention to this very explicit criticism of the abuses of the friars of his time. He clearly is using the word “religion” here in the same way we use “religious extremism” today.

He was not condemning the whole religion. He was fighting the religious extremism of the friars that was causing “all the suffering and tears” of the Filipino people. He was not against the religion, but he was vehemently against the abuses.

He respected and got along well with the Jesuit missionaries, but the abuses of others were his target. (One Jesuit, in fact, asked him why he called the “Noli” a novel when it was a true to life description of things as they actually were.)

The last four years of his life he attended Mass regularly with the Jesuits in Dapitan. Two Jesuits, from his Ateneo days and his Dapitan days, accompanied him to his execution.

Likewise, if I may say, I pray the Mass everyday and respect and believe the teachings of the church which are not un-Biblical and unlike (contradictory to) Jesus’ life and message of love.

This assessment by Rizal of the friars of his time resonates with my assessment of the modern-day friars who are not brown or black-robed friars but colorfully-robed hierarchy in purple and red.

Everything that Rizal combats can easily be applied to my attitude toward their control of the lives of people today (of all faiths and non-faiths) with regard to such things as divorce, condoms, same-sex love, and justice for women.

Rizal about the Friars

“The friars utilize religion not only as a shield but also as a weapon… I was forced to attack their false and superstitious religion, to fight the enemy that hid behind it!...

God ought not to be utilized as a shield and protector of abuses, and less to use religion for such a purpose.

If the friars really had more respect for their religion, they would not use so often its sacred name and would not expose it to the most dangerous situations.

What is happening in the Philippines is horrible. They abuse the name of religion for a few pesos. They hawk religion to enrich their treasuries. [Imagine] Religion to perturb the peace of marriage and the family, if not to dishonor the wife!

Why should I should I not combat this religion with all my strength when it is the primary cause of all our sufferings and tears? The responsibility falls on those who abuse the name of religion!

Christ did the same to the religion of his country, to the Pharisees who had abused so much. (Letter to Blumentritt 1890)

Terrorism, Nine Eleven, Rizal, and Sex-Positive Theology

2011-09-16T14:03:00.000+08:00

By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S, Ph.D.
saintaelred@gmail.com

We have all been reminded of the demonic evils of religious extremism and bigotry in the observance of the tenth anniversary of “nine eleven” today.

Religious extremism, whether Islamic, Protestant, Fundamentalist, or Catholic is not religion, is not of God, is direct from the demons of evil.

Those who plotted and those who flew the suicide planes that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/110 — said they were doing it to please their god, but indeed the truth is that such insanity was very displeasing to the God of Islam, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came and lived and loved and as we live and love. Look at his life. He was completely free of prejudice. Look, for example, at how he made heroes (e.g. the Good Samaritan) of foreigners, people of a different religion from his and most of his kababayan. That is already a clue to see what Jesus was like for 33 years among us.

Jesus came to show us what God is like, that God is love, and he showed it by his behavior toward the hated foreign Samaritan people. Imagine him, who came to show us what God is like, being anything but horrified by the 3,000 lives wiped out on 9/11.

Now let us examine some other things that misguided extremists do in the name of religion.

We all know that bombing of cathedrals and mosques comes from the insanity of religious extremism. A nun friend of mine who had just completed her master’s degree at Ateneo in Manila was disabled for life by a bombing while she was praying in the Catholic cathedral of Jakarta on Christmas Eve.

It was the same insanity that caused my nephew and godson, Joseph Mickley, to lose his wife in the Pentagon on 9/11. My son, Pete, was with Joe that fateful day in the Pentagon as they franticly helped the officials and ambulance drivers pull out the mangled bodies, including Joe’s wife, Patty.

The terrorism of religious extremism is not limited to insane suicide bombing or suicide plane crashes.

We don’t have to think very long to see the parallel in the stranglehold of religious extremism of one religion which has a hierarchy extreme enough and strong enough to deprive every Catholic, every Protestant, every Moslem, every person in the Philippines of the right to seek divorce in a marriage of incompatibility and perhaps violence for at least one of the partners. The Philippines is the only country in the world victimized by this form of religious extremism.

That same modern day religious extremism is preventing every woman in the Philippines from having the benefits of an RH Bill (which in no way fosters or condones abortion). At the same time it deprives every citizen, of whatever religion, from the freedom to choose the benefits of the RH Bill because of the power of the hierarchy of one religion.

In a letter to Fr. Pastells, Rizal showed his high regard for religious tolerance or respect for another person’s conscience. He tells the story of his conversations with a Protestant Pastor in Germany. “There, in calm and slow conversation, with freedom to speak, we talked about our respective beliefs, of the morality of peoples, and the influence of their respective creeds on them. A great respect for the good faith of the adversary and for the most contrary ideas that must necessarily arise due to the difference in race, education, age, led us almost always to the conclusion that religions, whatever they might be, should not make people enemies of one another, but rather brothers and real brothers,…I obtained … profound respect for every idea sincerely conceived and practiced with conviction.”

Of course we wish that every religious extremist would heed the experience of Rizal. It would be uplifting if even the senators of this republic would practice these “principles” of Rizal in the RH Bill debates.

When it comes to one religion and its own adherents, it is a different story. If a religion demands that its followers never play cards, never smoke, never dance, then it is up to the members of that religion to make their own free choice to follow those rules or if they stay in that religion or not. If the Roman Catholic religion requires celibacy of their priests, that is an internal discipline. But if that church requires lifetime celibacy of all LGBTq people, that is not an internal issue. It is sex-negative theology imposed unjustly upon all who will bow to it. The problem is, because of the influence of the teachings of that church, this becomes a “law” of society.

If one religion dominates a whole culture, such as Islam in Saudi Arabia which forbids and punishes the practice of all other religion, e.g. for all Christian Filipinos working in Saudi — we are not speaking of choice, but of injustice. If one religion dominates the whole culture of Philippine people, and its views are “enforced” in law or in the acceptance of society, because it is the religion of the majority, then we are no longer speaking of choice, but of injustice...

The list of prohibitions goes beyond divorce and the RH Bill. The “no-nos!” go deep into the lives of the citizens, in the bedrooms and out of the bedrooms. It is no laughing matter when a teenager is ridiculed to suicide because of the attitude of the church toward masturbation or feelings of same-sex attraction. It is no small matter when parents are driven to desperation because their church tells them, “No Condoms!” when they already have more (beloved) children than they can feed or send to school.

And to where can we trace the gay bashings, the murders of young and older gay men, the senseless slaughter of transexual people here and around the world? Can we see that it is all traceable back to religious extremism and societal prejudice which springs from religious extremism?

The whole matter of the treatment of women as inferior in society is no small matter. Perhaps nobody says, “In the name of God, for the glory of God, I declare you are a woman and you are not equal, not entitled to equal pay, equal rights, equal opportunities, access to ordination or leadership roles.” But where did this attitude of male supremacy come from? Look to patriarchal society which originated in religion. Look to one religion in particular with a male only priesthood, a male hierarchy.

My friends, it is not only Islamic religious extremism and 9/11 which bomb and kill and victimize society. Religious extremism of any religion brings about oppression and death — even today. Yes, in the Near East in Islamic countries, the government hangs men caught in same-sex sex or women caught in any forbidden sex. But here, in our own country, we see and feel the pain of incompatible marriage in the absence of divorce, the horror of bashings and murders and suicides and job losses and evictions — every day because of the attitude fostered by religious extremism and sex-negative theology and the powerful influence of its propagators.

As always we offer Sex-Positive Theology as a solution. We join in our time hundreds of scholars, theologians, teachers and authors who have thought through the unscriptural and un-Jesus-like evils of all these oppressive controls of one religious view over the lives of all citizens.

I have been pondering what might be “eight pivotal truths” for sex-positive theology for LGBTq people. What would I include in eight cardinal truths or eight key principles?

What would I consider the eight foundational elements of sex-positive theology?

This is my first draft.

1. I believe God is Love. Those who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them.

2. I believe the Bible is sex-positive. There is no passage in the Bible which condemns same-sex love or gay and lesbian relationships. There are good examples of same-sex love.

3. I believe all sex is good if it is not harmful or forceful; some sex is better if it is in the context of loving and caring; and some sex is best when it is in a committed enduring loving relationship.

4. I believe women are created equal in rights and justice and opportunity. Thus God loves women unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.

5. I believe heterosexual expressions of love and homosexual sexual expressions of love are equally good in the eyes of God. Thus God loves LGBTq people unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.

6. I believe the body and soul are equally good with a goal to uniting spirituality and sexuality.

7. I believe that since God is Love, love-making is a sacrament of God’s presence.

8. I believe God is Friendship, and friendship with God and with people and a good life go together for the fullness of life.

These eight points just scratch the surface of Sex-Positive theology. We discuss the subject fully and extensively with those who want to really get a complete mastery of Sex-Positive Theology in our free Seminar in Sex-Positive Theology by email. Just email me and let me know you are interested. saintaelred@gmail.com

MCC and SPT Carry on the Work of Rizal: Reflections for the 20th anniversary of MCC in the Philippines (September 7, 1991 – September 7, 2011)

2011-09-05T13:15:00.000+08:00

Sunday, September 4th, 2011, MCC Manila celebrated the 20th anniversary of MCC in the Philippines. It was a well attended, lengthy service with a six-piece band of Gospel musicians and multimedia presentations throughout led by Pastor Egay and his assistant, Val.

It may have been the first time in history that an MCC service was held in a five-star hotel and capped off by a tasty banquet in the dining room of a five-star hotel, the Grand Opera Hotel of Chinatown, Manila.

My message, too heavy for oral presentation in a Gospel service, was distributed in pamphlet form. I delivered only the final prayer.

I present my anniversary reflections here...

Little did I know when I came to Manila in 1991 and opened the doors of MCC Manila with the encouragement of Edgar Mendoza – little did I realize I was carrying on the work of Jose Rizal.

The revolution was over, but as I learned more and more about our national hero, his work and his advocacies, the more I realized the work of Rizal must go on, and MCC must be part of it.

Padre Damaso and sex-negative theology and oppression of the Filipino people did not die on that somber December morning in 1896, and neither did the work of Rizal come to an end.

MCC and Sex-Positive Theology have a big role in carrying on the work of Rizal, even now 150 years after his birth.

In many ways, the Philippines is a perfect place to learn and apply the benefits of Sex-Positive Theology.

First of all, the country is a society deeply influenced by Spanish culture. It is a great place to put into practice the ideas we have developed over two decades in the Philippines, and MCC has developed over four decades since 1968.

It is a country which has long rolled over and accepted the heavy residue of foreign oppression. Long after the political control was gone after Rizal inspired the gaining of political freedom, the moral slavery has lingered.

The stifling oppression of “religious dominance,” sometimes called friarocracy or friararchy, “control by the religious attitudes of the friars,” has held its tenacious grip on the lives all Filipinos, of all religions and beliefs. Today every Catholic, every Protestant, every Muslim, every believer or non-believer is subjugated, even by law, as well as by culture, under the mandates of friararchy (theocracy) passed down and passed on by the hierarchy of today. Examples are the prohibition of divorce (in the only country in the world) and the iron fist over the RH Bill (not to mention the unmentionable – same-sex marriage).

What are some glimpses of light, especially in the yearning of LGBT people for justice?

After MCC opened its doors as the first openly “gay and lesbian” organization in the country, one by one, after ProGay, organizations sprang up to serve the needs of the community (of perhaps ten million persons with same-sex attraction). Friendly organizations began to align themselves with our pro-justice stance. Even some members of congress, such as Congresswoman Etta Gonzales, now Human Rights commissioner, began to espouse LGBT causes in Congress. In her case it was her heroic efforts to get the Anti-Discrimination Bill passed that was prominent in her long-time efforts (although defeated by the powers of prejudice).

A very significant bright light in the freedom landscape is LadLad Party List political party with its avowed LGBT agenda and advocacy. Initiated by well-known columnist, author, and professor, Danton Remoto, this party has made a reality of the unbelievable suggestion in the early ‘90’s that there be a “gay and lesbian” party-list party. It has now happened, despite the prejudice of the Comelec (against LGBT “morality,” another example of government and society being influenced by religious attitudes). It moves forward under the leadership of Bemz Benedicto with celebrity host and promoter Boy Abunda as political advisor.

A sample of the fight is given in this paragraph from a speech by Bemz at an event in the Congress. “And now, we are fighting for equal rights right here, in the halls of Congress. We are asking our congress members to finally pass the Anti-Discrimination Bill that makes sure no lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Filipino will be oppressed again in his or her own country. For this is our country, too, and we are all the children of God. In His – or Her – infinite wisdom God made us all different. For only in our differences can we see our similarity, which lies in the human soul that is found within us all.”

With Ladlad fully in the leadership of the political arena for the battle to end oppression, what is needed is continued education, savvy and strategy in the country-wide, world-wide war against the moral slavery of sex-negative theology. For this purpose we have initiated a series of free cyber seminars, one-on-one learning experiences by email to provide mastery in the theory and practice of Sex-Positive Theology.

Logically the situation requires a faith-based program. The problem is caused by a negative and untrue theology of the nature and will of God. There is much good in Spanish culture and the religion brought by the Spaniards. But there is much that is not good theology in the sex-negative theology (with its false picture of God) which was also brought by the Spanish missionaries along with the redeeming value of their religion.

Surely the picture is wrong: the white bearded policeman in the sky watching over a cloud to catch every boy enjoying playing with himself, every older boy and girl making love in a secluded place, every man who loves a man and every woman who loves a woman – in order to zap them into the fires of hell.

And that same policeman has crept into the bedrooms of married men and women, forbidding them to use condoms or common sense in planning their family, and elsewhere forcing the continued “marriage” in a situation of incompatibility.

LGBT people have borne the heaviest weight of rejection, denunciation, deprival by society and excommunication by church.

Scandalously (from the point of view of justice and from the Constitution of the Republic) the power of the hierarchy’s sex-negative theology is so strong that all these prohibitions of the hierarchy have become ingrained in law and culture – so that not only church but society conspires to deprive LGBTq people of their rights to love and to freedom of conscience.

Thus it is clear that a faith-based “answer” must be added to the political “answer” begun by Rizal and carried on by Ladlad and others. A society warped by a false faith-based attitude must find answers in a true faith-based solution.

For twenty years MCC has been bringing that answer to LGBTq people of the Philippines who have been able to hear it. The answer simply is God’s unconditional love. But even that love is warped by the hierarchy. God’s love and God’s true nature and description must be spelled out in the full length story of Sex-Positive Theology. That full answer is spelled out in the full-length story of Sex-positive Theology available free by emailing me at saintaelred@gmail.com

A light on the hierarchy-darkened scene is the known presence of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), now serving God’s people in three locations in the country, along with the Christian United Church (CUC), and the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality (CSSS).

For twenty years MCC has dared to contradict sex-negative theology in all its oppressive expressions. Its known presence has made known throughout the land that there is an alternative to NO masturbation, NO condoms, NO premarital love-making, NO same-sex love.

On the contrary MCC has proclaimed the gospel with the truths of Sex-Positive Theology. Yes, MCC is a faith-based community of believers. Their Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their truths are the truths of the God who became human and dwells in us. They have long summarized Sex-Positive Theology in four simple spiritual truths for LGBT people.

1. God loves LGBT people unconditionally. God smiles upon their love and blesses their love – for God is Love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

2. The Bible does not in any word, verse, or story condemn same-sex love. The few verses quoted to claim this are totally wrongly interpreted and proven wrong by countless scholars. (I do a full-length seminar just in proof of the falsity of these claims, and a whole module of the Sex-Positive Seminar is devoted to this.)

3. The Bible offers examples of beautiful same-sex love. The stories of the love of Ruth and Naomi and David and Jonathan and Jesus and the beloved disciple are an inspiration to LGBTq people.

4. LGBTq people can be Christian, and countless thousands are fulfilling their vocation to “come, follow me,” and live the fulfilled life that comes from realizing God’s unconditional love and responding by living a loving life in friendship with God and with others. Thousands are fulfilling this call to “life in Christ” in MCC around the world and in the Philippines.

In conclusion, there is light in the darkness of sex-negative theology imposed on our culture. MCC first turned on that light 1n 1991, two decades ago. The light of MCC and Sex-Positive Theology now, more than ever, must be a defining light, a guiding light with an ever increasing wisdom in the knowledge and application of Sex-Positive Theology.

Religion has long been used against LGBTq people in direct contradiction to the all-loving, unconditionally loving God known in the true theology of God. But that does not call for rejection of God or the truth of God. It only calls for the rejection of the false things about God. I think Jose Rizal is an example of practicing that. He never heard of the term Sex-Positive Theology, but while he attended Mass regularly, he never stopped his work against oppression, regardless of where it came from.

MCC, with praise and worship pleasing to God, and sound Sex-Positive Theology pleasing to God must liberate more and more of God’s beloved LGBTq children and set them free to worship God, be friends with all, and love the one they love. MCC must bring a happy fulfilled life to more and more of God’s children who have been experiencing oppression.

And surely bringing the people out of oppression is a continuation of Rizal’s work and God’s will.

(RRM, September 4, 2011)

My prayer for the people of MCC and the future people of MCC is in unison with St. Paul: “We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love for all God’s people. When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard of the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. The Gospel is bringing blessings and spreading through the whole world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard of the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.” (Colossians 1:3-6)

What Does Pepe Say to His Sisters?

2011-06-15T22:06:00.000+08:00

By Richard R. Mickley, Ph.D., a 21st century Rizal admirer

We are all preparing to observe and celebrate Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary.

I have viewed favorably the advance stories published in the Inquirer.

Because my ministry for the last 20 years (since Rizal’s 130th birth anniversary in 1991) is an affirming ministry to gays and lesbians and all LGBT people, I began thinking again about that overworked and meaningless question, “Was Rizal Gay?”

That question is really irrelevant. I have written about it; Neil Garcia has written about it, others have. The most important thing is that Jose P. Rizal embodied so many sterling qualities of intellect, character, and talent that would make a perfect LGBT person, or, in his case, a perfect gay man.

Rather than revisit that question, I began to ask myself a new one, “What does Jose P. Rizal say to LGBT people today 150 years after his birth?

Every Sunday we hear in the sermon, “the Bible tells us… [today in the 21st century]…” The Bible written 2000 years ago — still speaking to us today.

So I began to ponder, “What does Rizal say to us today?” Then I looked at all the volumes of Rizal correspondence and other writings on my book shelves. It’s longer than 10 Bibles. So I got the idea for writing ten books, but not today. Today I will just take a look at what brother Pepe has to say to his sisters.

Actually I am an addict when I pick up Rizal’s writings, especially his correspondence. I want to look up something, but my addiction takes over and keeps me reading and reading and reading and pondering and pondering. He has so much to say.

I am glad they have “Rizal Excellence” programs in the schools. There should be more of them. His excellence is inexhaustible and more of his excellence would make his “patria” more excellent. The most recent seems to have been when 400 students gathered at Teacher’s Camp in Baguio in May for the 49th National Leadership Institute Conference aimed at making the youth become pro-active agents of change through Rizal’s example.

What does Rizal say to LGBT people today?

It seems to me the most obvious message is his most pronounced stance against the abuses of the Friars and the Spanish government of the time. What were the abuses of the Friars? In general we could today group them under the heading of sex-negative theology in preaching and disregard in the lives of those who were like Fr. Damaso. And, of course, my theme sex-positive theology.

He was against oppression, injustice and, yes, hypocrisy. To make a long story short, if our national hero was vehemently against injustice, would he not also be against injustice to LGBT people. As we shall see in a letter below he had no tolerance for that very thing. “I have glimpsed a little light, and I believe it is my duty to teach it to the people of my country,” he writes in an oft-quoted passage. Surely he would include us in the people of his country.

Quotations

The first book I picked up today from my “Rizal Shelves” was Quotations from Rizal’s Writings, from the National Historical Institute (1992) (and the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1961).

What is more appropriate than the advice he gives to his sister Soledad (and his other sisters), “You are no longer a child… nor are you uneducated. I speak o you as my sisters and I repeat to you… You have many nieces; give them good example and be worthy of yourselves.”

As soon as I saw that word “worthy,” I thought of what the homosexual Roman centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come [to my house].” The (Catholic) church makes those words speak to us by putting them in every Mass.

When Pepe says to Soledad and his other sisters, “Give good example and be worthy of yourselves,” he says to us, “Don’t let society devalue you; don’t devalue yourselves. You are adults now. Take responsibility for your lives and your behavior. Give good example, but don’t be a slave and victim to everything Fr. Damaso says. You are no longer a child. Think. Decide. Give good example.”

I am sure each of us could think long and hard about how that applies to our life. One person said to me that he was glad I was teaching sex-positive theology, so now he can do “whatever he wants.” My advice and Rizal’s advice: “You are an adult. Think. Behave appropriately. Give good example.”

To Soledad, he also writes, “If you have a sweetheart, behave towards him nobly and with dignity… rather than resort to secret meetings… Value more, esteem more, your honor, and you will be more esteemed and valued.”

What Pepe was saying to that sister with so much personal caring and love, he says to us as a rule of life. He did not shake his finger at her about having sex. What he says to us is “Don’t use people. Don’t be used. The key to honorable behavior is respecting the other person.”

In another letter to Trinidad, he seemed to admire women who are “somewhat masculine.” I present it here and let it speak for itself. “If our sister Maria had been educated in Germany, she would have been notable, because German women are active and somewhat masculine. They are not afraid of men. They are more concerned with the substance than with appearances…”

Quiet, not very lively, fine and affectionate

In our country, many a gay boy is subjected to and victimized by ridicule, bullying, harsh treatment and all too often physical abuse because of having “refined qualities.” Pepe seemed not to look down upon these qualities in his sister’s son, Alfredo Hidalgo. “Alfredo’s letter,” he wrote, “brought me great joy… He seems to be a lad of clear intelligence, quiet, not very lively, fine and, with time, he will be reserved and will know how to keep secrets, his own and other people’s… He will be pensive, a thinker, polite and considerate… He is besides affectionate.”

Never-wavering faith

In closing, as a priest-admirer of Rizal, I want to comment on his faith and spirituality. I teach that a well-rounded person must have a well-rounded, balanced life with health in one’s intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional components. The more one reads Rizal’s correspondence, the more it is abundantly obvious that his was a wholistically constituted life with all components in balance and harmony. But most of all I am stricken by his strong faith and spiritual basis, shown in letter after letter. In one, he gives, probably unknowingly, a perfect definition for “spirituality” — a person needs to believe and to love, needs a goal towards which to steer one’s actions, to formulate for oneself a purpose, to see something more beyond matter and noise; in short, one needs an objective worthy of one’s being and facilities.”

I see now it is an impossible venture to capture even the faintest glimpse of the greatness of Rizal in one essay. I opened one book, made a few quotes, and there is still the whole book before me, and volume after volume of Rizal’s wisdom on the shelves.

Light reading

I will just add one little light-reading moment. There is no evidence, that I can find, of any love-letters of Rizal to other boys when he was a boy or to men anytime in his life. But I found a cute love poem to him from one of his classmates at the Ateneo, who seemingly had a crush on Jose when Jose was about 16. A few lines of it are:

“Dedicated to Rizal by his classmate Ricado Aguado: to my dearest Friend, Jose Rizal, on his saint’s day, 19 March, 1877.”

“Your pleasing image alone,
in my soft heart always engraved,
now removes from me the fraud
the star from sailor forlorn
as in an agitated sea.

For you’re, sweet friend of mine,
the only joy of my soul,
and always to be with you
is my incessant desire
in this sad, unfortunate land.

But since luck denies
me such happiness this day
my Muse with tenderness
its affection doth send to you
at this pleasant hour of joy.

When Ricardo gave this love poem to Jose, he added a little personal note in prose, “Don’t show these verses to anybody…” Of course, they already had closets in 1877. [Note: I read these lines from the projective reading of a gay man of the 21st century. I will let you know if some learned straight professor informs me that this poem was indeed an allegorical writing and had nothing to do with gay love.]

Anyway, Rizal saved it, and that itself says a lot about his understanding, to say the least, and it has come down to us in the National Historical Institute’s Miscellaneous Correspondence of Dr. Jose Rizal.

Let’s say this all comes from one page of thousands of pages of Rizal wisdom, in word and action. Can you imagine what is in store in reading all the correspondence and works by Jose P. Rizal? May I recommend that you take a look for yourself as one way of celebrating his memory on his 150th birth anniversary?

Happy 150th birthday, Pepe, Big Brother, (no matter how short you were), our Kuya forever! Many of us who are not poets have a great love for you, too.

Condoms, Divorce and Congratulations

2011-05-31T13:08:00.001+08:00

Congratulations! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

It finally has happened!

So far, in the very first press account, three law makers have shown themselves to be brave, courageous, independent, and full of integrity!

For years, the Philippines and the Catholic island of Malta have been the only countries in the world which do not give residents the right to divorce.

Now Malta is on the verge of granting divorce rights to its people. That leaves only the Philippines (and the Vatican), the last standout refusing to give this right.

Until now lawmakers of the Philippines have cringed in fear of the power of the hierarchy at the next election and have not dared speak the word “divorce” in the halls of congress.

Now three, at least, in the first press mention of the possibility of divorce here, three at least have boldly expressed approval of the idea.

Why divorce? Do all the nations of the earth have divorce to defy the Catholic bishops? Do they have divorce to destroy the family? Do they have it because it is bad? Is it not logical that they have it because there is a human need for it? Some couples simply find themselves incompatible. Well, it’s not so simple when children are involved. Does it save the children? Does it save the family to force incompatible people to stay together? Does this unpleasant situation help the children?

Our hats are off to the first three names mentioned in the Inquirer article today, “After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill.” It takes guts, and they got it.

Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan

Speaker Sonny Belmonte

Senator Pia Cayetano

Why is this “heterosexual” issue important to us? It is important because it is a big blister on the landscape caused by sex-negative theology promoted primarily by one hierarchy and imposed upon the whole nation, people of every religion and non-religion. And to think, it still is not clear to them that there is a human need for it demonstrated by the fact that every nation on the face of the earth recognizes the need except the Catholic hierarchy of the Philippines who will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.

There was a time when that world-wide hierarchy prevented every nation on earth from recognizing the love and relationship of same-sex couples. Now a growing number of countries, including Catholic Spain, with a courageous legislature, have granted their people equal marriage and more have granted recognition of same-sex relationships.

Meanwhile, the battle of the condoms continues in the Philippine Congress — and the shame and guilt of no condoms, no masturbation, no premarital sex, and no same-sex love, and, and, and… no, no, no… And how nice it was to see a word on this in the same newspaper today from our long time friend, the reclusive Margie Holmes.

Time bishops learned from the poor
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:19 pm | Monday, May 30th, 2011

THIS is in reference to the comment of Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, “Will you be calm if you are held at gunpoint?” (“Cool it? Bishop says Malacañang provoked Church,” Inquirer, 5/17/ 11)

Perhaps the good Archbishop should reflect on the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has held the poor of this country at gunpoint for decades over the issue of contraception, and learn from the poor’s long-suffering calmness in the face of adversity.—MARGARITA HOLMES and JEREMY BAER, Quezon City

Yes, it is true that 3 million Frenchmen or Maltese or Filipinos cannot vote to make wrong right. It don’t work that way. What’s bad is bad, and rape and child abuse will always be wrong. But if every nation on earth sees a need for divorce, it’s time to look at it from a different angle — starting with common sense.

Remember the three steps of forming conscience are:

Step one: Listen to the teaching voice of your church.

Step two: Listen to God’s truth in human nature and in the situation.

Step three: Make a JUDGMENT of what’s right.

And that is a basic human right which apparently Speaker Belmonte, Senator Cayetano and Rep. Ilagan are exercising. Congratulations!

Surely, surely we will hear more about this. Surely there are more than three!

After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:16 am | Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

MANILA, Philippines—Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Malta has voted to legalize divorce, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced on Sunday after a referendum, leaving the Philippines as the only country where it is banned.

The vote in Malta spurred moves in the House of Representatives to legalize divorce amid an already widening split between the influential Catholic hierarchy and the administration of bachelor President Benigno Aquino III over a population control measure.

Gonzi, who campaigned against the introduction of divorce ahead of Saturday’s nonbinding referendum, said it was now up to the Mediterranean archipelago’s parliament to legalize the dissolution of marriage.

“This is not the result that I wished for, but the will of the people has to be respected and parliament should enact a law for the introduction of divorce,” said the conservative prime minister.

The divorce measure was passed by a majority of 53.2 percent of those who cast ballots, although nearly a quarter of eligible voters did not bother to go to the polls, election officials said.

Apart from the Vatican city-state, Malta is one of only two countries in the world—the Philippines is the other—that bans divorce. Chile was the last country to legalize divorce in 2004 after overwhelming public pressure.

Saturday’s nonbinding referendum asked the country’s 306,000 mainly Catholic voters whether parliament should introduce a new law that would allow couples to obtain a divorce after four years of separation.

Separation widespread

Legal separation is widespread in the European Union’s smallest member state, but there are many legal obstacles to re-marrying.

The Church, which looms large over the archipelago where 95 percent of the population claim the faith, did not campaign officially in the referendum.

However, Valletta’s Archbishop Paul Cremona had warned churchgoers in a letter they faced a choice between building and destroying family values.

“By this vote, the citizen will either build or destroy. A choice in favor of permanent marriage is an act of faith in the family, built upon a bond of love which cannot be severed,” said the letter, which was read out at Masses.

In addition, priests have reportedly threatened to refuse communion to those who vote “yes” in the referendum.

Philippine moves

Following the vote in Malta, the Philippine House committee on revision of laws announced it would begin on Wednesday discussions on a bill seeking to legalize divorce.

“Let us not keep our country in the dark ages,” said Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan. “I appeal to my colleagues in Congress to let the legislative mill run its course on the divorce bill without further delay and give Filipino couples in irreparable and unhappy marriages this option.”

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, a widower, told reporters that he favored the move. “It is very difficult to let two people who cannot live together continue to live together.”

Expand annulment

Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, said it was time to expand the definition of annulment of marriage granted under Philippine law on grounds of psychological incapacity.

“Call it divorce, call it another animal (but) there has to be some change because the reality is, it is one of the discriminatory practices we have (against women),” she said.

But Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is adamant: “Let’s not get into the habit of copying what other countries are doing.”

Not a question of votes

The Philippine Catholic hierarchy, echoing the position of the Church in Malta, announced that it would oppose any attempt to introduce divorce in the country through a referendum as the Mediterranean country did.

“Referendums are merely a political, not a moral exercise,” said Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, head of the bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.

“What is right or wrong is not dependent on how many voted for it,” said Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, judicial vicar of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal. “What is moral or not moral is not a question of popular vote.”

Cruz is happy that the Philippines remains to be the only country without divorce.

“It means that the Filipino cultural values are still solid, that we are profamily, which is a wonder because you cannot find that anywhere else in the world,” he said. With reports from AFP, Cynthia D. Balana, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Christian V. Esguerra and Jocelyn R. Uy

Mother Mary John Mananzan in “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world

2011-03-08T19:41:00.003+08:00

Our congratulations to Mother Mary John Mananzan, OSB on the occasion of her being named one of the “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world.

That’s really great. That is mind-blowing. Why? For many reasons – she’s a woman, a feminist, a nun, a nun in the Philippines, a nun in influential positions in Roman Catholic leadership.

Mother Mary John Mananzan is as gracious as she is talented and effective for feminist rights. On those occasions when I have been privileged to appear on the same speaking panel with her, she was gracious to me personally.

At a time when a Roman Catholic priest releases a (more of the same repression) book calling for “conversion therapy” for gays and lesbians, it is indeed refreshing to rejoice in the honor Mother Mary John Mananzan has received in recognition of her accomplishments in behalf of the rights of women.

I urge you, my friend, not to miss the significance that this honor has for sex-positive theology. Human rights for women is a significant aspect of sex-positive theology.

Quick review. It all goes back to the Greek dualism which considered the body bad (and the soul good) and women doubly bad. St. Augustine picked it up and turned it into Catholic theology – and too much of it has survived the centuries in the patriarchal church.

That is why I place so much emphasis on teaching free cyber seminars (by email) on sex-positive theology. Enrollment is free: saintaelred@gmail.com

Mother Mary John Mananzan has made a gigantic contribution to women’s rights and to sex-positive theology.

A nice article in today’s Inquirer does a good job of describing the work of Mother Mary John Mananzan and the honor she has received as one of the “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world.

**********

Nun’s feminist activism cited
By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
March 07, 2011

MANILA, Philippines—When Sister Mary John Mananzan first received an e-mail informing her that she had been named one of the top 100 inspiring people in the world, she thought that it was another spam message.

Mananzan, executive director of the Institute of Women’s Studies of St. Scholastica’s College, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that she was overwhelmed when she discovered how prestigious was the Women Deliver 100 list that included US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I got so many of those (spam) before on my e-mail account, where the message would say I had been chosen to be among the recipients of some award but then I would have to pay for something,” she said with a laugh.

Mananzan said she was not able to read the e-mail, which she received from the New York-based Women Deliver last week, but she learned of the list’s prestige from other people who congratulated her during one of her religious missions in Tacloban City.

“I did not realize what the e-mail from Women Deliver was real. I did not know how prestigious it was. But when I realized it was authentic and to be on a list including Hillary Clinton, I was so overwhelmed,” she said.

Mananzan was cited for being instrumental in developing a feminist Third World theology within the Catholic Church and introducing feminist activism into the country’s Catholic faith.

She said she was just part of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians which saw the dominance of patriarchy in the Church and sought the establishment of a theology from the perspective of Third World women. “Religion is both liberating and oppressive. Here, we sought to deconstruct the oppressive and construct the liberating aspect,” she said.

Her group analyzes the teachings in the Bible, a lot of passages of which are misinterpreted and are used for oppression, she said.

Mananzan cited an abused woman in the care of the Benedictine Sisters, who claimed that her husband would cite a biblical passage in which Eve had been taken from Adam’s ribs to justify that he should be in full control and could do whatever he wanted.

“God will not sanction the oppression of anybody … We have to make women understand that in the eyes of God, they are on the same level as men. They have the same dignity. They have the same opportunity,” the Benedictine nun said.

She said the empowerment of a woman could not be complete without the spiritual aspect. “In empowering a woman spiritually, she must develop self-esteem in the sense that she is created in the image and likeness of God.”

Mananzan holds the distinction of being the first woman to graduate summa cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in Philosophy, majoring in Linguistics Analysis.

Upon her return to the country in 1973, she was entrusted with a number of positions, including the deanship and subsequently the presidency of St. Scholastica’s College, and the leadership of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.

Mananzan also held positions in the Ecumenical Association of Third-World Theologians and in Gabriela, an organization promoting women’s rights which she cofounded. She subsequently founded the women studies program in St. Scholastica’s College.

She said that when she first joined the Benedictine order at 19 years old, all she thought was she could not participate in social work for the poor unless she was a nun. “I was so young at 19. I always say, ‘Do not ask me why I entered. Ask me why I am staying,’” she said with a smile. “It is because I found more reasons to stay.”

The first time she told her mother of her decision to enter the Benedictine order, after finishing her tertiary education at St. Scholastica’s College, her mother was speechless. “The next day, she told me ‘It was OK if I really wanted to be a nun.’ She was very proud of me,” Mananzan said, beaming.

Despite the gains in the pursuit of women empowerment, she said there was still a long way to go. She said there were 350 men who had completed the women studies seminars, which basically teach them that they can remain “macho” even if they show tenderness, warmth and love toward their partners.

She noted that more women-friendly laws were being passed even if she found their implementation wanting.

Many priests are understanding the perspective of women in theology although the Church hierarchy as a whole remains patriarchic, Mananzan said. “In a matter of consciousness, we have achieved a lot. But we still have a long way to go. We have, after all, a population of 90 million … We have to reach out to mothers who are not conscious of these things so they would not continue to pass on gender-based subservience to their daughters,” she said.

Novena for Feast of St. Aelred 2011

2011-03-08T18:34:00.005+08:00

Annual Commemoration of St. Aelred

The Year 2011 marks the 901st anniversary of the coming of St. Aelred into this world with his refreshing message of love and friendship. He tells the message with explicit references to his own loves and friendships.

Some years ago I did a lot of research into the life and writings and sex-positive theology of St. Aelred.

Sadly I admit that in recent times I am so involved with teaching and interacting with people in the free cyber seminar in Sex Positive Theology that I have not been able to advance my (Ateneo) library research and communication with Aelred scholars around the world who used to send me their own research and publications about St. Aelred.

As is pointed out in the Novena, St. Aelred was not a “gay activist” like we have among us here in the Philippines today (in the whole LGBT community).

He was an early Christian humanist who saw the Incarnation (becoming flesh) of Jesus and the very human loves and friendships of Jesus (the beloved disciple and others) as a clear indication that human love and human friendships are very much in conformity with the life of Jesus and the Good News.

As a young “gay” lad of about 15, his father, the “hereditary” Roman Catholic pastor of the parish in his hometown in northern England near the territory we know as Scotland, sent him to study, learn, and work as an aide to the king in the court of King David of Scotland. He tells us in graphic language, not “bakla ako,” but “my greatest delight was in loving and being loved.” And his loves were the sons of the king and other young men in the court.

Comparing him to the thousands of gays and lesbians I have known, lived with, counseled over the last forty-some years, I see us all pretty much in the same love boat, with him as our champion.

To make a long story short, he can be celebrated as the Patron Saint of Friendship.

Each year we remember his “pioneering” or “liminal” work in breaking away from St. Augustine’s “body is bad” teachings and proclaiming the truth of God’s approval of human love and friendship.

In celebration of his annual “feast day” we pray the St. Aelred Novena for nine days culminating on the day of his “feast,” March 3.

St. Aelred: Gay Saint of Friendship

St. Aelred of Rievaulx
By Brother Robert Lentz, OFM. ©1992
Courtesy of http://www.trinitystores.com/
(800.699.4482)
Collection of the Living Circle, Chicago, IL

Saint Aelred (1109-1167) is considered one of the most lovable saints, the patron saint of friendship and also, some say, gay. His feast day is January 12.

Aelred was the abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in England. His treatise “On Spiritual Friendship” is still one of the best theological statements on the connection between human and spiritual love. “God is friendship… Those who abide in friendship abide in God, and God in them.. he wrote, paraphrasing 1 John 4:16.

Aelred’s own deep friendships with men are described in “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality ” by Yale history professor John Boswell. “There can be little question that Aelred was gay and that his erotic attraction to men was a dominant force in his life,” Boswell wrote.

Boswell’s account inspired the members of the LGBT Episcopal group Integrity to name Aelred as their patron saint. Visit IntegrityUSA.org for the full story on how they won recognition for their gay saint.

Aelred certainly advocated chastity, but his passions are clear in his writing. He describes friendship with eloquence in this often-quoted passage:

“It is no small consolation in this life to have someone you can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love, someone in whom your spirit can rest, to whom you can pour out your soul, to whose pleasant exchanges, as to soothing songs, you can fly in sorrow... with whose spiritual kisses, as with remedial salves, you may draw out all the weariness of your restless anxieties. One who can shed tears with you in your worries, be happy with you when things go well, search out with you the answers to your problems, whom with the ties of charity you can lead into the depths of your heart; . . . where the sweetness of the Spirit flows between you, where you so join yourself and cleave to one another that soul mingles with soul and two become one.”

The icon of Saint Aelred was painted by Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar and world-class iconographer known for his innovative icons. It includes a banner with Aelred’s words, “Friend cleaving to friend in the spirit of Christ.”
_________

This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

***************

Novena to St. Aelred of Rievaulx
Recommended: Feast of St. Aelred March 3
Anytime during the year

The Feast of St. Aelred, March 3, is usually the ninth day of the Novena in honor of St. Aelred. Of course, the beginning day and the final day can be adjusted. In many places the anniversary date of St. Aelred’s birthday in heaven, January 12, is also observed as St. Aelred Day.

Here’s how the Novena works. Each day of the nine day novena, read the novena commemoration of St. Aelred and the St. Aelred novena prayer.

Day 1. We remember Aelred as a youth

Aelred was born in Hexam in northern England in the year 1110 . His father was “pastor” of the Roman Catholic Church at Hexam.

For priests to marry was officially not permitted, but it was so common that it was not a scandal, even some popes were sons of priests. The other thing that is quite different from our time is that his grandfather and his great grandfather also were “pastors” of that church as it was a “hereditary” pastorate (a medieval “thing”).

Hexam was a parish which had many relics (tombs, bones, bodies of famous English saints). Aelred acquired his father’s devotion to these saints and later wrote about them.

Many years later, in Aelred’s lifetime, his father gave up the “parish” and entered a monastery for the remainder of his life on earth.

At the age of 15 or thereabouts, Aelred’s father sent him to live in the court of King David I of Scotland. He spent 10 years there and became a trusted aide of the King, who also was later proclaimed a saint of the church.

At the court Aelred got a good education, but his greatest delight, he tells us, “was to love and be loved.” He had loves and friends, but he also had a broken heart many times. In the intrigues of the court, True Friendship of the type Aelred yearned for, was virtually unknown.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 2. Aelred enters novitiate
and takes up “religious life”

At age 25 in the year 1135, Aelred abruptly left the court and entered a new monastery, which was named Rievaulx, in northern England which St. Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux in France, had sent twelve monks to establish just two years before.

It was a hard life and the weather was cold and severe (which may account for the mere 57 years of Aelred’s earthly life). The monks “camped” in temporary huts on the river banks in the valley of the beautiful, but often ice and snow covered, River Rye, while they and the workers constructed the monastery that eventually became the largest in all England.

While trying to adjust to this life so different from the court, Aelred began to yearn again for True Friendship, and to see the possibility of attaining True Friendship in a community centered on Christ. Slowly he began to explore what True Friendship could be.

Within eight years he was named novice master, with the heavy responsibility of guiding the spiritual formation of the new monks who were already entering the monastery in increasing numbers.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 3. Abbot of Revesby

The Abbey of Rievaulx decided to establish a new abbey at Revesby, further to the east, but still in northern England. This was the first of the five daughter houses of Rievaulx, and Aelred was selected to be the first abbot of the new Abbey.

So he left whatever small comforts had been built into Rievaulx in those first ten years and went to Revesby and started all over again, with cold temporary huts, and much manual labor, back-breaking work that he flung himself into for the next two years from 1145-to 1147.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Added Comment
Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
By Paul Zalonski

The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord, all my being, bless his holy name (Rom 5:5; Ps 102:1).

O God, who gave the blessed Abbot Aelred the grace of being all things to all men, grant that, following his example, we may so spend ourselves in the service of one another, as to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The New Advent bio

Saint Aelred authored several influential books on spirituality, among them The Mirror of Charity and Spiritual Friendship. He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to King Henry II of England advising him how to be a good king. The twentieth century has seen a greater interest in Saint Aelred as a spiritual writer than in former times when he was known to be a historian.

This year we honor the 900th anniversary of Saint Aelred's birth, though some the anniversary in AD 2010.

Day 4. Abbot of Rievaulx

In 1147 the first abbot of Rievaulx died and Aelred was elected to return from Revesby and become the Abbot of the “Motherhouse,” Rievaulx.

It is located in a scenic valley, dubbed the “valley of light,” ever massaged with the sound of water running through the monastery grounds in the stream of the River Rye. (This, by the way, is the inspiration of our own fountain of bubbling water.)

For the next 20 years St. Aelred was distinguished as a capable, gentle, and caring administrator of an ever-growing abbey, an abbot who never expelled a monk in 20 years.

The abbey reached a peak of 500 priests, brothers, and workers, and even today the massive shells of chapels, chapter rooms, dining halls, and dormitories are still a tourist attraction in northern England.

Archbishop Sentamu and St Aelred's anniversary photos
Source: http://www.google.com/search?q=Archbishop+Sentamu+and+St+Aelred%27s+anniversary+photos&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 5. Holy Abbot

In addition to his administration of the Abbey, St. Aelred began to work on the writings which have earned him enduring recognition as one of the “late fathers of the church,” a vast array of writings on saints, history, love, friendship, religious life, and uncounted sermons and spiritual works.

Slowly in the monasteries of today his works are being translated from the original Latin into today’s English. (A few years ago I asked a Trappist monk from Boston if he “ever heard” of St. Aelred. He informed me that he was the one who is translating St. Aelred’s sermons.)

St. Aelred wrote the lives of several English saints, and became a sought-after preacher for special occasions. He delivered the funeral oration when King St. David died in 1153. He began writing his two best-known works, The Mirror of Love, and Spiritual Friendship.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 6. St. Aelred, Apostle of Friendship

In Spiritual Friendship St. Aelred gives us his classic definition of “Friendship.” He says “Friendship is oneness of heart, mind and spirit, in things human and divine, with mutual esteem, and kindly feelings of approval and support.”

In Mirror of Love he departs from generalities and gets down to the nitty gritty of what a True Friend is and does.

“A True Friend is one with whom I am deeply united in bonds of love, can find rest, pour out my heart, have sweet conversation, find a harbor of calm, lay bare my secrets, receive a comforting kiss, cry with and rejoice with, talk with for advice, feel togetherness “even when we are far apart, and with heart and mind together we are bound in the closest ties of love.”

There can be no doubt what Aelred means by True Friendship. And that is his lifelong gospel. It is not that he deviates from the Gospel of Jesus or the teachings of John. He theologizes that if God is love as St. John teaches, then God is Friendship.

“St. Aelred is known as a Christocentric twelfth-century monastic humanist. His most famous work, Spiritual Friendship, which explores the relationship between spiritual and human friendship in a monastic context, reveals his own conscious homosexual orientation and gives love between persons of the same gender its most profound expression in Christian theology.” (Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. 4, American Council of Learned Societies)

Added Comment
Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
By Paul Zalonski

Pour into our hearts, O God, the Holy Spirit's gift of love, that we, clasping each the other's hand, may share the joy of friendship, human and divine, and with Your servant Aelred draw many to Your communion of love; through Jesus Christ the Righteous, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

On friendship

There are four qualities which characterize a friend: loyalty, right intention, discretion and patience. Right intention seeks for nothing other than God and natural good. Discretion brings understanding of what is done on a friend's behalf, and ability when to know when to correct faults. Patience enables one to be justly rebuked, or to bear adversity on another's behalf. Loyalty guards and protects friendship, in good or bitter times.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Archbishop Sentamu and St Aelred's anniversary photos

Source: http://www.google.com/search?q=Archbishop+Sentamu+and+St+Aelred%27s+anniversary+photos&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Day 7. Lover, Friend, Christian Humanist

St. Aelred was very personal and honest in his writings about love and friendship. St. Anselm and some of Aelred’s other contemporaries wrote about love and friendship, but in a much more clinical way, even though they were also “gay,” as we would say.

Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, on the other hand, in his self-revealing style, wrote about his teenage loves, about his “true” loves in the monastery, about his own yearnings and experiences.

In asserting the need for friendship and love, Aelred legitimized the physical and spiritual embrace of other human beings – and in the context of a religious community. In this context, all loves are reconciled in Jesus, and all are at peace in the love of the community.

Honored as a medieval Christian humanist, Aelred had a great optimism about the capability of human beings to love each other in good communities centered on Jesus. When he entered the monastery, he did not leave the world made by God or the exercise of love which gives harmony to every day life.

Therefore, obviously, if love and friendship were “good” within the hallowed monastery walls, how much more true is it “good” for all God’s children (who happen to be given the gift of attraction to persons of the same gender).

St. Aelred found his answer to the meaning of life in its human dimension in the love of the brothers at Rievaulx – brother to all in community life, lover to some in his True Friendships. He found the love of God made real and physical by experiencing together love of God and individual human beings.

St. Aelred unabashedly insisted on the need for human loves, and in his “Mirror of Love” he pours his heart out in lament over the death of the monk Simon, with whom he felt a True Friendship.

“St. Aelred deserves to be the patron saint of gays and lesbians because he was true to himself – never covering up his sexuality which was same-sex attraction, and he was not pulled fully into the prevailing sex-negative anti-body dualistic philosophy of St. Augustine,” writes one attendee at the conclusion of a seminar on the life and works of St. Aelred.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 8. Suffered from arthritis

We all identify with Jesus who took on all the weakness and limitations of humanity to be one with us and died for love of us in the agonizing suffering of the passion and Cross.

St. Aelred especially identified with the sufferings of Jesus for us. The last ten years of his life on earth he was wracked with excruciating pain of arthritis.

His sufferings were intensified with the unbearable pangs of kidney stones. Sometimes when he had to stay in a little room near the infirmary, his friends would gather around his bed to cheer him up. (One’s imagination runs wild if gays gathered around his bed were as cheerful then as they are now in the Philippines.)

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

Day 9. Patron of Sex Positive Theology
Patron of responsible sexuality

Many scholars have turned their attention to St. Aelred studies. Worldwide today there is an elite corps of “St. Aelred Scholars.” They are somewhat divided between those who speak frankly and openly of his same-sex orientation and those who would prefer, if they could, to sweep it under the rug. There are rumors that the Trappists don’t allow the monks to read Aelred’s works without permission. But Thomas Merton, a great world-renowned Trappist writer, wrote a biography of St. Aelred.

The Trappists and Benedictines and other orders are fearful that the monks will follow St. Aelred’s teachings of love and friendship in the monastery. Because of homophobia they are trying to be on guard against “special friendships.”

Our reason for joining the world-wide acclamation of St. Aelred as GLBT patron is primarily because of the holiness of his life and his inspiration for us to give our all for Jesus. The name of Jesus was always on his lips and the love of Jesus was always in his heart, but he felt that his love of Jesus could be strengthened by following the teachings of St. John that love of neighbor translates into love of God. “Those who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.”

St. Aelred was not a modern day gay activist. There is no doubt that he sincerely embraced the celibate life as his vocation. He was a product of his times and caught up in the sex-negative theology of St. Augustine, but he was liminal, way ahead of his times, in his honesty about love and his loves. He is not a role model of gay activism, but a role model of holiness, and honesty, and coming out as appropriate in one’s state of life.

“St. Aelred deserves to be the patron saint of gays and lesbians because his philosophy of the unity of the flesh and spirit does not follow the hateful language of homophobic official literature, and he led a life of honest openness about loving people of the same sex physically,” wrote Oscar Atadero at the conclusion of a seminar on St. Aelred.

We celebrate the feast of St. Aelred because our understanding of life and love is enhanced by this great saint whom we have chosen as our patron.

Novena Prayer
O most kind and loving St. Aelred,
in union with you
I come into the presence of our beloved Jesus.
I pray that you will obtain God’s favor for me
as I imitate your life of holiness
and follow your teachings
of love and friendship,
through Christ Jesus, our friend
whose sweet name was always on your lips.

St. Aelred, pray for me.
St. Aelred, pray for us.

A History of Rievaulx Abbey
Source: http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/rievaulx/history

'Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvellous freedom from the tumult of the world.' Written over eight centuries ago by the monastery's third abbot, St Aelred, these words still apply to Rievaulx today.

Words are not the only links to Rievaulx's medieval monks. Over the past few years, the site has become something of an archaeological treasure, with unexpected discoveries shedding new light on the lives of the monks, and the extensive renewal and rebuilding of their abbey church in the Early English Gothic style.

Archaeologists continue to study the landscape around Rievaulx, revealing the remarkable extent of the abbey's influence and industry. Their discoveries are showcased in the on-site museum.

The abbey was founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux, as part of the missionary effort to reform Christianity in western Europe. Twelve Clairvaux monks came to Rievaulx in 1132.

From these modest beginnings grew one of the wealthiest monasteries of medieval England and the first northern Cistercian monastery.

Rievaulx also enjoyed the protection of Walter Espec of nearby Helmsley Castle, who provided much of the abbey's land. The monks of neighbouring Byland Abbey initially disputed land ownership with Rievaulx, but subsequently moved to their present location and relinquished the disputed land, thus allowing the major expansion of Rievaulx Abbey. You can still see traces of the channels dug by the Rievaulx monks.

A steady flow of monks came to Rievaulx, attracted by the prestige of Abbot Aelred, author and preacher, who was regarded then and later as a wise and saintly man. Following his death in 1167, the monks of Rievaulx sought canonisation for their former leader, and in the 1220s they rebuilt the east part of their church in a much more elaborate style to house his tomb.

Most of this 13th-century 'presbytery' still stands to virtually its full impressive height, a reminder of Rievaulx's original splendour.

Rievaulx was still a vibrant community when Henry VIII dissolved it in 1538. Its new owner, Thomas Manners, first Earl of Rutland, swiftly instigated the systematic destruction of the buildings.

However, the substantial remains constitute one of the most eloquent of all monastic sites, free 'from the tumult of the world.'

Source: http://www.nunraw.blogspot.com

Theology or Life?

2011-01-24T19:19:00.000+08:00

“Why Don’t You Write About Your Life?”

My friends who read my blogs and notes are asking me why I always write about “theology?” “Why don’t you write about your life?”

I tell them that I’ve been there, done that, and now I have found a whole new meaning and purpose. I have conducted seminars for other people to find the meaning and purpose of their life. It’s high time for me to do that.

***

I studied in Europe. It was for me. I taught in high schools. I taught in colleges. I taught in universities. At first teaching was for me – a job, a career. Then teaching took on a mission – and that mission, more clearly defined, it’s propelling me now. People say, “You’re 82. Why don’t you really retire and enjoy life?”

Well, if it’s about enjoying, I have it. I enjoy what I am doing. My best kind of fulfillment was in the wonderful family God gave me. When that was taken away by fate (if you can call fate circumstances which I caused), I find fulfillment in the mission the Lord has clearly laid out for me.

***

I first heard the call, “Come follow me, when I was an altar boy of 10,11, 12 years of age. I first answered the call when I was 13 and I entered Brunnerdale Seminary and religious life in the Society of Precious Blood (to whose alumni association I belong to this day).

I answered the call by teaching high school religion classes for several years, by directing large parish religious education programs, by teaching in seminary, by pastoring churches in three countries.

***

Now the mission has crystallized. “It ain’t for me” even though the bonus is that I enjoy it. It’s about what my mission really is. I have to be clear about it now. The time is short I have a very talented young friend under 30. He’s been a teacher, a college professor, but jumps at every new thing that comes along, has no focus. Maybe he would say, (surely by the time I am 82 I will find focus.”

On the other hand, my partner of 12 years has always, since college, had his focus on teaching. While he was a student at UP he supported himself teaching English to Koreans, and even taught English in a Korean University one summer. He taught in the most prestigious government and Catholic High schools. He taught in colleges and is now a professor in the country’s premier university. He taught in Saudi; he went to a call center to teach in the training program. But just recently, after winning the silver medal in the national Yoga competition, he has been invited to follow his passion – to teach Yoga in one of the top Fitness organizations in the country. He followed his training and his passion.

I have other friends who give up all to follow their passion, and they are wise enough to focus the right amount of energy on it to go places, as they say. Jim always liked “make-up,” while doing other livelihood work. He finally won a TV make-up competition, and got a full time job in his passion – by focusing on his passion.

***

I have been skirting around my mission all my life. Sometimes it has involved teaching (and preaching), but now that I am 82 I see it’s not for me, for my career, for my enjoyment. It’s bigger than I am and must last beyond the term of my life.

‘

So, now I realize when Jesus called the apostles, he did not merely call them to “follow him” around for three years. He wanted them to do what all but one of them did --- to follow him by bringing others to a “more complete life” – until the end (which for them was martyrdom) in such a way that His Way, His Truth, and His Life will live on and on, and others will carry on the same mission.

***

Well, that’s what I have to do. It’s not for me or about me. It’s so that more and more people will know His Truth.

A lot of people (priests, bishops) are telling people about His Way. They call it his truth. But he never taught it. His Life was a life of love – and never once in his whole life did he show prejudice. Yet, so many who say they teach his way live and teach prejudice.

So what’s my mission. Teach His Truth, and that means Truth without prejudice.

Now I admit that puts me in a kind of bind. How can I contradict prejudice without being prejudiced against prejudice. I find the answer again in Jesus. No prejudice, but he certainly did contradict the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

What I have to do is fearlessly contradict the hypocrisy of sex-negative theology. There is ample evidence that some of the loudest voices, Catholic bishops and Protestant television evangelists, ranting against “sex sins” are exposed in the news, caught in the “sex sins” they rave against.

***

But that is not my mission. My mission is to bring life, happiness, peace. and fulfillment to God’s people through the truth of sex-positive theology.

***

But like the Apostles did, it has to be done in such a way that the mission will not end when “my term” ends, so that the mission will not only be accomplished in the individuals, scores, or hundreds God brings into my life work –- but as with the apostles it will live on and on for a better world.

***

Call me an “apostle of sex-positive theology,” if you like. That is not important. One of my friends said, “Father, you will not die; you are everlasting.” That may not be true in terms of my earthly life. But my mission must make it true in terms of my passing on the Truth and the passion for the Truth to others who will pass it on to others (2 Tim 2:2).

***

For this reason more and more people are enrolling in the free cyber seminar in Sex-Positive Theology. They are learning the Truth (Jesus is the Truth) and the Truth will set them free in a new Life (Jesus is the Life) of happiness, peace, and fulfillment. This is a fulfillment that can extend to a wholistic full life reaching into every fiber of their being – the intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional components of a wholistic life.

***

Long live sex-positive theology. It’s not Jesus, but it leads to every thing Jesus wants for his people. Long live Truth, happiness, peace and fulfillment.

***

So, if I do that with all my heart, soul, and strength, I don’t have time to write about myself.

2011 Holds Hope for a More Just Future

2010-12-26T17:43:00.000+08:00

It’s December 26 as I write. The banner headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer announces the pope’s Christmas message: Pope prays: Break rods of oppressors. The sub headline is: Resist persecution, Christians urged.

On the surface, the pope’s message sounds beautiful, and it is – as far as it goes. He actually is targeting the oppressors in Iraq and china, and could well include Saudi Arabia and wherever Moslem extremists blow up Christian churches on Christmas and around the year. (One such bombing in our own country was reported in the same edition.)

“Help us to recognize your face in others who need our assistance,” the pope prays, “in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to become one family.” And surely thatg is our prayer, too.

But, Holy Father, may I humbl;y ask you to see the limitations of your prayer as shown in your action s and policies. Your own LGBT people are suffering. Your own LGBT people are forsaken by you and your church. Please don’t tell me you love the sinner, but hate the sin.

If you really want to see the face of God in all people, help us to live together as brothers and sisters. Please stop trying to set up barriers between us and our loving God. We want to be one family, but we are indeed excluded.

Jesus never showed prejudice once in his whole life, but you, your bishops and your church show prejudice in every statement, in every action against God’s beloved L:GBT people, who by birth were supposed to be your beloved people, but we have been rejected from the family.

You pray for an end to oppression. But what about the oppression from within?

You say, “Resist persecution.” Holy father, when I preach sex-positive theology, I am urging God’s beloved LGBT people to ‘resist Persecution’

When your emissary from the Vatican spoke to me a few years ago, he looked at me and said, “You are hard on the church.” Holy Father, I told him; "Monsignor, I have nothing but respect and love for the church, the church of my grandmother, the church of my parents, the church where I was born, baptized and ordained. It is not the church I denounce, ever, in any way. It is persecution."

What your emissary heard me doing was heeding your advice to Christians to “resist persecution.” It is doing what you urged Christians to do in your Easter message. It is “resisting persecution.” I love the Mass and the sacraments. I resist the persecution which comes from ostracizing and causing suffering for LGBT people who love god, who love their neighbor, and who yearn to “become one family,” as you say.

Holy Father, we all want the Moslem extremists to stop blowing up Christians. One of my very good friends, a good nun had her legs blown off while praying in the cathedral of Jakarta on Christmas Eve a few years ago. We all find that kind of persecution abominable. But Holy father, try to see that your unbiblical NO NO NO rules are also abominable, especially when you condemn the love we have for one another.

Well, what can we do?

We all want to respect the Truth, know the truth. We learn how to do that from our conscience. Avoid sin, and avoid persecution. 68% of Filipinos have done that with regard to condoms. 68% of Filipinos have formed their conscience on the RH Bill which would give Filipinos in civil society some rights about condoms.

But in the same newspaper today, a Catholic bishop is still persecuting Filipinos about the Reproductive Health Bill.

What can we do? We can keep hope alive. We can see God’s Truth prevailing. We can even now, envision 2011 with more hope, more people breaking free from the bondage of persecution. 2011 will see more and more people awakening ti the Truth of Sex-Positive Theology. 68% have a glimpse of it. More will see the whole Truth.

God’s truth is eternal;. It is not like “Yesterday all condoms were sin; today condoms are not sin for male prostitutes.”

The problem with that is, it does not open the eyes to the eternal Truth. It does not see the Light of the World who never showed prejudice and never declared condoms a sin.

Oh my! We all know that. Let’s go further. Let’s make 2011 SPT year.

Let’s get more and more of our friends to join us in the Sex Positive Theology Seminar It’s all by email. (saintaelred@gmsil. com) No charge. No travel. No weekend away from home. Just be comfortable wherever your computer is. Join the battle against persecution. Join the march in celebration of God’s Truth.

Jesus told us He is the Truth.

The Truth will set us free.

2011 will be a year of hope. 2011 will be a better year.

Yes, Holy Father, we will resist persecution.

I join with STRAP, our dear trans gender friends , in their powerful greeting:

“STRAP wishes everyone a Christmas filled with warmth, laughter and hope and a New Year that affirms our dignity, protects our right to self-determination and ensures a good quality of life for all! Happy Holidays!”www.facebook.com/strap.manila

Christmas is About Justice

2010-12-26T17:30:00.000+08:00

On December 20, for the 6th Simbang gabi of 2010, I had the honor of being invited to worship with and bring a message to the faithful Christians of MCC Quezon City, augmented by the good members of Bacardi.

Pastor Ceejay asked me to give a Christmas message on “Justice.”

The traffic is worse than ever this year, but it brings joy to my heart that the people are better than ever.

People ask me why I stay here. It’s not the climate. It’s not the money. It’s the people. God’s people, God’s beloved LGBT people.

May I share that Christnas message with you as my Christmas Message to you – along with a sincere prayer for you to have a blessed and merry Christmas and holidays.

Christmas is all about Justice

We are here tonight for one reason

-- and one only –

to honor Our Lord Jesus Christ,

to commemorate

the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

One time someone said to me: What’s the difference?

What’s wrong with being a Moslem?

Or a Jew or an Iglesia ni Christo? They believe good things. What’s wrong with that?

I said, nothing is wrong --

except the same thing

that would be wrong with Christmas with only a Santa Claus. I would miss

my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – no matter how much good

there would be

in those other religions,

the most important person

would be missing.

Why is the birth

of Our Lord Jesus Christ significant?

Why do we observe it every year with so much pomp and ceremony and festivity?

The CBCP (Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines) says that Christ should be the center

of the Christmas celebration –

not Santa Claus or elfs or reindeer or beautiful Christmas trees.

Make Christ the center, they say.

Oo, sige, yann. Right on!

The CBCP hit the nail on the head. Just as a religion

without Christ as the center,

Christmas

without Christ as the center

loses all the luster of its other goodies.

But, why on earth

was Jesus born as one of us,

as a human person

who lived and loved

as we live and love?

Why did he become

A person with

Intellectual, bodily,

spiritual, and emotional characteristics just like we have.

Our Christian faith tells us that Jesus came into this world

to set us free.

To set us free from what?

St. Paul says, to set us free

from sin, death, and the Old Law.

The CBCP says we should

make Christ the center

of our celebration of Christ’s birth.

Ok! Sige! But does that mean

the whole obligation

is servewd by placing a doll baby

in swaddling clothes in a manger instead of a Santa Claus

on a one horse open sleigh?

But what about the real purpose of Jesus becoming one of us,

starting as a baby in swaddling clothes in a manager?

Should we not look

at His purpose?

And that, we said,

was to set us free –

free from sin, death,

and the Old Law?

Would that not be a just and proper celebration of Christmas?

Now just look at what happened two days ago in Washington DC. There was a law for almost 20 years that said gays and lesbians had to stay in the closet

if they wanted to be

in the US military.

The would-be good Christian fundamentalist homophobic bigots wanted to keep that law.

They put heavy pressure

on congress to keep that law.

But two days ago,

justice triumphed

in Washington DC in spite of the so-called

good Christians

who wanted to save the military from the gays and the lesbians. The old “don’t ask don’t tell” law

is gone

(don’t ask if a military person is gay; don’t tell if you are a LGBT military person)

with the signature

of President Obama.

Now which of these is the justice of Jesus Christ who never in his whole life showed prejudice?

The prejudice of the good Christian bigots,

or the justice

of the Congress and president

who finally overturned the law?

Will we ever see such justice

in our country?

Will our congress ever put justice above their fear of the CBCP bishops (who would use their power to get the congress member not elected

the next time around?

What law are we thinking about that screams for justice?

One is the anti-discrimination law, to reduce the discrimination against LGBT people.

Another one is the no-divorce law. Yes, the Philippines sits

as the only country in the world besides the island of Malta

which does not give its citizens

the freedom of divorce.

Is that justice?

200+ nations see it

as a human right.

One country’s bishops block it.

So far, justice has taken

a back seat to fear of the bishops.

The church which says

make Jesus the center of Christmas –

is the same church which completely violates

the justice of Jesus,

the same church which deprives its citizens decade after decade, from the days of Damaso

to the present,

deprives its citizens

of their God-given rights to human life and dignity,

as that church just clings

to their Old Laws

of NO NO NO: no masturbation, no sex except

in marriage to make a baby,

no sex ever in your whole life, never in any way,

never in any place,

never in any position

or circumstance –

if you are gay or lesbian.

The church who says keep Christ in Christmas,

instead of living and teaching

by the teachings

and example of Jesus,

instead of freeing us

from sin and death,

imposes sin

and condemns us to death

in the fires of hell.

They would declare our love sin. What’s the justice in that?

They would declare

that divorce is sin

and pressure Congress

never to allow any Filipino – Christian, Moslem , or atheist – the right to choose divorce

in their circumstances of life.

Is that justice?

They would impose the sentence of death in hell

for the natural harmless pleasure

of masturbation.

Is that justice?

They would insist that Catholic parents of many children with no ulam, no baon,

stick to that church’s demand

of NO CONDOMS.

Is that justice?

Is that common sense?

They would likewise resist reproductive health

with the possibility of condoms

for all Filipinos.

Is that the justice of Jesus?

Is that why Jesus was born

to live and love as we live and love?

Jesus came to Bethlehem

to set us free,

Jesus said

the truth will set you free.

Jesus said, I am the truth.

My friends, The life and total lack of prejudice in the life of Jesus gives us a glimpse of the Truth. The Truth that Jesus is

sets us free

from the sin declared by the CBCP,

from the sentence of death, declared by the CBCP,

from the Old Laws

declared by the CBCP.

These old laws do not give us

the freedom that Jesus brought us. They bring slavery,

moral slavery to a list of

sexual NO No No’s

including No Condoms,

No divorce, and no same sex love.

Yes, let’s put Christ in Christmas; let’s put Christ

in the center of Christmas;

let’s put Jesus and His Truth

in the center of our lives.

Let us honor Christ at Christmas; let us honor the Christ

who is the Truth.

And the truth is

that we are

God’s beloved LGBT children

and our God sets us free to love.

But my dear friends,

we cannot just demand

that the CBCP do justice

to the message

and mission of Jesus Christ.

Is that enough?

Where is our own loyalty to the message and mission

of Jesus Christ?

We say,

THEY should allow us to love.

Do we love,

or do we seek

only our own pleasure?

Jesus Christ came to Bethlehem, yes, but he came

and lived and loved and died –

not for himself – but for others, for us, his friends.

Is the other a priority for you,

for me?

Do we want sex

just for our own pleasure?

Do we treat our partner

as a body we have used for our fun, or do we treat our partner

as a person whom we have loved?

And do I always want

to WIN every argument?

Do I always in a relationship want to get my own way?

Do I always plot –

how can I get what I want?

OR do I follow

the life and example of Jesus whom we see as one who came

not to be loved, not to be served, but to love and to serve?

When I have a disagreement with my loved one,

do I ponder how to win,

or do I do it the Jesus way,

and ponder

“WHAT CAN I DO

for my LOVED ONE?

What can I DO

TO MAKE

MY LOVED ONE HAPPY?

How can I be like Jesus who came to set us free

from selfishness and sin?

Yes, we are here to honor Jesus, to commemorate his birth among us –

Not just with a doll baby in swaddling clothes in a crib, but with our love and justice. Maybe justice is the real meaning of “Peace on earth,

good will to all.”

God bless us all.

LGBT People Are Spiritual Too

2010-12-08T01:05:00.001+08:00

Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.

Bishop, Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines

(The following is a slight expansion of the three-minute remarks, requested by the Task Force Pride - TFP, who have been organizers of the Pride March since 1999, and prepared for delivery at the program following the 2010 Pride March, December 4, 2010 on Tomas Morato in Quezon City.

In retrospect this march has been declared the largest in Philippine LGBT Pride March history. The 51 participating organizations are a far cry from the MCC and Pro Gay Sponsors and friends who marched in the rain from EDSA on Quezon Avenue to Quezon Memorial Circle on June 26, 1994.

This year, standing on the well-lit sound stage, I could not see the huge crowd. But when the lights were dimmed for the candle lighting, it seemed like there must have been five thousand out there, united in “One Love,” the theme of this year’s celebration.

In the photo above, you see me on the stage, with Pastors Egay, Ceejay, and Myke standing behind me. If you want to see several hundred more photos of the event, go to my Facebook or become my Facebook friend.

It was good to see so many friends at the Pride March. Many thanks to Chard Ng and Mark Vondraye Simbillo for the wonderful photos from their Facebook albums.)

Ten years from now if someone asks me how I celebrated my 82nd birthday, one of the things I will say is that I walked 3.5 kilometers with 5,000 beautiful people. The city of Quezon city has hosted a fabulous [3.5 kilometers long] parade and well-lighted sound stage for this 16th year after the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in Asia was held right here in Quezon City.

When I spoke at the first March,

I could never have dreamed that 16 years later so many many of you would be here tonight. I am thrilled. God bless you.

Many gays and lesbians don’t care whether they are kicked out of their church, or not. They are fed up with rejection, with the no, no, no preaching of their church. It’s always NO Masturbation, NO Condoms, NO Same-sex Love.

But some gays and lesbians love their God so much that they want to find a solution.

In 1991, Michael Santos of San Juan did care, and did want to find a solution. He wrote a letter which I got, saying, “I have been kicked out of my church for being gay. When is MCC going to come to the Philippines and help people like me to be at peace with God?”

I left my job as pastor of a thriving MCC LGBT church in New Zealand. I left my salary, my car, my big house, my friends. I came here where I did not know one person.

I began to meet people who told me, “There is not one person helping gay and lesbian Christians in this country. There is no one speaking out publicly to tell them they are OK.”

I set up the first openly gay and lesbian organization in the country, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), and began to preach the message in church and on television and through the newspapers and magazines – that God loves Gay and lesbian people unconditionally.

Then they asked, “If that is true, why can’t we have weddings like everybody else can?” So I started having weddings for same-sex couples. Now there are three pastors also offering Holy Unions.

Then I had a debate on TV with a popular Catholic bishop, and he said the Bible condemns gay and lesbian love-making. I told him there is not one word, one verse, or one story in the entire Bible which condemns our love. Then I developed a four-hour seminar to prove that the Bible does not condemn our love.

One day a lesbian said to me, “My church says that the Bible does not like women who love women.” I told her, “My dear, that is not true. One whole book of the Bible is about the love story of two women, Ruth and Naomi, the book of Ruth.”

Her gay friend was standing beside her and he asked, “But what about men loving men?” I told him there are some beautiful stories about men who loved men in the Bible. The great King David, who wrote the prayer book of Jesus, after he killed the giant Goliath, fell in love with Jonathan, the son of King Saul, and their beautiful love story is told in the Bible.

And, yes, even Jesus had a lover. Eight times the Bible tells us that there was one special one who was called the beloved of Jesus, the beloved disciple who was allowed to cuddle with Jesus, lie with his head on the heart of Jesus. That’s not the Da Vinci Code; that’s not a novel or fiction; that’s the Bible. And who did Jesus turn his mother over to when he was dying on the cross? He gave his mother over to the care of his lover, John, the beloved disciple. Imagine that! So, I told the gay friend of my lesbian friend, “So you see, the Bible is not against same-sex love. It’s the bishops of the church who reject us.”

They teach sex-negative theology. In contrast, I have developed three courses in Sex-Positive Theology. They deal in detail with all these things about spirituality and sexuality. They are available free of charge by email (saintaelred@gmail.com)

And you know what? The Filipino people are beginning to realize that what the bishops say about these matters is not necessarily what God says about these issues.

Today 85% of Filipinos may be Catholic, but 69% of them disagree with their bishops. 69% favor the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

Of course we know that morality is not determined by the majority. We also know that it’s true that 69%, at least, disagree with the NO, NO, NO teachings of the bishops.

Then people kept on talking to me. “I went to confession,” the gay guy said. “The priest got real mad at me when I told him I masturbated.”

Then another gay guy, his friend, said, “That’s nothing. You should have heard what the priest said when I told him I was having sex with my boy friend.”

Everywhere I went I heard stories like that. But in church and out of church I told them that in MCC, we know that LGBT people can be Christian. And thousands are.

The Rev. Troy Perry brought that message to the world when he founded MCC in 1968, a year before the Stonewall Riots. And I brought MCC and that message to the Philippines in 1991.

The church still says NO, NO, NO. But thank goodness the pope now permits male prostitutes to use condoms to prevent AIDS. Praise the Lord! That means male prostitutes are OK. If you are a call boy, rejoice, the pope says you are OK.

Yesterday my call boy friend asked me, “What about all those condom sins I committed before the pope said it was OK? Were they sins?”

I answered, “My dear, they were not sins in the first place. It’s just that the church is very slow in catching up with modern science and modern psychology and real people in today’s real world.”

Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one Truth. God’s truth — and the truth is that God loves you.

In 1994 when MCC and Pro Gay with Oscar Atadero co-sponsored the first Pride March in Asia, somebody said, “We have a human right to our sexuality and a human right to our spirituality.”

[In the photo below, taken at the first Pride March in the Philippines and in Asia in 1994, Oscar is shown top left among the MCC participants.]

Today the Pride March, LGBT Pride, includes the right to love God and our lover according to our conscience – Catholic, Protestant, Moslem, atheist or whatever. We have a right not to be denied our spiritual rights.

I told my friend, “You know, MCC in Makati (Pastor Egay), MCC in QC (Pastor Ceejay), MCC in Baguio (Pastor Myke) [pointing to the three pastors standing behind me on the stage] just keep on telling people all about that. God is love. YES, YES, YES Love your neighbor, love your lover, love God. Love, love, love. It’s all about love.”

My 82nd Birthday; some thoughts, some photos

2010-11-15T21:06:00.006+08:00

82nd Birthday Blog 2010 – Memories Again
So, what about my 82nd birthday?

In the following paragraphs I will share some thoughts from my past as I look back over 82 years – too much for one sitting, but a few things which pop into my mind. I will quote Cardinal Rosales and Clint Eastwood. And remember Dolphy is 82, too, and he ain’t quittin.

I have ten years to go to catch up with my own devout Catholic housewife mother of ten (who worked in a factory to make bomber parts to help win the war over the Nazi’s and Imperialist Japan).

Before she passed to eternal happiness at almost 92, I last talked with her when she was 91, just the two of us, “Richard,” she said, “I understand. Maybe the others don’t understand, but you are doing what you know God wants you to do.”

Those words will ring in my ears forever. She never heard of sex-positive theology, but she welcomed me and my partner to her home. She cooked for us and prepared the spare bedroom for us. She understood my life and my love and my ministry (as an MCC pastor). My father had died long before, but I always felt he understood, too.

May I solicit, maybe for the first time in my life, a birthday present? As you read the following paragraphs, will you select one event or one idea and send me the gift of a bit of feedback, your thoughts on that item? Much appreciated.

The Greatest Joy of my Life

It is a tremendous blessing for a pastor to officiate at a Baptism, especially at an adult Baptism of one whom I have prepared for this sacrament. It is an unequalled and humbling privilege to stand as an Alter Christus (another Christ) in the celebration of the ancient apostolic sacrament of the Eucharist, and yes, too, the laying on of hands in the passing on of the priesthood in apostolic succession. Blessings and privileges, indeed.

But the greatest joy of my life can be expressed in the simplest of terms. The joy of sitting at table with the nine people I love most in this world is not exceeded by any other spiritual, physical, intellectual, or emotional joy. Nothing equals the joy of romping at the zoo or at the beach or at the side yard with them. Packing them into the family station wagon or camper van (beds for all ten) and off we went… Preparing their breakfast and seeing them off to school… Of an evening helping with homework… It was my fate to somehow deprive myself of the perpetuation of that joy, but it can never be denied nor taken away.

Each year for nine years I experienced seeing the “Gift of God” presented right before my eyes, following the labor pains, joyfully suffered by a good and loving mother. My heart leapt for joy and beat with love as I stopped each time on the way home from the hospital to place the newborn treasure on the altar of the Blessed Mother at our parish church, imploring her lifelong watching over, “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided…”

The joy continued on the day of Baptism for each, and on and on till each grew into the outstanding person he or she became with such a wonderful mother. Even the joy of watching son, Rick (now a football coach) catch three passes in a college football game on Father’s Day. Yes, I feel more pride than I deserve to feel in what she and they have become.

Even today at 82, I remember with glee being asked by a bishop (who hired me to work for him as a religious educator) if I felt an inferiority complex having such a beautiful, talented, intelligent, and wonderful wife (obviously superior to me in so many ways). I replied that I was thankful to God for such a great gift to our children and me.

I was always grateful that Fr. Jim Froelich, my seminary classmate, came to our wedding, and along with Fr. Jim McKay and other Brunnerdale Seminary priests who stayed close to our family over the years. And they were there for the funeral of my brother, Louie, killed in a freak accident at 33 on the golf course he had just purchased

Inspired by Fr. Paul and Bishop Jim, but falling short of following their example

My friend, Fr. Paul Breton of California, is very consistent and self-disciplined about regular and punctual newsletters – a personal one every month and sometimes several a week with developing LGBT news. Even as I write he is suffering excruciatingly with shingles, yet he went to his computer, hardly able to see, and wrote a letter to all his friends advising them what to do it ever they had a suspicion of shingles. That’s self sacrifice. And that’s just one of the virtues I could extol about Fr. Paul.

And, of course, there is no shortage of virtues or extolling of virtues for my bishop in Virginia, Jim Burch. Of wisdom, there is no limit, and compassion, and zeal for the ministry, and… Oh yes, he just wrote an article for our seminary alumni newsletter, revealing how makulit (actually downright mischievous) he was as a seminarian. And now, facetiously, I am worrying that he might have a relapse as he approaches old age (second childhood.)

Other Memories

I don’t have time to write an autobiography (and who would want to read it anyway?)

But I do hope I will have time to do some biographical work on our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, just because he deserves to be our national hero as well as one of my idols. As of now there are a couple hundred pages in first draft form – time, time to finish.

Then I have plans for another historical novel, about St. Aelred to bring him out of the shadows of history into real life – since he was so very very real in his life and advocacy of friendship. “If God is Love,” he wrote in his book on same-sex friendship, “then God is Friendship.”

More about “before I die stuff” later.

The cow – 5,740 times

Today at 82 I take it a little easier that I did when I was in grade school. Today I pray the EWTN Mass every day (sometimes twice). It’s partly in Latin (to my delight) and comes from America at 6:00 AM here.

I often flash back, as I have told elsewhere, about learning by heart the Latin prayers of the Mass when I was nine or ten.

By the time I was 12 in Louisville, Ohio, every morning before school I walked with my empty pail down the street to the last remaining farm in the city. (It actually became a city later as a result of an initiative I led when I was President of the Louisville Jaycees.)

In the barn, I milked the family milk cow. Then it was back up the hill with my pail filled with warm fresh milk. I gave the milk to Mom and quickly changed to school clothes and hurried back down the street, over the bridge, across the rail road tracks, and up the hill to the majestic St. Louis Church (after all, St. Louis was a king), near the top of the hill on the border of the business district (just before the Town Tavern later owned by my brother, Gary when he got back with his Bronze Star from the war in Vietnam).

I dashed into the sacristy, donned my black cassock, white surplice, and altar slippers (a custom there), and served the morning Mass. (And never ever was there a scandal among the holy priests and altar boys of that church.)

Then quickly to the classroom where I was allowed to sit in the back of the room and eat the breakfast Mom had prepared and put in a brown paper bag for me (since in those days we could not have even a drop of water from midnight before Holy Communion).

Just for fun I calculated how many dates I had with Ole Bessie, every day before school, every evening after school from Grade 1 through Grade 8 before entering Brunnerdale Seminary high school at age 13. Well, it was 5,740 times – plus a couple of leap years (+4).

I thank my very special parents for that wonderful opportunity to become a workaholic – something that for the most part has served me well most of my life – except it was a terrible waterloo for me as a father of the family. More time for work, less time for those who meant the most to me.

So now, what is retirement for a workaholic. I loved my work as an MCC pastor. In their wisdom, their by laws call for retirement at 65. I slipped by till they caught up with me at 66. So now for the last decade and a half I am down to 18 hours a day in retirement.

Wedding Bells are Ringing

As of now, I still have the fulfilment of bringing joy to numerous committed couples who come to me to bless and celebrate with them their wedding vows.

I brought same-sex weddings to the Philippines almost 20 years ago in 1991. Now, praise God there are three other MCC pastors who also bring this sacrament and blessing to people who find it meaningful.

I just got a call today to fly off to a far away island on a three-day notice – “so we can have our wedding on our first anniversary.” (My caring partner has some rules they must follow if they whisk me off to a far away island, “Do they know how old you are?”)

Speaking of my caring partner, compañero of 12 years, without compromising his privacy, I can only wholeheartedly sing the praises of this man who has faithfully been by my side, caring, supporting, helping, loving,and being loved. I am extremely proud of him professionally. After teaching in the top public and private high schools in the country, he is now teaching in the premier state university.

And he is following his passion in yoga (Bikram) all the way to being a finalist in the national championship competition after three months of practice. His silver medal said 1st place, but the other one said champion, and our friends called to say they saw him on TV.

Tears were rolling down my cheeks. Imagine after only three months to score so well in the national competition, and he even lost two weeks in bed with a flu virus the week before the competition. (First runner-up to a man who is already an internationally trained Bikram yoga instructor.) Expert in swimming, expert in computer, expert teacher, now award-winning yoga asana champion eligible to compete in the International Championship in LA in February 2011. [I celebrated my 82nd birthday participating (sweating) in a 90-minute Bikram yoga class with him. Well, I couldn’t do things like stand on one leg and wrap the other one around my neck, but I was kinda proud of what I could do...]

Recurring thoughts from the past

In seminary I was not known for pranks, like my bishop (see where it got him – up, up the ecclesiastical ladder). I did like to play cards when we had “free day,” go for walks around the lake, and take care of the grotto of the Blessed Mother. I loved my job as sacristan (setting up everything behind the scenes) in the chapel of the major seminary, especially the intricate requirements of the semi-annual ordinations. I wrote for the Society’s publications, and I treasured those years of monastic life in the seminary.

After serving in the United States Army with service in the Korean War (at the same time as Fidel Ramos whom I met as future president of the Philippines), I found it fulfiling and served in the reserves for several years.

Later I experienced spiritual joys and spiritual ups and downs.

For example, my own Cursillo in Christian Community Living and the dozens (was it hundreds) of Cursillos as team member, speaker, rector, or spiritual director (in the Cursillo type Excel movement I founded in MCC).

Cursillo is where I first began to work with Ralph Martin and Steve Clark, traversing the country with them flying from city to city putting on seminars for Cursillo leaders aimed at preserving the integrity and spirituality of the movement. I, of course, get a thrill today when I see Ralph Martin “preaching” to thousands and and tens of thousands more on EWTN. The spirituality of these two amazing men had a tremendous impact on me. I later worked with them as they developed the Life in the Spirit Seminar and the Catholic Pentecostal Movement (as it was known then). Modeled after their Ann Arbor Prayer Meetings, I set up a Prayer meeting at Hillsdale College in Michigan which became an inspiration to the whole college and city under the leadership of Bob Langbauer. (I wonder where he is now? I understand he went to seminary at Berkely.)

In the Cursillo and Pentecostal Prayer meetings we were too occupied with prayer and spirituality to get sidetracked by sexuality issues. In another setting, I had my encounter with “exorcism.” I had read Fr. Morton Kelsey’s book on the Holy Spirit and jumped at the opportunity to attend his seminar on the Holy Spirit in Michigan. I had never spoken the word aloud in my life, but there I was, in a hotel room with the renowned author and some of his assistants. I was crying my heart out, kneeling on the floor before him as he prayed over me for my purging from all traces of homosexuality. The Holy Spirit did not pick up on that prayer, but I sure was confused. I did not know myself any better after than before that emotional experience.

That incident was balanced many years later in another hotel, this time in Denver, Colorado with another world famous author. It was no less than Fr. Norman Pittenger, author of some 100 theology and spiritual books. Not only an influential theologian but an inspiring and spiritual priest. For four hours I was in a kind of ecstasy as we worked on my editing of his 69th book, Gay Lifestyles, later published by MCC’s Fellowship Press, of which I was the Director at the time. For me it was so uplifting to be in the close presence of this impressive man, but humbling for me as a neophyte publisher/editor to be working with an author of his stature. Two years before, we had met at MCC’s General Conference, I think it was in Dallas, where he was the Conference Speaker. When we talked he urged me to write a book, which eventually became my second book, Christian Sexuality.

In addition to being an MCC pastor in several parishes in several states (plus New Zealand and the Philippines), working in the office of Rev. Troy Perry, the founder of the world-wide Metropolitan Community Church, was an awesome experience, praying with him in our daily prayer time in the headquarters office, celebrating Communion for him, weak and feeble, as he fasted on the steps of the Federal Building in Los Angeles to raise funds (successfully) defeat (successfully) the diabolical Proposition 6 which would have banned homosexuals from teaching in California. With the money he raised they were able to show the voters that every teacher (of every gender and orientation) would have his or her bedroom invaded to see if he or she should be banned from the classroom, and they voted smart. And then some 30 years later Proposition 8 came along and the wisdom of the voters turned sour. This time they turned down gay and lesbian (same-sex) marriage in California. That whole thing is still going through the legal hoops…

The Experience in the Mountains of Upstate New York

It can be called the Eastridge Experience. I had the seminary and religious life experience for years and still value my membership in the “alumni association,” the Amici, all of us who once belonged to the Society of the Precious Blood. Incomparable. I value all the years in Cursillo work, and the work with Ralph Martin and Steve Clark in both the Cursillo and the Catholic Pentecostal (Charismatic) Movement.

But I should have stuck to milk. I did not know I was an alcoholic until “chance” brought me to the experience of the gay bar in my adult home town of Canton, Ohio. Beer did me in. I had, by the grace of God, a prayer companion in those days by the name of Bob Zagray. Our weekly prayer together is another beautiful memory in my life. When Bob saw what I was doing to my life (and my business as a restaurateur), he persuaded me to check into a Christian rehab at Eastridge Recovery Community in upstate New York. It was only a few months but it had a tremendous impact on my life. I was back in “religious” life again. Every morning we had meditation and sang psalms. I was introduced to the Jesus Prayer, and it has been my constant companion ever since. I cannot recount the whole effective routine. I learned the 12 Steps of AA under Tom Powers, one of these who helped develop the 12 Steps in the early days of AA. I tried to live them the rest of my life and taught them to others whenever I had the chance to do so. But I have never had a beer or drink of alcohol (except Mass wine in Mass) since the day I entered Eastridge in 1971 escorted by my two brothers, Bud and Lon.

BUT Eastridge failed in another of their objectives – absolute purity, they called it, no sex ever, alone or with anybody except when legally married. I was legally married, but I had discovered the gay bar and somewhat mystified began to discover who I was. That’s another story. A few months later I was divorced and I got involved with MCC Detroit (of which I had been a part of the exploratory group some months earlier). Many mistakes and many moves later I ended up with a gay therapist, Dr. Charles Kuell, (he was not religious, but he was a life-saving therapist) in Los Angles (after serving on the pastoral staff of MCC Detroit, MCC Chicago and MCC Phoenix) while I worked in Rev. Perry’s office and began to understand myself and something about sexuality.

At my therapist’s insistence, I pursued a Master’s and Doctorate in Psychology with specialization in LGBT sexuality – to better understand myself and to eventually be able to help others. From my personal struggle to maintain mental health, know myself, learn how to handle sexuality responsibly, and be OK as a gay Christian, I gained the background that has been so helpful in helping others.

Since I had lost my family in the struggle, I dedicated my life to being not only a life-saving Chuck Kuell, but a spiritual adviser, too. I have summarized my 100 or more books and pamphlets on Sex-Positive Theology into three courses available for free on the Internet just by writing and asking me. (saintaelred@gmail.com). I am called to share this research and experience.

I cannot condense 82 years into a few pages, so I am not going to try any more.

Clint Eastwood

I am trying to find some way to compare my self with Clint Eastwood. Maybe you can see something. Hehe. Or maybe you would compare me with Dolpy. Hehe [But please I would not be flattered if you compare with another old man named Benedict.] I am feeling mischievous, but not as bad as my bishop when he was in seminary.

Only in Hollywood
Eastwood at 80: Getting ready to direct DiCaprio
By Ruben V. Nepales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:14:00 11/05/2010

LOS ANGELES—At 80, Clint Eastwood shows no signs of slowing down. He most recently directed and actively promoted “Hereafter,” a drama about three people searching for answers about the afterlife. Now, he’s getting ready to direct Leonardo DiCaprio.

Strength
Clint is looking good in his octogenarian years. He exudes a quiet, confident strength. Later in the evening, at a party following the premiere of “Hereafter,” he worked the room, disarming guests as he smiled and traded banter. He shook the hands of guests, …

Higher power
“Everybody would unanimously agree that it is a hope,” he said of the belief in the afterlife. “It would be a higher power than all of us. You’re given one opportunity to live in this world. Whether you believe in God, nature or whatever, you have to take advantage of that and do the best you can in the life you have. That’s the hand that you’re dealt with. You play it out. If you’re worrying about the end of it all, you can’t really live the present of it all.”…

Asked to share reflections on his life, Hollywood’s statesman teased about the question’s seeming time-to-retire hint. With a laugh, his famous squinting eyes focusing on the interviewer, Clint said, “Are you trying to tell me something?”

What do you want to accomplish before you die?

There was a lengthy article on this – interviews with a large number of celebrities – in the Philippine Daily Inquirer last week. I am 82 and I expect to die in the next 20 years, so I tried to answer the question not in the newspaper, but here.

I have already and always said I want to finish my autobiographical novel on Jose Rizal and write one on St. Aelred.

I want to learn Filipino, which I am so ashamed of my ignorance. I have paid professional teachers to teach me and then I go out and speak English with everybody and don’t learn.

After I read the newspaper interviews, I realized, deep down, there was more.

I don’t usually agree with what I read in the newspaper about Archbishop Cruz, but I found myself identifying with his “before I die” list for the most part.

Abp. Oscar V. Cruz, retired Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, former president, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)
1. To be reconciled with God through a very fervent and penitent confession.
2. To receive forgiveness from people I have hurt.
3. To have lived a life worth living, in the sense that it is a fitting gift back to God.
Every life is a gift from God — but how that life is lived is our gift to God at the end of our life.
4. To have somehow contributed to the amelioration or betterment of some individuals, certain families, and other communities.
5. That what I have written, especially that which outlives me, will be of use to the others I am leaving behind.

Others who awakened similar aspirations in me are:
Yvette Tan, fictionist and author of “Waking the Dead and Other Horror Stories”
4. Write a really good novel or ten: I’m not as prolific as I should be. I have a million ideas that need permanent homes, hopefully on the bookshelves of other people.
5. Pare down all my worldly belongings to what will fit into two carry-ons: I’ve always been in love with the idea of owning just the essentials. It’s very easy to travel the world nowadays and I love the idea of always being ready. The minimalist lifestyle also makes for less headaches, because presumably, you own your things instead of them owning you.

Sr. Dolores Daquilanea, AR, registrar, Colegio de Sta. Rosa Makati.
1. To be reconciled with my God, my Lord, my Spouse—Jesus Christ—for all my shortcomings in my entire Christian and religious life
2. To be able to reconcile with everybody—those I must have offended or been uncharitable to, especially my relatives, friends and those I have worked with
3. To gather my immediate family, whom I have not seen for the longest time, that we may catch up with one another and make up for the time we’ve missed together
4. Since my clan is composed people with different religions/beliefs, long before I was even born, I know I cannot bring them back to the Catholic Faith, but I hope to meet and share with them the Love that only Jesus Christ can give.
5. In my life as a Religious, there’s nothing great I want or hope to do — only to be able to serve God through His people in the apostolate I am assigned to — of course with God’s grace and Mother Mary’s protection.

Now these are the things I should have written the whole blog on. They hit the spot.

-------------------------
“God is Friendship.” (St. Aelred, 1110-1167)

Rev. Richard R. Mickley, CDOS, OSAe, Ph.D.
Bishop, Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines
Abbot, The Order of St. Aelred
St. Aelred Friendship Society
Current Mailing Address: 33-A Sta. Maria Street, Barrio Kapitolyo, 1603 Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Mobile Phone: +639209034909
E-mail: saintaelred@gmail.com
Website: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/saintaelred/index.html
Profile, LGBT Religious Archive: http://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=247
E-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saeffriends
Fr. Richard’s personal blog: http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com/
Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS) website: http://www.onespiritcatholic.org/

Even as I write -- the Milieu Prevails

2010-10-13T15:59:00.000+08:00

Even as I write,
The Milieu prevails

I read

Aquino faces threat
of excommunication
By Philip C. Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Raising the ante in their conflict over birth control, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Thursday said President Benigno Aquino III could be “excommunicated” if he actively promoted the distribution of artificial contraceptives to Filipino couples.

A photo caption of President Aquino today reads: “It has come to this.”


Holding up a placard with the word Damaso on it, tourist guide Carlos Celdran screams at the clergy to get out of politics during Mass at Manila Cathedral. Damaso, an abusive Spanish friar, is immortalized in Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere.” EDWIN BACASMAS

Aquino stands pat
on ‘informed choice’ policy
on birth control
By Christine O. Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:26:00 09/30/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Health, Family
Most Read

MANILA, Philippines -- President Benigno Aquino III vowed on Thursday to cotinue advocating informed choice on the issue of artificial birth control by couples in planning the sizes of their families.
“We are all guided by our consciences. My position has not changed. The state's duty is to educate our families as to their responsibilities and to respect their decisions if they are in conformity to our laws,'' the President said in a statement released by Malacañang.
The President was responding to a bishop's reminder of possible excommunication over Aquino’s birth control stand.
Palace officials said the President had always espoused for responsible parenthood.
President Aquino has expressed openness to the idea of using government resources to educate couples on a range of birth control methods, from natural (rhythm) to the artificial (contraceptive pills, condoms, IUD, ligation, among others).
A bishop of the Catholic Church, which has taken a hard line stance against artificial birth control methods, has threatened the President with excommunication if he continues to promote informed choice on birth control.

Another page 1 Inquirer story begins:

Read Full Story
Holding up a placard with the word Damaso on it, tourist guide Carlos Celdran screams at the clergy to get out of politics during Mass at Manila Cathedral. Damaso, an abusive Spanish friar, is immortalized in Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere.” EDWIN BACASMAS

Here I am on the threshold of 82, an ardent admirer of Jose Rizal, Ninoy Aquino, and Cory Aquino. These are the staunch Catholic parents of Nonoy now threatened with excommunication because he upholds the universal basic human right of freedom of conscience.

And it is not only in the Philippines.
For example, from
John Greenleaf is back...
John W. Greenleaf | September 24, 2010 at 8:29 am | Categories: Roman Catholic Church | URL: http://wp.me/pSvU4-5k

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement from its Committee on Doctrine, headed by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, regarding the book, "The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology."

The statement noted that the book "does not offer minor revisions to a few points of Catholic sexual ethics," but rather, "the authors insist that the moral theology of the Catholic tradition dealing with sexual matters is now as a whole obsolete and inadequate and that it must be re-founded on a different basis." Consequently, it continued, the authors, Creighton University professors Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler, "argue that the teaching of the magisterium is based on this flawed 'traditional theology' and must likewise be substantially changed."

3) During summer travels in Eastern Europe, I discoverd that the Catholic Church in Croatia is strong, and wealthy, powerful and arrogant -- and well ensconced in a nineteenth century Catholic ethos. When people complained that one local bishop was out of touch with the contemporary world, he shouted out in his cathedral: "If they don't like what I am doing, they can leave right now!"

And, the debate will go on;
Some of the country’s senators jumped into the “back and forth”:

Excommunication’ threats
can boomerang on Church
– senators
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:38:00 10/03/2010
Filed Under: Family planning, Politics, Churches (organisations), Benigno Aquino III
MANILA, Philippines – Senators said on Sunday that taking a hard-line stance on the controversial issue of birth control could ``boomerang’’ on the leaders of the Catholic Church in the country.
``The opposition against the RH (reproductive health bill) is too premature. A hearing has yet to be held and they are already against it. The Church and President Aquino are already fighting over it when we don’t even know the final form of the bill being pushed. It’s not even in first base,’’ said Senator Joker Arroyo in an interview with dzBB radio.
Arroyo said this would be the third time that Church and state have squared off on a major issue – the first was during the Commonwealth era when the President Manuel L. Quezon thumbed down a proposal to make religious instruction compulsory; and the second was in the post-war Congress when Congress proposed (and succeeded) to have Jose Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo required reading in school.
Senator Edgardo Angara said the threat of excommunication was an ``argument by those without an argument, if you can’t say anything, just make threats.’’
Angara said excommunication would be against the will of God .
``A religious group wanting to end the debate is a sign of intolerance and anti-God,’’ said Angara who has initiated an information drive on family planning in his home province Aurora even without a law. ``The right of an individual to determine the size of his family is as basic as his right to choose his faith."
Arroyo felt the Church was being ``too aggressive’’ on Aquino who was just voicing out his opinion on the issue. He said it was unfair for the Church to attack lawmakers, who have been open to the RH bill.
He said threatening excommunication could boomerang on the Church especially if Congress enacted the RH bill. ``Will the Church have the guts to excommunicate the majority of congressmen and senators who voted for it?’’

More from Mon Tulfo

On Target
Excommunication as a weapon By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 10/02/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Churches (organisations), Family planning
IT’S VERY unfair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to threaten President Aquino with excommunication for standing up to the Church on family planning.
The President angered the bishops after he said the government would leave it to couples to choose their own method of bearing or spacing their children.
Because of the threat, the bishops have not only pushed the country’s Chief Executive against a wall, they have also painted themselves into a corner as well.
What if the President stood pat on the government policy on family planning and the faithful sided with P-Noy instead of the bishops?
The Church’s power over its followers is being tested to the limit because of the family planning controversy.
* * *
There are more Catholics who favor the government policy over the Church’s stand on birth control than those who do not. These Catholics are thinking people.
They hold responsible positions in government and society and are, therefore, in a position to influence fellow Catholics to their way of thinking.
To many Catholics, religion is out of the question when it comes to solving poverty caused by overpopulation.
* * *
What is excommunication?
It’s similar to an employer dismissing an employee for a perceived wrongdoing. The employer is the Catholic Church and the employee the faithful.
The follower can change his religion after he’s excommunicated in the same way a dismissed employee can work for another company.
* * *
All faiths—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism—are the same: They all lead to the Source.
Just because a particular religion has the biggest membership doesn’t mean it’s the right or true religion.
A religion that preaches it is the only way to salvation is fooling its members.
There is no such thing as the “true religion” or the “chosen people of God.”
* * *
I doff my hat to Carlos Celdran, a tour guide who dared to call Catholic bishops “Padre Damaso.”
Padre Damaso is a character in Jose Rizal novel, “Noli Me Tangere,” a hypocritical priest who could have fathered the book’s heroine, Maria Clara.
Celdran is so unlike many Catholics who go out of their way to please priests and bishops for fear of being sent to hell.
These same Catholics maltreat their domestic help or employees and steal people’s money if they are politicians, and then go to confession for their sins.
To Celdran: Idol!
* * *

And more
On Target
P-Noy needs support
for family
planning
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:55:00 09/29/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Population, Family planning, Churches (organisations)
NOY BUCKS Church, backs birth control—banner headline of the Inquirer Tuesday.
It’s time the government puts its foot down in dealing with the Catholic Church.
The Church has been interfering too much in the affairs of government, reminiscent of the Spanish era when the religious ran the government.
President Noy’s standing up to the powerful and officious institution is praiseworthy.
The Church has been put in its proper place.
Let’s all make our collective voice of support be heard by the President.
* * *
The report that P-Noy has sought a dialogue with Catholic Church leaders does not mean he has changed his mind on family planning.
The President has a mind of his own.
If he can’t be swayed by public pressure to fire his friend, Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, do you expect P-Noy to easily succumb to the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to change his mind?
* * *
P-Noy must have taken a long time to arrive at the decision to go against the teaching of the Catholic Church.
He belongs to a very Catholic family.
His mother, the late President Cory, was a devout Catholic, and so are most of his sisters.
He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Catholic school.
Although there is no such thing as a “Catholic vote” in this country, nevertheless the Church supported his candidacy on account of his alma mater.
It must have been very difficult for the President to issue a government policy that runs counter to the edict of the Catholic Church “to go out into the world and multiply.”
* * *
Unlike his predecessor, the convent-bred Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was scared of the Church, P-Noy has dared to challenge the Church’s edict against family planning.
The President has probably realized that one’s salvation does not depend on one’s Church but on his conscience.
If one follows his conscience—his greatest guide to what’s right or wrong—he will always be right
However, nothing in this Universe is right or wrong.
Everything just is.
To say that one thing is right and another is wrong is being judgmental.

And another popular columnist adds her opinion:
At Large
Friars and bishops
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:52:00 10/05/2010
…Still, the arrest and incarceration of Celdran speaks of the lingering vestiges of Church power and influence in this country. But by threatening (the possibility of) excommunication and even the launching of a civil disobedience campaign against P-Noy for his support of the Reproductive Health Bill, the bishops will soon find out that this time around they are on the wrong side of history.
* * *
SURE, they may be able to mobilize crowds (usually taken from Catholic schools and lay organizations) to protest against the Aquino administration’s policy, but the bishops should know by now that they have effectively lost ground in the arena of public opinion.
For decades now public opinion surveys have proven that Filipino couples and even youth strongly support family planning and believe a reproductive health law should be passed.
Reacting to these findings, the bishops have pooh-poohed the surveys, attributing it all to “propaganda.” Well, this is one “sign of the times” they have failed abysmally to read.
Bishops have also accused P-Noy of supporting reproductive health in exchange for aid from the United States. But this bogey will no longer work. Filipinos know by now that while a family planning program is supported by foreign governments, it is also good for Filipinos and for our future."

HOW DO WE TIE ALL THIS TOGETHER WITH LITTLE OLE ME?

I came to the Philippines almost 20 years ago when the devout Catholic housewife, Cory Aquino, was still president and I had the great privilege of going to the palace (more than once) with my prayer group and praying with and over a humble President Cory Aquino.

The father, Ninoy, was shot dead as a martyr for freedom during the Marcos conjugal dictatorship and from his blood a free nation arose. (And now his son is threatened with excommunication!).

Jose Rizal spoke out boldly against the abuses of the friars, their control of the lives of the people and the country. And he was shot dead, and from his blood a nation arose.

Now the bishops are indeed taking on the role of the friars of old, exposed by Rizal, and pointed out graphically in the photo above by a man dressed as Rizal doing what Rizal did, this time in front of the Cardinal and church dignitaries at the high altar of the Manila cathedral. (And that was denounced from the pulpit and elsewhere as a very naughty (makulit) thing to do.!!)

And what’s the problem? For one thing, the people of the Philippines are the only people in the world, except those on the island of Malta, who do not have freedom to divorce, thanks to the power of the catholic bishops over congress. And on and on, the stiff opposition to condoms and the Reproductive Health bill, and and and. The only country in the world which allows the catholic bishops to control the congress. Will they also control President Aquino with the threat (blackmail) of excommunication? I guess it is wait and see.

The next day President Aquino affirmed his stand to be unchanged. The bishops seemed to take a half step backward and say they never officially threatened excommunication. Mon Tulfo in his column in plain language spelled out the woes of the country caused by the stands of the catholic bishops. Sermons at Sunday Mass defended the bishops and condemned the sinful action of the Rizal lookalike, calling him no hero but a sinner who desecrated the temple of God.

On Target
Excommunication as a weapon
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 10/02/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Churches (organisations), Family planning
IT’S VERY unfair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to threaten President Aquino with excommunication for standing up to the Church on family planning.
The President angered the bishops after he said the government would leave it to couples to choose their own method of bearing or spacing their children.
Because of the threat, the bishops have not only pushed the country’s Chief Executive against a wall, they have also painted themselves into a corner as well.
What if the President stood pat on the government policy on family planning and the faithful sided with P-Noy instead of the bishops?
The Church’s power over its followers is being tested to the limit because of the family planning controversy.
* * *
There are more Catholics who favor the government policy over the Church’s stand on birth control than those who do not. These Catholics are thinking people.
They hold responsible positions in government and society and are, therefore, in a position to influence fellow Catholics to their way of thinking.
To many Catholics, religion is out of the question when it comes to solving poverty caused by overpopulation.
* * *
What is excommunication?
It’s similar to an employer dismissing an employee for a perceived wrongdoing. The employer is the Catholic Church and the employee the faithful.
The follower can change his religion after he’s excommunicated in the same way a dismissed employee can work for another company.
* * *
All faiths—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism—are the same: They all lead to the Source.
Just because a particular religion has the biggest membership doesn’t mean it’s the right or true religion.
A religion that preaches it is the only way to salvation is fooling its members.
There is no such thing as the “true religion” or the “chosen people of God.”
* * *
I doff my hat to Carlos Celdran, a tour guide who dared to call Catholic bishops “Padre Damaso.”
Padre Damaso is a character in Jose Rizal novel, “Noli Me Tangere,” a hypocritical priest who could have fathered the book’s heroine, Maria Clara.
Celdran is so unlike many Catholics who go out of their way to please priests and bishops for fear of being sent to hell.
These same Catholics maltreat their domestic help or employees and steal people’s money if they are politicians, and then go to confession for their sins.
To Celdran: Idol!
* * *

And more

On Target
P-Noy needs support for family planning
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:55:00 09/29/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Population, Family planning, Churches (organisations)
NOY BUCKS Church, backs birth control—banner headline of the Inquirer Tuesday.
It’s time the government puts its foot down in dealing with the Catholic Church.
The Church has been interfering too much in the affairs of government, reminiscent of the Spanish era when the religious ran the government.
President Noy’s standing up to the powerful and officious institution is praiseworthy.
The Church has been put in its proper place.
Let’s all make our collective voice of support be heard by the President.
* * *
The report that P-Noy has sought a dialogue with Catholic Church leaders does not mean he has changed his mind on family planning.
The President has a mind of his own.
If he can’t be swayed by public pressure to fire his friend, Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, do you expect P-Noy to easily succumb to the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to change his mind?
* * *
P-Noy must have taken a long time to arrive at the decision to go against the teaching of the Catholic Church.
He belongs to a very Catholic family.
His mother, the late President Cory, was a devout Catholic, and so are most of his sisters.
He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Catholic school.
Although there is no such thing as a “Catholic vote” in this country, nevertheless the Church supported his candidacy on account of his alma mater.
It must have been very difficult for the President to issue a government policy that runs counter to the edict of the Catholic Church “to go out into the world and multiply.”
* * *
Unlike his predecessor, the convent-bred Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was scared of the Church, P-Noy has dared to challenge the Church’s edict against family planning.
The President has probably realized that one’s salvation does not depend on one’s Church but on his conscience.
If one follows his conscience—his greatest guide to what’s right or wrong—he will always be right
However, nothing in this Universe is right or wrong.
Everything just is.
To say that one thing is right and another is wrong is being judgmental.
·         * *
·
·         And,
Once, again, lest it be thought that I (rrm) claim to be the inventor of sex positive theology…
“Pure Nonsense: U.S. Bishops Condemn Book by Creighton Theologians
John W. Greenleaf | October 4, 2010 at 10:15 am | Categories: Roman Catholic Church | URL: http://wp.me/pSvU4-5N

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement denouncing as "harmful to one's moral and spiritual life" a 2008 book by two theologians at Creighton University, a Roman Catholic institution. The book, The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology, by Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, was published by Georgetown University Press, and the press website features much praise for the work.
"Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler's new book...is among the most important works in Catholic sexual ethics to emerge in the last two decades...Their book will be noticed because of its controversial positions on contraception, same-sex relationships, cohabitation and artificial means of reproduction. However, its contribution is its clear articulation of a person-centered natural-law ethic that offers Catholics an authentic way to think about sex in relation to their faith."—National Catholic Reporter

And little ole me.

That’s the milieu in which I am about to celebrate my 82nd.

I have been staunchly upholding the catholic teachings of Jesus here for 20 years, and advocating freedom of conscience to depart from unchristian sex negative theology and embrace sex positive theology in line with the life and teachings of Jesus. Perhaps as the first pastor to do so publicly in this country, I have done so in lectures, speeches, panels, seminars. at universities and organizations, and even a little on television, for 20 years. (To say nothing of the annual Pride Marches we started with Oscar Atadero in 1994.)

Now I have condensed it all into three “Sex positive Theology” courses available for the asking by internet, free of charge. (saintaelred@gmail.com)

I realize the debate about sex negative theology will go on and on. I call it sex negative theology becauwe it is indeed related to God -- in a sadly negative way. The amazing thing is that sex negative theology seems to have its strongest-in-the-world stranglehold on the lives of citizens of all religions right here in our country.

And that’s the milieu which continues as I prepare to observe my 82nd birthday next month.

A Little Catching Up; a Forum at MCC Quezon City

2010-09-18T16:43:00.002+08:00

So much has been going on in my little world that I have been pulled away from one of the things I like to do best – writing. On August 1 we moved (lipat bahay) from Quezon City to Pasig, to a much smaller dwelling, beginning the process of getting unneeded “things” out of my house and life, as I face the prospect of not living on this earth forever. Since then one “distraction” has been trying to adjust to living in much reduced space.

On September 5, I joined MCC Philippines (Manila, Makati) in the festive celebration of their 19th anniversary since our first service on September 7, 1991, when I arrived authorized to bring MCC Philippines into God-praising existence. In the anniversary celebration I observed 50-some Spirit-filled LGBT Christians worshipping wholeheartedly as MCC has done through many pastoral leaders every Sunday since that first service 19 years ago. I understand joyful photos have been posted on Facebook.

On August 28, I had an interesting experience at a Forum at MCC Quezon City, hosted by Rev. Ceejay Agbayani. (MCC Quezon City celebrated its 4th anniversary in early September. MCC Baguio is bringing the worship and message of MCC to people of the North under the spiritual guidance of seminarian Myke Sotero).

The Forum was more exciting because the 50 some people in attendance kept it going for several hours with comments after the presentations by me, Attorney Germaine Leonin, Oscar Atadero, and Prof Eric Manlastas.

It’s been more than 15 years now since Oscar worked with us at MCC Manila and Pro Gay Philippines to mobilize the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in the Philippines on June 26, 1994 (the 25th anniversary of Stonewall). That turned out to be the first such LGBT march in Asia. Our focus that year, 1994, was to join the family of LGBT-alert nations around the world who celebrated the goodness and joy of being LGBT and beginning the quest for our LGBT rights. I attended a discussion hosted by Pro Gay at that time and the discussion was mostly about the pertinent topic: it’s time for the Philippines to stand up (march) and be counted.

This year, on August 28, I was overwhelmed by the savvy, shall I call it LGBT sophistication, in the forum discussion. Now it was a specific focused LGBT right that was being discussed in depth, the right to equal marriage.

Here I will share the presentation which the organizers asked me to make. I wish I had the ability and authorization to share the other brilliant presentations.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

”The Metropolitan Community Church of Quezon City would like to invite you to be our resource speaker on the topic

PP1 {PP is an abbreviation for Power Point]

“What does the Bible say about same-sex marriage?”

________________________

for our forum entitled, “When Two Men/Two Women Unite: Prospects of Same-Sex Marriage in the Philippines” on August 28 Saturday 7pm at the MCCQC-LGBT Center 3/F 56 Mindanao Avenue, Project 6, Quezon City.

PP1

Speaker: Bishop Richard R. Mickley,

Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines,

Founder MCC in the Philippines

Good evening beautiful people. I read in the Inquirer, “Where else can you find a land as beautiful as her people and a people as warm as her climate?” And I added where else will you find three of the 10 largest malls in the world in one city?

___________________________________________________

“The forum aims to provide participants with a basic understanding of the religious, historical and legal aspects and perspectives for same-sex marriage in the Philippines, as well as gather experiences and testimonies on the struggle for same-sex marriage.”

____________________________________________________-

PP2 Assigned Objectives

1.Establish and clarify

Religious/spiritual issues re

Same-sex marriage.

2.Clarify if RC opposition

has basis or not.

The speaker’s mandate is summarized, “We hope your presentation can help establish and clarify the religious/spiritual issues over same-sex marriage. “The objective of the first speaker is to clarify whether mainstream religious view against same-sex union has basis or not –since opposition comes mainly from the Roman Catholic Church.”

_______________________________

“What does the Bible say about same sex marriage?

“When Two Men/Two Women Unite”

“Clarify religious/spiritual issues in same sex marriage”

______________________________________________

At first I thought the topic was a dead end. Since there is nothing in the Bible about same sex marriage, I thought the topic would lead nowhere. But if you look at all the subjects mentioned in the Title and Objectives, you realize there is a lot of explaining to do.

Let’s go back in history and attack the challenge of the title. “What does the Bible say about same sex marriage?”

PP3

What is “Marriage”?

In order to discuss “marriage” in the Bible, we have to have a definition of just what marriage is. When you think of marriage, do you think of Aga and Charlene in the “Wedding of the year,” in a romantic story book, beautiful love story.

But that is not what marriage always is. Through the ages of history, it has often been more of a legal contract with little or no love and romance, with arranged marriages and marriages of convenience quite common.

In the Philippines we have church weddings (in church), and we have civil weddings in a judge or mayor’s office.

I went with a heterosexual couple to a judge’s chamber for their civil marriage. It can best be described in these few words: The Judge asks, “Do you want to be married?” They each say. “I do.” The judge says, “Sign here; pay over there.”

My friend, Father Paul, in California, recently penned some insights on marriage which will be helpful for us. He went to the local government office where “people apply for marriage licenses and obtain marriage certificates.” He writes, “I did not see any reference whatsoever to marriage being a sacrament or for time and eternity (as the Mormons say). I saw no requirement for adherence to the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, …

“Everything was about civil law and exclusively civil law. And civil law is not concerned about romance, about tear-jerking movies, about love poems and love music, …

“Civil law is not concerned about covenants, promises, rings, exchanges, or how big the wedding party is. Civil law is not concerned about sexual behaviors, proclivities, openness or closedness.

“Civil law exists to protect the economic interests of a designated family. The fundamental issue is the human right of all people to call on the resources of civil law to protect their homes and families.” End of quote.

So what is the difference? Is there one definition of marriage? The answer is no.

In the churches, including MCC, marriage does involve love. In MCC, as in the Catholic church of the first few centuries (and in the 11th century), you find same sex union, which are called Holy Union in both MCC and the early Catholic Church.

In short, in the early church, John Boswell, the noted historian, tells us, if a boy and girl wanted to get married, they went to city hall. If a priest or a male-male or female-female couple wanted to be united, they had their ceremony in the church.

There was no Bible prohibition of same-sex unions. Priests routinely “took a wife.” And boys and girls who wanted to be married went to city hall.

PP4

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

says that marriage is

for the good of the spouses

and the procreation of children.

So the definition of marriage is not the same everywhere. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines marriage as a sacrament

__________________________________________________

ARTICLE 7

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."84

________________________________________________________________

. But that definition does not apply to anybody but Catholics.

So you can see, without even talking about the arranged marriages throughout history, this whole thing about marriage and unions is not a simple exploration.

So let’s look at our own country. In MCC we have Holy Union. In City hall and in the churches we have marriage. But the marriage in church and the marriage in the judges’ chambers are different. Let’s take a look at this representation of the difference in general in the Philippines, not counting the allowance of polygamy in Mindanao.

PP5

MARRIAGE HOLY UNION

!!! !!!

ARE THE SAME IN:

Love,

VOWS,

COMMITMENT,

WEDDING

MARRIAGE HOLY Union

!!! !!!

ARE DIFFERENT IN:

--GENDER TEST --NO M-F TEST

MALE-FEMALE.

--MUST OBEY --FAM CODE

FAMILY CODE NOT APPL.

--MARRIAGE --BETWEEN

LICENSE Two & GOD

--REGISTERED --NOT Reg

WITH GOV. with Gov

--LEGALLY --MORALLY

BINDING BINDING

--NO DIVORCE

Last year I was invited to a nationally televised talk show on marriage and divorce, hosted by a lawyer.

He opened by saying, “Now tell me, Reverend, about these same sex marriages you have.”

I replied, “Sir we do not have any same sex marriages in the Philippines. You are a lawyer, Sir, and you know that the law. The Family Code defines marriage in the Philippines as between a male and a female.

____________________________________________-

How does the Family Code define marriage?

Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not subject to stipulation, except that marriage settlements may fix the property relations during the marriage within the limits provided by this Code.

Then the qualiications include:

What are the essential requisites of marriage?

No marriage shall be valid, unless these essential requisites are present:

(1) Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and a female; and

(2) Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer.

___________________________________________________________

Then the lawyer-host backed down a little and asked, “Then what do you have?”

I replied, “Sir, we have Holy Union.” And I explained what that is. And he exclaimed, “Oh, I see, you change the name.”

That was my cue to remark, “Sir, I see that you are discussing Divorce also in your show today. You and I and everybody knows that the Catholic Church hates divorce and forbids its members to separate by divorce, in fact it does not even allow anybody, Catholic or not, in the Philippines to have divorce.” He agreed. I continued, “But, sir, is it not also true, that if you pay enough money in fees, you can obtain a separation under a different name – which we all know as annulment, which is quite all right with the church? We change the name to unite people. They change the name to separate people.” He calmly remarked, “You have a point there.”

Nobody has suggested that “changing the name” is in any way illegal.

That custom seems to have started in the early church. So where did the opposition to same sex unions come from?

Before we look at that, I want to say that I join the majority of LGBT leaders in our country who do not advocate activism for same sex marriage in the Philippines.

We deserve it; we have a right to it. Judges are saying that in supreme courts throughout the world. So why do we not advocate activism for it?

Let me illustrate by an example. Shortly after Stonewall, when I was national Director of Prison Ministry for MCC in the United States, I wrote a book which contained the advice that prisoners should not break the rules of the prison about having sex and same sex activism. Many prisoners wrote to me, “Why not? You have marches and parades and rallies outside; why can’t we here in prison.” My answer then and now, was that they should not make life worse for themselves by breaking the rules, getting put in solitary confinement, etc.

The issue was not whether they had the “human right” to demand sex and LGBT rights. The issue was that it was harmful to make life worse for themselves. They were prisoners and subject to the laws of the prison.

PP6

In the Republic of the Philippines,

we are prisoners of homophobic

and heterosexist laws

– and, yes, they are all inspired

– and driven by the churches

– (not just the Roman Catholic Church). We indeed have to examine where prudence is the better part of wisdom. And that’s why the majority of the leaders in the LGBT community do not feel it is for our benefit – but rather for our harm – to fight for same sex marriage. Yes, we need to be informed, to strategize, but not to harm our movement by counter productive activism.

Here is an example to illustrate what is meant by counter productive. When Congresswoman Angara Castillo introduced a bill into congress a few years ago, we all agreed it was a fabulous proposed law, a courageous approach to LGBT rights in the country. It was unimaginably wonderful, an omnibus of idealistic legislation. But I had to tell her honestly that the LGBT leaders could not support it. It was too good. Almost immediately the Catholic church bishops and priests collected hundreds of thousands of signatures at Mass against the bill. And politically minded congress members saw those signatures as votes against them. That’s the power of the Catholic bishops.

There has to be a strategy, not just unplanned action. I am an activist and willing to die for our justice and rights. But there has to be a strategy.

PP7

Now back to the definition of marriage. We saw the definition of marriage in the law of the Philippines. But that is not the law of all countries. It is a matter of observation that

the people of the Philippines,

Muslims, Protestants, atheists,

as well as Catholic people

are in bondage, in chains, in slavery,

to the power of the Catholic bishops

who hold the whole country

hostage to their sex negative views.

But In Spain, another country described as a Catholic country, the legislators, unlike here, are not afraid of the Catholic bishops. In Spain the legislators granted LGBT people equal marriage rights, no gender test. I discreetly pointed that out to members of congress here in a hearing in the House.

In our country the members of congress bow and quiver in fear – that a word or campaign of the bishop will end their time in congress at the next election.

It’s a unique phenomenon here. Why is the Republic of the Philippines the only country in the world, besides the island of Malta, which does not allow its people the freedom of choice to separate by divorce? Why do we have trouble passing a Reproductive Health bill? Why will we not have an equal marriage law? The bishops won’t let us have divorce or condoms, do you think they will let us have equal marriage?.

So we have illustrated that the premise in the assignment is correct. The culprit is the church and churches. Fr. Paul made some interesting observations recently, when he wrote, “It is interesting to note that the Royal Kingdom of Spain is by culture and heritage Roman Catholic, yet it has a Socialist parliament which legalized same-sex marriage and the bishops there have not been able to overthrow it.

“The Republic of Argentina is by culture and heritage Roman Catholic, yet the parliament legalized same-sex marriage in that country in spite of the protestations of the bishops.

“Other countries in Central America are pursuing the same course. The legislative body of Mexico City has legalized same-sex marriages in the city. The supreme court of the Republic of Mexico has declared that these marriages must be recognized in each of the states of Mexico. And same-sex marriages were legalized in the Roman Catholic province of Quebec in Canada a few years ago.” End of quote.

We are familiar with the on again, off again equal marriage in California. And we continue to watch what happens there. “Courage Campaign and its\Chairman, Rick Jacobs, released a press release on the ruling that same-sex marriages may resume in California on August 18th.

“Today’s ruling means that in less than one week, equality under the law will be restored for millions of loving families across California. Lifting the stay is ultimately consistent with both legal precedent and the findings in this case.

“Specifically, that every American has a civil right to marriage, and that by depriving millions of families this right, Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Judge Walker’s ruling affirms that the purpose of our judicial system is to protect our constitutional rights, not to take away those rights.” End of quote Fr. Paul adds: “it gives us all hope that the full protection of the U.S. Constitution guarantees of equal protection and due process will soon extend to all gay and lesbian Americans.

We now await the decision of the Ninth Circuit (and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court) on whether to stay the Judgment or to allow same-sex marriages to resume in California during the appeal.” End of quote

PP8

Now if you look at the definition of marriage in the

Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden,

Spain, South Africa, Canada, Argentina,

and all the countries which allow LGBT

to have legal marriage on an equal basis,

of course their definition of marriage

does not include a gender test,

a male-female requirement.

So it’s obvious such laws are made by humans,

and laws forbidding same sex love and marriage

are made by human beings too..

PP9

This is happening in our own day. Now look at the Bible. You will immediately see that The Bible is not a very good place to look for encouragement of Catholic conservative practice of marriage. One web site summarizes some Bible facts thus: “The question of polygamy is an interesting one in that most people today view polygamy as immoral while the Bible nowhere explicitly condemns it. The first instance of polygamy/bigamy in the Bible was that of Lamech in Genesis 4:19: “Lamech married two women.” Several prominent men in the Old Testament were polygamists. Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and others all had multiple wives. In 2 Samuel 12:8, God, speaking through the prophet Nathan, said that if David’s wives and concubines were not enough, He would have given David even more.

Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines

(essentially wives of a lower status), according to 1 Kings 11:3. What are we to do with these instances of polygamy in the Old Testament? My question is: what does one do with 1000 wives. 3 a day for a year would barely see each once a year.

PP10

Those are good questions for some other day. Today our question is,

Is there Biblical basis

for denying same-sex marriage

to same sex couples who desire it?

And the answer is NO!

So where did the church and churches get this astoundingly abhorrent sex negative attitude? The church definition virtually makes childbearing the purpose of marriage.

But in the Bible, Not one verse, not one story, not one word in the entire Bible condemns same sex love, same sex companionship, or same sex marriage. There are 5 or 6 verses (some are duplicates) that are called “clobber” verses which are said to be condemnatory and are used to try to show that the Bible condemns same sex love. These verses do not condemn our love. I present a 12 hour seminar on these verses to show the absurdity of using them to condemn our love.

PP11 I Cor 6:9 Malakoi, Arsenokoitai

Just let me give you a small sample. I Cor 6:9 gives a list of the sinners who can’t enter heaven. Most English translations say that murderers, robbers, homosexuals, etc can’t enter heaven. I have 17 English translations and most of them use some form of the word homosexual in this verse. BUT St. Paul wrote in Greek. His Greek words were malakoi and arsenokoitai.

These words do not mean homosexual.

Malakoi means soft

Nobody knows what arsenokoitai means

because St. Paul made it up

and does not define it.

SO, every translator guesses what St. Paul might have meant by using these words.

One thing we know for sure: St. Paul did not mean “the homosexuals” because that idea was not invented yet. For him to speak of “the homosexuals” would be just as impossible as for him to speak of flying in an airplane. Neither the idea of airplanes nor the idea of homosexuals was invented yet. Almost 2000 years later, In Rizal’s time, psychiatrists decided, “Ah, yes, there are some people who are constitutionally attracted to the same sex. Let’s call them ‘homosexuals.’” The only logical conclusion is that

St. Paul could not have meant,

“the murderers, robbers

and homosexuals cannot enter heaven

” It is a very wrong, unscholarly translation.

The use of the other clobber verses is also very unscholarly. Good scholars nowadays realize that. But we will save that for another seminar.

PP12

The important thing to remember

is there is no Biblical basis

for condemning LGBT love.

There is no condemnation,

no mention of same sex marriage in the Bible.

BUT, we shall see that the Bible is an embarrassing place to go for clarity about marital ethics in general.

_____________________________________

One website observes:

There are no passages in the Bible that deal directly with same-sex marriage (SSM). Like abortion access, followers of the Bible have had to develop a position on SSM by using biblical passages dealing with other, related topics:

Generally speaking:

Religious conservatives use their interpretation of the six "clobber passages" and of passages discussing opposite-sex marriage to condemn SSM.

Religious liberals use the Bible's general themes on same-sex relationships, love, and justice to argue that SSM is a human right.

PP13

I find it is better to look at the

general themes of the Bible

on same-sex relationships,

love and justice.

So, in conclusion, I like to look at the Book of Ruth and the charming love vows of Ruth and Naomi and delight in that whole book of the Bible focused on the beautiful love of two women for each other. And, regardless of how many wives King David had later, I like to read the romantic account of David’s exciting love story with Jonathan, after David defeated the giant Goliath.

I like to look at Jesus himself. First of all, the Gospel tells us eight times that Jesus had a “beloved.” And that beloved was a same-sex beloved, the one whom Jesus loved, the one who was allowed to lie with his head of Jesus’ heart, to cuddle with Jesus. Of course there is no intention to imply that the love or cuddling had any orgasmic physical sexual content. No evidence at all. But there can be no denying there was a same sex relationship with a special love. No doubt Jesus loved all 12 of his closest followers, but no doubt also that this one special one had a special place. For example, when Jesus was dying on the cross, who did he ask to take care of his Mother after he died? Yes, of course, it was his beloved, and from that moment the beloved took Jesus’ Mother into his home…

But I like to look beyond even the personal same sex love of Jesus -- to the whole ambiance of his life. Just for example, He showed his acceptance of all people, sinful or not, when he allowed a sinful woman to give him a very romantic foot massage, even drying his feet with her own hair.

Then Jesus shows this same attitude of acceptance when a Roman military officer asked Jesus to heal his gravely ill lover. (We know from the Greek word Pais that the servant was his lover, a common experience for military officers from Alexander the Great onwards.) Jesus healed the bakla with no hesitation. Surely there is enough evidence in the Gospel to show us that Jesus knew what was going on around him, and he knew he was healing a gay man.

And finally briefly to keep this narration short, Jesus saved a woman from stoning who was caught in adultery according to Leviticus 22. If Jesus saved that woman in adultery, would he not also save a man who lies with a man who also is to be stoned according to the same Leviticus 22?

PP14

In short

the whole ambiance

of Jesus’ life, love, and ministry

is acceptance, justice, common sense.

When the “rules rules rules guys,” the Pharisees, questioned Jesus about allowing his disciples to pick some grain to appease their hunger while walking through a wheat field on the Sabbath day when it was forbidden to do any work like picking grain, he told them that people were more important than rules.

Well the early church got off to a good start following what Jesus was really like, even having wedding ceremonies for same sex couples.

There were a lot of debates in the early church, about if Jesus was God and many more things that were settled in the various meetings of bishops, called Councils, notably the Council of Nicea in the year 325.

But the debate heated up in regard to sexual issues by the year 400 with the teachings, writing of many books, and influence of St. Augustine, the great doctor of the church who is revered as a foremost teacher of Christian philosophy and theology. He himself was a very sexual person in his younger years, with more than one concubine, fathering a child, etc. But after his conversion and becoming bishop of Hippo in his native North Africa, he developed a very sex negative approach to sexuality.

PP15

Augustine’s unfortunate

sex negative theology

can be summarized thus:

All sex is bad,

except for a married man and women

once a year to make a baby;

under the covers, with the clothes on;

get in there fast, make the baby fast,

get out of there fast, and don’t enjoy it.

He was a great theologian of the church and his influence had a great impact on sexual attitudes – to this day. We firmly believe, along with many theologians of today, that his sex negative theology is wrong. He is also criticized for his theology of predestination, so we know he can be wrong.

PP16

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of the massive sex negative theology in the church which has persisted through the years.

MCC and countless great thinkers and writers like Fr. McNeil and Fr Pittenger, who both have spoken to MCC General Conferences, have begun to point out to the world that

Condemning same sex love;

sex negative theology

does not come from Jesus or the Bible.

And that is the Good News

MCC continues to share with all.

In addition, I myself conduct full length seminars on sex positive theology to aid this battle which fights the forces that corrupt the true spirit of Jesus’ teachings.

PP17

Assigned objective clarified

Neiher Bible nor Jesus

Condemn same-sex love’

But the church – St. Augustine.

Popes, and Cardinal Sin

Condemn us

And influence society

To deny us human rights.

Thus, in conclusion, we have accomplished our objective, we have clarified in this short time that neither the Bible, nor Jesus condemn same sex love or unions. But the church, composed of human beings like St. Augustine, popes, and Cardinal Sin, condemns us. And because of the power of the church and the influence of the church, much of society condemns our love and love unions and denies us our human rights.

Marriage has so many definitions. Marriage might even have many wives., even in the Philippines. It can even be a commercial contract. It is subject to the whims and laws of government. So we cannot look forward to equal marriage in the Philippines.

PP18

Holy Union is always about love,

not about laws.

It is about commitment

nd making each other happy.

holy, blessed by God.

PP19

What is needed

is a radical commitment

to the real Jesus,

the Way, the Truth, the Life –

In his way,

people are more important

A Foot Massage and Cuddles

2010-06-22T15:32:00.000+08:00

A Foot Massage and Cuddles

The Gospel tells us Jesus had a foot massage from a sinful woman and routine cuddles from his beloved.

That’s part of the Gospel message that has had its true meaning suppressed. We need teachers, preachers, ministers, priests (men and women priests) who will preach the full truth.

Year of Prayer for Priests

Today I announce the “Year of Prayer for Priests” in the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines, the Diocese of which I have been appointed bishop. It will be a year of prayer for vocations to the priesthood in the Diocese – holy priests who will teach LGBT people in the Philippines that love, massages, cuddles are God’s gift to us all, and that happiness, holiness, and liberation from moral slavery is God’s will for all.

You are reading this because you have the potential to be a priest. As you read these semi auto biographical descriptions of how many LGBT persons are being harmed, ask yourself, or pray, am I called to be part of the solution.

I came here in 1991 to be part of the solution. I can’t be the solution alone. Even three hardworking pastors in MCC Manila, MCC Quezon City, and MCC Baguio can’t solve the situation for 9 million LGBT people of the Philippines. We need more MCC’s. We need more zealous ministers to preach the full truth of the Gospel.

The Foot Massage Gospel reading

Today’s Gospel reading is one of my favorites. Jesus got a wonderful foot massage from a sinful woman.
Luke 7:36-50

36Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with Him, so He went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, He would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner."
40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44Then He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Now isn’t that interesting? How do the people handle this -- the people who want to take Jesus up into some angelic bodiless state, completely free of any bodily pleasures. These were the same people who screamed bloody murder when famous theologians first taught that Jesus had a penis.

Imagine Jesus without a penis. What would be there? For God’s sake, it was God’s idea for Jesus to be a human, an “incarnation” of God, a “coming of God in the flesh.” Stupid as it is, for a half second try to imagine Jesus without a penis. It baffles the imagination. Not a hermaphrodite, not a male, not a female. What?

Of course, Jesus was fully human. He enjoyed a foot massage from a sinful woman.

Why did the Son of God need, want, or tolerate a FOOT MASSAGE? Why did he accept it from a sinful woman? Why in the world was he associating with a sinful woman? Did he hear the sneers of the Pharisees, “if he were a prophet, he would know” that this woman is a sinful woman – and should not even be in his presence. He did know. And that’s the way he was. He was fully human and he did not sneer at the sinful woman. He accepted her love and loved her in return.

Cuddle?

Did they cuddle? No, there is no account of that. She kissed his feet, but he had his cuddles with somebody else, his best friend, his beloved. Haha, you think I am writing another Da Vinci Code, and taking the fictional limelight off Mary Magdalene. No, again. I am not making up any fictional story. I am referring to something that was mentioned eight times in the Gospel, non fiction, the Gospel itself.

Eight times the Gospel refers to the “one whom Jesus loved,” the beloved disciple, the one who was allowed to lie with his head on Jesus’ chest. Now, I did not make that up. It’s the Gospel, and it sounds a lot like cuddling to me – the one who was allowed to lie with his head on the heart of Jesus.

So Jesus enjoyed a foot massage from a sinful woman and cuddles from his beloved disciple. What does that tell us about Jesus? Just that. We should not “over-interpret” it. It means that Jesus enjoyed a foot massage from a sinful woman and cuddles from the one whom he loved. And it means he was very human just like we are. And, guess what? It means it is ok to be human, to have a body, to have bodily pleasure.

Look at the other account about “Jesus and feet.”

John 13:1-17 (New International Version)

Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet
1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.[a]
2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
7Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
8"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
9"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
10Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Jesus not only received a foot massage, but again showed his humanity and humility when at the Last Supper he washed one by one the feet of his 12 apostles. The significance of this is not lost. In human relationships there is a moment for receiving and a moment for giving, for love and service received and love and service given.

He graciously received the sinful woman’s love, forgave her sins and assured her she was saved. He put aside all godly attributes and showed his love to the Apostles by washing their feet.

St. Aelred and Human Divine Love

In Mirror of Love St. Aelred gives us the sublime description of a true Friend – one who gives us the great joy and consolation of affection. In short form some of the characteristics of a True Friend as described by St. Aelred are the following: One with whom I am deeply united in the bonds of love, with whom my weary spirit can find rest, to whom I may pour out my heart, whose conversation is as sweet as a song, whose presence is a harbor of calm, to whom I can lay bare all my secrets, whose spirit will give me the comforting kiss that heals all the sickness of my troubled heart, who will cry with me and rejoice with me, to whom I can turn for advice, who is so closely bound to my heart and soul that even when far away is together with me in spirit, with our souls embraced in absolute peace, our hearts united in oneness and the closet ties of love.

He gave this wonderful man to man true friend description to the 500 monks in his monastery. Notice the very bodily, very human, images in many of the lines. And then he asked, “Does it seem strange that one man should love another man in this manner? Let the love of Jesus for his beloved disciple be your model.”

Human Love is not Bodiless

So what is the point? There are those who would teach us that the further away we get from the body and human pleasure, the closer we get to Jesus. Jesus never ran from his body. Why should we believe that He Who became fully human expects us to become less human, bodiless like angels?

Why do we expend so much effort in the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality discussing, explaining, promoting “the integration of spirituality and sexuality.” Why do we teach seminars and cyber seminars on the subject? Why do we have full fledged study courses on the subject?

Well, if spirituality has anything to do with trying to be like Jesus, you have the answer. Those who pray and receive Holy Communion, and recognize God as the Leader and Light of their life can also be like Jesus who enjoyed a foot massage from a sinful woman and cuddles from his beloved. That’s a first step toward unifying (integrating, bringing together) spirituality and sexuality.

When people come to me for help with their same-sex wedding, I make sure they know that God loves them just the way they are. Jesus throughout his life story in the four Gospels never ever showed prejudice. But he sure showed a lot of love and compassion for people that other people were prejudiced against, for example the sinful woman in the Gospel story we talked about. Love and compassion was deeply ingrained in his spirituality. It can well be part of who we are, too.

The Wondeministry of MCCrful affirming
Last year I saw the following fine description of MCC ministry. I don’t know where I found it, but it does a good job of describing Jesus.

Gay-friendly Church Asks
'Would Jesus Discriminate?'

A liberal church movement has launched a new campaign designed to ask people whether Jesus would discriminate against others.

The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), which has congregations in more than 20 countries, is strongly committed to gay rights and supports same-sex marriage.

Five of its churches in Texas have produced two posters, each claiming that stories in the Bible showed Jesus did not disapprove of homosexuality.
MCC claims that verses in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 refer to a centurion who is gay, saying the word used to describe his sick servant - pais - is an ancient Greek word for same-sex partner. In the story, Jesus cured the man, which, according to MCC, shows he did not discriminate against gays.

Another verse, Acts 8:26-40, sees Philip baptizing a eunuch. MCC claims it is obvious the eunuch is gay.

A statement on the church's website says: "Throughout the history of Christianity, many religious institutions have used their interpretation of the Bible to justify discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and people with a different sexual orientation and/or identity issues.

"People of faith probably would not imagine that Jesus would discriminate, but no one has previously asked the question. Many still maintain discriminatory beliefs, not because they think it is right, but because they have never actually examined their own beliefs closely.

"This campaign asks the question and initiates the dialogue around the question: 'Would Jesus discriminate?' Our viewpoint is that discrimination was not a part of Jesus' message, nor is it part of the best of any Christian church's ministry. This campaign seeks to educate people through active dialogue and friendly discussion."

The Caring, Affirming Ministry of Bishop Burch in CDOS

Bishop James Burch of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, in his Seminar for Pastors, present the gruesome picture of God as God is sometimes represented by churches. Then he wonderfully describes God as God really is:

“A God who is the one that Jesus tells us about, who IS love, and who expresses God’s own Self as everything that we see and know to exist, and every human person. This God is the power that set all of the universe – God’s expression – into existence about 13.7 billion years ago, and consciously keeps it in existence at every moment of every day. This God IS love and so every expression of this God IS love. We all live within a mammoth bubble of love.

“But in this bubble which is all-love, we human beings have the great gift of free will, the wonderful gift of choice … all so that we can experience our way back to who we are. Never let go by God’s loving presence, we are, nevertheless, able to distance ourselves a little or a lot from the Wholeness of God, and for a little while or for a long while. We know that we are capable of experiencing this Wholeness of God, because we have both tasted it ourselves, and we have recognized it as completely matured in Jesus, who told us that we are just like him in nature, and will one day be just like him in experience.”

There is nonsense all around us. When it was suggested that a highly respected, popular gay man, television personality Boy Abunda, might be appointed to new President Aquino’s cabinet, these same, anti-foot massage, anti-cuddling, anti-gay people screamed bloody murder, “He’s a homosexual; he’s only a homosexual.” And, we triumphantly add, a very accomplished and successful gay man.

The injustice of society and the churches is so blatant that the By Laws of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit explicitly condemn discrimination against LGBT people and women. “Anti-Discrimination / Loving Acceptance for ALL God’s people. Gays and lesbians are especially demonized by much of society, as anti-Christian as any practice could be. Many of our members are leaders against such human abuse. Helping women to reach innate equality in society and church is fundamental justice.”
Statement in CDOS By Laws
Bishop Burch issued a pastoral letter directly addressing justice to LGBT people. “PASTORAL LETTER
HOMOSEXUALITY
The Catholic Diocese of One Spirit
November 15, 2006
(Reissued several times in ensuing years)

(This is one in a series of pastoral letters put out by the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit. There is no obligation on the part of ordained members or others who feel themselves a part of this diocese to believe all that is written here, or in the way that it is written. This is offered by the current Coordinating Bishop of this diocese as a validly alternative Catholic Christian viewpoint, which readers may use to philosophically engage this topic.)

“Of all the arguments throughout the centuries, pro and con, regarding homosexuality, this topic is actually illuminated by one quick insight, a singular truth. So this pastoral letter is short, in order to not confuse the essential reality with scattered arguments.

“The life and teachings of Jesus was about loving and accepting all people. Jesus said not one word about homosexuality, and very little about sexual matters at all. To say the least, this was not his preoccupation. What he certainly did, however, was to bring a New Message of love, a radical turning on its head of the judgmentalism of the past, into a recognition of Divinity Within and of God's equal and unequivocal love for every human being.

“The Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States, meeting a couple of years ago in Baltimore, freshly condemned homosexuality all over again, saying that it is "objectively disordered," "not [in] accord with the natural purpose of sexuality" (as though that were evident on its face), and that homosexual acts are "sinful" and "never morally acceptable." These are the same group of men who continue to tell women the details of regulating their feminine bodies. This group of overwhelmingly elderly men, who are supposed to have no contact with sexuality, also tell homosexuals that their way of life "do[es] not lead to true human happiness."

“How sad. There is another Catholic way, a "truer" Catholic way.

“God is love, according to the most fundamental teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, and so, to feel love is to experience God. Sometimes the feeling of love can be light and fleeting, sometimes passionate, sometimes rapturously consuming. But always, in some way or another, it is the experience of God, who is love. This is, then, the end of the debate about whether such experience comes from God, and whether or not God loves homosexuals and accepts their loving style. The God who gives love, loves its recipients.

“God is not much more interested in genitalia than in earlobes or elbows. God gives all things as tools for us to use to become more loving people. God is concerned with the direction of our hearts. God loves every one of us, each on our unique journey of experiencing the Divinity which infuses us with life and purpose.”

James H. Burch
Coordinating Bishop
The Catholic Diocese of One Spirit
www.OneSpiritCatholic.org
Jim@ContemporaryCatholic.org

People are Listening to Common Sense these days

I am pleased, actually thrilled, that so many people are “figuring it out” these days. Unfortunately they are not getting help from the pulpit, and probably not in the confessional. And, to tell the truth, people who have been told that God hates their sexuality (them) over and over again eventually reach the point where they feel they have heard it enough, and skip the visit to the “condemnation box.”

For years and years I was overcome with guilt every time the force of nature (hormones) brought me to the point of (almost involuntary) masturbation. The shame was overwhelming. I carried that guilt and shame till after I was forty. And then a good and wise priest helped me understand that God is not like that. God is not watching my every move to zap me into hell if I feel the pleasure of the release of nature’s own power. I can be God’s friend even if it happens.

But it took me a long time to get going in that direction. I was in my forties when I discovered it was true that I was attracted to other men (same-sex attraction). I had just learned to cope with masturbation. Now this.

That same priest who helped me deal with the biological-physiological fact of masturbation not too long after that, helped me to know that I still had the same loving, non-condemning God if I had loving attraction to and sexual pleasure with another man. What a relief!

But in my case I was not instantly cured of the effects of the guilt and shame that I suffered for so many years. It took help to realize that massages (even with happy endings) and cuddles (even with orgasm) did not make me hated by God.

It took me awhile; with the help of that good priest and my idol, Rev. Troy Perry, the founder of the gay and lesbian affirming Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in 1968, nine months before the Stonewall riots of 1969. No one person, no one institution has done more since that time to liberate LGBT people from the chains of sex negative theology. The autobiography of Rev. Perry and my close personal work and association with him (as a co-minister and friend) was a major influence in my life.

And then, much later, there were my friends, Father Norman Pittenger and Fr. John McNeill and many others. In fact it was a long while until I reached the point of not only knowing what God is really like, but also being able to help others reach that point.

We need more priests to help with that work. There are 9 million LGBT in the country’s front ranks. And so few priests and ministers who can help them know that God loves them as they are. “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

IS There Sin? What is Sinful?

Of course, it was tempting to begin to think that nothing was sin. I made many mistakes, sins, before I got the point of sorting it all out: some things are sin, and some things are not sin. I thought masturbation and making love was a sin. When I realized that was false moralizing, I still had to come around to recognize that I was still sometimes sinning.

And what was that? This is tell-all time. The biggest help I got from books at that time was in the wonderful autobiography of Rev. Perry, The Lord is My Shepherd and He knows I am Gay. That was followed by the books on sexuality written by my friend the great, internationally acclaimed theologian, Fr. Norman Pittenger. It’s another story, but it was my friendship with him that brought me to write my first book on sexuality at his urging.) (Many more great theologians and great writers, such as Fr. John McNeill (The Church and the Homosexual), have come along since then.

To make a long story short, Father Pittenger described sin as flowing from harm and force (using or abusing another person). He summed it up in one place by saying: ask yourself when dressing to go home in the morning, “Am I leaving a person whom I have loved, or a body which I have used?”

So, gradually I began to distinguish one from the other. No problem with love and pleasure. But I had to learn the hard way that there is sin and abuse and using people.

And when I, in reverse, had been used enough times, it began to sink in. There is nothing wrong with love and pleasure – if it is not selfish, one-sided, or abusive. It took me a while, with the help of studying professional ethics in my psychological training, to realize that what looks innocent, like sex with the boss, sex with the counselor, sex with the pastor, sex with those underage (in New Zealand it’s 16; other places it’s 18) constitute an abuse of power and are always wrong and potentially harmful.

[I must retell the story of the 30 year old man in New Zealand who had a “blood contract” (signed in their own blood) with a 12 year old Maori boy. It was mutual consent, yeah. I was able to get them apart, but the 30 year old would not stay away. When the 12 year old (who had sworn loyalty forever) was sixteen (the age of consent there) after being told about child molesters by his school mates, he gave the 30+ man two black eyes and a report to the police that got him arrested. I attended the trial. There was the “blood contract” for evidence, “I will be faithful to you forever…” The “consent” of the 12 year old dissipated when he reached the age of consent. I visited the 30+ many times during his six years in prison. He never learned. He kept on thinking, “I was the best thing that ever happened to that boy.” He made it seem so true that prison was the best thing that happened to him.]

When people come for a same sex wedding, we talk about what’s good and what’s bad. Love between consenting adults is not bad. Yet, there are some factors that can make even adult consenting love not good, but harmful. These might include: If there is harm, if one of them has a commitment to another person, if one is in a power situation (over the other), and if the participation is not mutually self giving.

What pleases me is that many people understand that their love is not sin, “How can love be a sin?” I love to hear that. They discovered that wonderful truth at a much earlier age than I did.

Moral Slavery

Unfortunately some people are so brainwashed that they want to cling to the “love is sin” idea. Two good go-to-church-every-Sunday and confession-every-Saturday Catholic men came for a same sex wedding. I made my usual inductive explanation that God is love and love is not a sin. They insisted their love and their wedding was a sin (because the church says so), and I sadly told them I couldn’t be part of their sin. I don’t know what became of them. Maybe they clung to their sin “till death do us part.” We call it moral slavery; they just want to cling to their sin. We call it moral slavery.

Recently two women came in. As we talked about it, the one said, “Of course it is a sin, but I love her so much…” The partner was shocked. Together we talked with her about, “How can love be a sin…if it is not harmful or forceful.” They hugged as both were finally in agreement. But the other one had a problem with her mother who definitely considered their love sinful. I taught them to be at peace with their own conscience, even if others cannot understand.

In my own story, believe me, I did not want to cling to my sin, the moral slavery type or the harming, forcing, or abusing type. I wanted to get rid of sin and enjoy massages, cuddles and sexual pleasure from making love without sin.

We don’t know what the sins were of the “sinful woman.” We are conditioned, of course, to assume that “sins” are sexual sins.

Go Away, Sexual Sin; Go Away!

In my case, in truth, my sins were sexual sins, as I was taught at that time. Even in high school (seminary) I prayed the 7 penitential Psalms every day to get freed from the “passion of the flesh,” which actually was masturbation, and it was causing me a lot of trauma, “Teenage Masturbation Trauma (TMT).” Seven Psalms or 150 Psalms; it didn’t go away. For years by church condemnation and self condemnation, I was a dirty, filthy, disgusting sexual sinner, a masturbator, no less.

That was many years before I ever knew what “homosexual” was, or had any idea that I could be one.

Masturbation made me a sexual sinner, despised by God. I knew from Romans 7 that St. Paul had some kind of sin gnawing at him. I was convinced it was the same as mine, and I was happy to see that he conquered it in Romans 8. Maybe I could. I read Romans 8 over and over. “It” did not go away. Paul was a saint; I was not, I concluded.

So, if I were to compare my self with the sinful woman, I was a sinful man. She showed her love with an elaborate foot massage ritual of service for Jesus – who surely needed it for all the walking around “doing good” he did.

In my case (another sinner) I couldn’t give him a foot massage, but I could offer and give my life to him in service. He accepted the sinful woman’s foot massage, and I am convinced today that Jesus forgives my sins (the real ones and the vestiges of the church-and-self-imposed ones) and accepts my love and service in return for his love – who first loved me.

That’s important because my mission in life is to teach each and every person with TMT or any other sexual guilt trauma that Jesus looks at them and loves them, and forgives them and assures them that their faith saves them. And that is the mission of MCC, and that is the mission of all our sex-positive priests.

The Simplicity of the Method of Jesus

Finally I realized something that made it very clear to me as I was teaching others about the unconditional love that God has for us – as shown to us over and over
again by Jesus in his life and in his parables. I came to realize that Sex Positive Theology has the answers – not in hard to understand book definitions, but in just plain down to earth common sense -- like Jesus gave us in the Sermon on the Mount or Jesus in telling the people beautiful parables.
Or, quite importantly, it dawned on me that Sex Positive Theology does just what Jesus did when he contradicted the Law as prescribed by the Pharisees (the church of his time). One website states the situation directly, “They lay heavy burdens upon the people but would not do anything to make the load lighter. Their own works were done to be observed by men rather than God.” (http://bible.org/seriespage/chapter-23-jesus-condemns-scribes-and-pharisees) He never showed prejudice against marginalized people in his whole life, but he consistently resisted the laws, laws, laws and rules, rules, rules of the Pharisees.
An example of Jesus confronting the Pharisees about “working” on the Sabbath is found in Mark 2:23-28 (New International Version)
“ 23One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
25He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
27Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Another website gives an interpretation of this confrontation of Jesus with the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath laws. “By implication Jesus also lends insight into the nature of the sabbath law itself. Often understood as a part of God's unchangeable "moral law," it is seen as inviolable and absolute in and of itself -- as the laws concerning other gods, idolatry, God's name, etc. Yet it would be difficult to find any exception at all for these "moral" laws, particularly an exception grounded in human concerns.16 So, far from "eternal moral law," then, Jesus seems to classify the sabbath otherwise. And it was precisely this that his legalistic opponents failed to see. The sabbath was not an end in itself, an absolute that admitted no exceptions.17 It was intended for man's benefit, his well-being. To elevate it to a place of tyranny over man is to make more of it than was intended; indeed, it would overthrow it altogether.18” (http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/hermenutics/sabbath1.htm
Imagine Jesus saying that about contraceptives (for a large family with no food and school money). Imagine Jesus saying that to a lesbian who says, “I know they say it is sin, but I love her so much.” What do you think Jesus would say to a boy about to go crazy of TMT. He wanted to be good, but, “I just can’t help it, and they tell me I am going straight to hell.” Would Jesus say to him…what he said to the “sinful woman,”… “Your faith has saved you…”
In the same way that Jesus contradicted the Pharisees, Sex Positive Theology departs from the sex negative theology of today’s church. Sex Positive Theology is a Jesus-like common sense alternative to sex negative misrepresentations of God and God’s will.

Yes, SPT Ain’t Everything

A member of our network asked me how I can explain our emphasis on “Sex Positive Theology. Isn’t there anything else?” That’s a question I love to hear. It’s like once in 30 years as a pastor, after I gave a sermon on prayer, a member of the parish came up to me sincerely (and knocked me figuratively off my feet) and requested, “Pastor, teach me how to pray.” The following week I began a weekly study and practice seminar on “how to pray.”

Of course there are a lot of things in theology and spirituality that may be a lot more important in the long run than Sex Positive Theology. But we start there for those people who would never get out of the “trauma” stage without defeating sex negative theology which has been holding them back all these years. It’s like trying to make your hair beautiful while ignoring a serious infection eating away at you. Get rid of the infection first. The trauma from sex negative theology is an infection.

Of course, the Gospels show Jesus spending a lot m0re time on prayer than on receiving a foot massage. But in our real world, liberation from the infection of sex negative theology has to be rooted out before we can rise above all these distractions and enter into greater bliss in our friendship with God.

And, of course, we teach Sex Positive Theology to those who are already moving right along in their friendship with God – so that they can teach it, wherever they go in their daily lives, to not only LGBT friends but to parents and relatives and neighbors, and maybe their own partner. In other words when we have moved from being the victim (of sex negative theology), we become the victor, the winner who can share the winning victorious truth with others.

Jesus came to show us what God is like. St. John, who had the wonderful privilege of lying with his head on the heart of Jesus, tells us that God is Love. Jesus describes and lives that definition throughout the Gospel. Look, for example at the beautiful parable of the prodigal son (sometimes called the parable of the Loving Father). In the simplest of terms Jesus gives us a very clear picture of what God is like. The story of the loving father of the prodigal son shows us exactly what God is like, the kind of love we get from God, our loving parent.
We all know the story. Let’s look again at the father’s joy upon his son’s return. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.[a]'
22"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate…
28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
That story of Jesus is a very human image of what God is like, and perhaps the son is a very human image of what we humans can be like in one way or another. But more importantly the emphasis is on God – what God is like when we humans are human in the way that humans are human. God is still like the father of the prodigal son.

Sex Positive Theology can do no better than imitate the style of Jesus in teaching common sense theology in down to earth terms.

Yes, there is love; and how best to express it?

After I wrote and preached for many years that massages and cuddles are Ok, I began to realize there is an even higher level of body-spirit spirituality.

When couples come to me for their same-sex wedding, I teach them “Love’s Bottom Line.” It’s not just, “I love you,” in words. It’s, “I love you by doing this…” Some have suggested it should be called “perfect love,” because Jesus said there is no greater love than that one gives one’s life for the one who is loved. Of course Jesus demonstrated that in his death for us – whom he loves.

Now the application is that I – we – can show our love best by giving our life for our beloved (mahal).

We call it “Love’s Bottom Line” because when you take away all the immature stuff, it’s the real bottom line love that always remains. It’s the secret to the happiest relationship in the world. Massages and cuddles are wonderful, but sometimes they are mixed in with immature stuff. The next step is “giving oneself.”

How? Not on a cross. Not in an auction, but in our everyday relationship. When a disagreement is about to start, I naturally say under my breath, “How can I win?” I may have tried that and the other methods – and they don’t work. Throwing pots and pans, slamming doors, screaming, or not speaking – they don’t work.

The new formula is one that works year after year. It is Love’s Bottom Line. It’s the real proof of real love, and the best superglue for loving partners ever invented.

So, the new formula to replace “How can I win?” is Love’s Bottom Line. When a disagreement is about to become an argument, Love’s Bottom Line says, WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE MY PARTNER HAPPY? That’s it.

I get emails from all over the world telling me it works. It’s like Jesus: total self giving, giving the gift that only you can give each other – happiness to your partner day in and day out. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Perfect love makes sense. Making your partner happy makes sense. It’s the only thing that makes sense. You give up what you want (total self-giving) in order to give happiness to your partner.

We talk about giving massages and cuddles . That’s great, but the greatest, the one that works over the long haul, is the ultimate – giving ourselves for the happiness of the other. When two lovers love enough to do this, then you got “Mighty Bond.”

That way, we go from sin, real sin or imagined sin, to the sublime – a life of happiness for the other and each other.

We need, priests, ministers,
preachers of the full Good News

The Roman Catholic Church has just concluded today the “Year of the Priest,” praying for the spirituality and commitment of their priests throughout the world.

Today I announce the “Year of Prayer for Priests” in the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines, the Diocese of which I have been ordained and appointed bishop. It will be a year of prayer for vocations to the priesthood in the Diocese – holy priests who will teach LGBT people in the Philippines that love, massages, cuddles are God’s gift to us all, and happiness , holiness, and liberation from moral slavery is God’s will for all.

The priests with new priestly vocations will join those already in adult seminary programs or cyber programs to bring love, peace, and joy to God’s beloved LGBT people in the Philippines.

Today let me just quote Rev. Leanne McCall Tigert, Coming Out Through
Fire: Surviving the Trauma of Homophobia. She speaks of "the process
each of us must go through to transform the trauma of homophobia and
heterosexism [and I would add anti-feminism]."

She speaks of the mystery of LGBT persons. "How can we continue to
love deeply and passionately when so many seek to destroy our lives?
How do we continue to care for one another and ourselves when others
are convinced we are not capable of really caring about anything but
sex, and are really sick and need help? How can we be such witnesses
for others who are hurting when we ourselves are fighting our
oppression? Why are we such good teachers, ministers (priests,
sisters) doctors, nurses, political activists, organizers, dancers,
writers, lovers, and workers in the midst of the traumatization of
homophobia -- that believes we are incapable of such [accomplishments]
and seek to prove our incapability?"

And I thank God that the message of God’s love is being brought to more and more people in MCC Manila, MCC Quezon City, MCC Baguio – and through the seminars and courses in Sex Positive Theology and the Integration of Spirituality and Sexuality which we provide through the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality.

Sex Positive Theology is not the bottom line of Christian spirituality, of what it means to enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God. Sex positive Theology, which we teach in cyber seminars, sets LGBT people free from the obstacles to the full joy of living in friendship with God and each other.

You can be an instrument of bringing this peace, love, and joy to LGBT people as a priest or minister. Man. Woman, gay, lesbian, transgender – you will know in your prayers if God is calling you. You can be a priest and keep your job, your career, your life partner (mahal).

Some people spend their whole life in selfishness. If you are one with a desire to help others, pray to know if God is calling you.

You are welcome to ask questions. Send me an email. Pour out any question on your mind. Maybe you felt called to the priesthood when you were young, but it was denied to you because of your gender or gender preference. Maybe your vocation never got off the ground because of TMT. All these obstacles are gone. You can be God’s priest and minister and help LGBT people gain freedom through Sex Positive Theology and move on in the path pf holiness and Christian joy.

I will close with a thought from my fellow priest in the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, John Chuchman, the well known spiritual writer.

The steadfast connection through it all
was/is
God.

As I let go of each stage of life,
the rewards were surprising.

Any darkness has ended up being spiritual nourishment.

My trust in God
has grown deeper
as I have been able
to turn away from myself.

Whatever did not fit into
my plan for life
seems to have fit into
God's Plan.

I have discovered
that nothing is merely an accident
or a coincidence.

My whole life
has been marked out for me
in Divine Providence
and has a complete coherent meaning
in God's Eye.

I have learned to rejoice
as the meaning
of my journey
is revealed to me
bit by bit.

This reflection is taken from John Chuchman's 2008 book,
"Spirituality & Spiritual Growth beyond Hierarchical Church", with the author's permission.

[If you have read this far, you have already completed the reading for the first section of the “Cyber Seminar on Sex Positive Theology.” Email me (saintaelred@gmail.com), and you may enroll today for the remaining portions of the Cyber seminar. After that you may enroll for the more challenging academic cyber course, “Certificate in Sex Positive Theology.” Or, you may skip the cyber seminar and enroll directly in the cyber academic Certificate Course.]

Comelec and Unharmful Loving Sex

2009-11-23T20:23:00.000+08:00

A few days ago I offerred a summary of some of the great pro LGBT commentaries on the Internet about Comelec's rejection of Danton Remoto's Ang LadLad party list application (again).

Virtually the same day I found myself in La Funeraria Paz offering my sympathy to my longtime friend and co-activist, Danton, on the occasion of the sudden death of his mother. (Yes, I thought it was some terrible mixup. But it was his mother, this time; it was his father who had died last month. Much caring concern for you, Danton, on these two successive personal losses -- and then the Comelec iodicy, too.

This is a good time to recommend that you get to know this outstanding leader in the LGBT community, winner of the Pink Feather Award and many other honors. Check him out on the Internet.

Danton Remoto
July 6, 2009 at 9:41 am (Prof. Danton Remoto, elections)

Caption: Danton Remoto brings his pink army to the electorate. Photo by Pol Briana, Jr. Manila Bulletin
Pink Revolution: Ang Ladlad’s Danton Remoto
60 Minutes
June 28, 2009
Manila Bulletin

Will Danton Remoto be the Philippines’ answer to Harvey Milk?

Milk made history in 1977 when he became the first openly gay man elected into public office. Remoto is yet to do the same, but the impact he’s made on the Filipino lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is certainly as impressive as Milk’s history-making feat.

Remoto, with fellow writer J. Neil Garcia, was behind the pioneering “Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Literature.” Its effect on Filipino culture has been immense. Ladlad has gone through several editions, has resulted in the teaching of gay literature classes at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, and is credited for Ang Ladlad, the partylist that Remoto formed in 2003.

“We started in September 2003 with only one mandate — to help Akbayan push the Anti-Discrimination Bill which was filed in 1999,” he says of Ang Ladlad’s beginnings. “Congress is not really against it, but they just think it is not as important. So lagi, ang mga bading, lesbians, transgender, bisexual, laging, kung baga cameo role lagi.”

Fighting for one’s rights is certainly nothing new for Remoto. With his father in the military, Remoto grew up with the belief that nobody should take any abuse lying down.

“My father was a military officer and we were trained to be amazons. Isa lang ang turo niya: You study hard; you study well at ‘pag may umaway sa inyo at umuwi kayo ng luhaan, papaluin ko kayo; you should learn to be tough and fight back,” he recalls with a laugh. “So ang nangyari ngayon, may mga pumupunta sa bahay namin na mga magulang, ‘Naku sir, ‘yang anak ninyong bading binugbog ang anak ko.’ Sabi ng tatay ko ‘Eh di, mabuti!’”

Remoto does the same fighting for the LGBT community. Whether it’s freeing hundreds of gay men being detained illegally or arguing for lesbians and transgenders who have been discriminated against for their sexual orientation, Remoto and his allies are always ready with a legal challenge and a witty retort.

“You have to show them that you will not allow this. If you show them that you will fight back, they will move away. Bullies are really cowards,” he says.

Remoto’s fight for equal rights would have reached its peak in the 2007 elections had Ang Ladlad been allowed to run as partylist, but the COMELEC refused to accredit the group, citing its lack of constituents. It is Remoto, however, who has the last laugh, as he is now planning to run for the Senate on an education platform.

“I’m running on a platform of education because I’ve been teaching for 22 years. ‘Yun talaga ‘yung alam na alam kong issue, ‘yun gay rights, kasama na ‘yan sa education.
Open-mindedness is a function of education, kasi ang tao kapag pinaaral mo, luluwag ang isip. Education is what we really need in this country,” he says.

To close June as the Pride Month, Danton Remoto lets it all out: about being gay in the Philippines, his vision for the Philippine LGBT community, and the possibility of being the country’s first openly gay senator. (RONALD S. LIM)

To continue, since my previous blog, the Internet continues to buzz with brilliant reactions to the stupid Comelec action. (I guess they have a right to "decide," but do they have the right to add ridiculing remarks to their decisions?)

I don't think I need to continue the summaries here (they are coming in from everywhere).
There is still the motion for recobnsideration to the full Comelec and the appeal to the Supreme Court.

But no sooner did I write those preceding words than my attention was caught by an opnion column in today's Inquirer. Let me just give a selected few of the highly quotable quotes.

Commentary
Why Ang Ladlad should thank the Comelec

By Florin T. Hilbay
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:30:00 11/22/2009

It is precisely because I disagree that I am elated.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of Ang Ladlad’s petition for accreditation, the decision starts a new era in Philippine constitutional law. We have now entered the discourse of substantive equality of the type that many other countries in the world today confront.

And because Ang Ladlad will be at the center of this development, they have the rare opportunity to craft the law’s development and gain political mileage out of it. They can only thank Nicodemus Ferrer and Co. for this gift.

What the Comelec has done is to sanction, with the use of public authority, prejudice against homosexuals. In constitutional law, this is equivalent to “state action,” which now arms Ang Ladlad with the power to raise the Equal Protection and the Non-Establishment of Religion Clauses in any appropriate domestic and, perhaps, even international forum.

This is no ordinary consequence.

Prior to the Comelec’s decision, prejudice against homosexuals by opinion writers, netizens, religious leaders and ordinary citizens could be considered, as a matter of doctrine, “private discrimination” which, however irrational and hurtful, is not attributable to the state. We can heckle these bigots out of classrooms, newspaper columns or coffee shops all we want, but we cannot go to courts and ask the speakers to stop and apologize.

Given that the Comelec is a public institution, aggrieved parties can now say that because the Constitution recognizes equality and secularism as basic tenets, the corrective organs of the state such as the Supreme Court are obligated to reverse and remedy the grave abuse of discretion committed here. Otherwise, the prejudice of the members of the Comelec will be transformed into official state policy.

Even those less than confident about the capacity of the Supreme Court to correct this constitutional violence should nonetheless rejoice. This is because the decision of the Comelec, by itself, already creates a formal platform for academic and legal discourse.

In the narrow sense, there is now an opportunity for students of the Constitution to talk about discrimination against homosexuals because they have a concrete case to study in class; in the larger sense, this decision opens the door to consciousness-raising of present and future policymakers.

Whereas, before, academics and advocates could only talk about discrimination against homosexuals in a cultural sense, today the Comelec has, by its narrow-mindedness, provided gay rights activists a rallying point that can potentially bring together previously unpoliticized and uncommitted supporters into the debate.

Those who study the history of constitutionalism in these islands will notice that the debate on equality has never really taken on a consciousness-transforming path. We have never had the kind of civil rights movement here of the kind that has legally emancipated blacks and women, even if we experience racism and women are still dis-empowered.

At some point, Congress discriminated against the Chinese to ease their control on the economy, but even today many distinctions on the basis of nationality are constitutionally unproblematic because under a state system citizens can expect more privileges than non-citizens.

The Ang Ladlad case presents a different scenario precisely because the petitioners here are citizens of the republic who have been specifically singled out.

In essence, what the Comelec has done is to declare the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community constitutionally invisible and inappropriate subjects of election law.

This not only flies in the face of the policy of the party-list system to let the market of electors decide who they wish to send to Congress; it is also one of the most egregious violations of the principle of republicanism that guarantees citizens the right to participate in government through the vote.

By denying accreditation to Ang Ladlad, the Comelec disqualifies a substantial number of Filipinos from the game of civilized warfare called democracy.

This is fundamentally unfair because, as a group of human beings, they are entitled to seek recognition, meaning and happiness within the confines of a pluralistic constitutional regime.

It is tragic enough that they are sometimes subjected to humiliation by an insensitive society; it is worse when such malevolence is sanctioned by the very state that taxes them.

Florin T. Hilbay teaches constitutional law and legal theory at the UP College of Law and is currently a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore School of Law.

To continue, God's will be done. The problem is, when the fate of the minority is in the hands of the majority, all too often, God's will is not considered (even though they quote the Bible, Canon Law, The Pope, The Imam...)

Since I am, and have been, for around 40 years an outspoken advocate of Sex-Positive Thinking, people do ask me, "Is there sexual sin? Is everything OK?"

I go out of my way to give an emphatic. "Yes, there is sin, and I repent everyday of my life for my personal experience in that regard. I don't repent because of deserving the fires of hell, but because of the harm and hurt and sadness I have caused those not deserving of such pain.

In the Sunday Inquirer (Nov. 22), Lito Gutierrrez presents a brilliant but quizzical feature. "Leave Manny Alone."

Is this the right queetion? "Did Manny show marital infidelity with Krista at the expense of wife Jinky?" If so, who's asking? Who has the right to ask? Why ask in a newspaper story? Is it because payment is made by the column inch? I don't know.

But look at the article. It seems to say, "See no evit; do no evil," but then the article proceeds to speak a lot of evil about the world's greatest boxer. Did he commit adultery? The article ends, "Leaave Manny Alone. Leave well enough alone."

Why do I say "quizical"? In the whole article the writer leads us into assuming that Manny had sex with Krista. If so, that is is not "well enough..."

Adultery is one of those things that falls into the category of "not good enough." Along with child abuse, using people, or harming another person in any way, verbally, physically, sexually, etc.

The same day, I painfully watched a TV documentary on child abuse by Catholic priests, nuns, and brothers in Catholic orphanages, etc.

Is there sin? There sure is.

Is Manny Paquiau guilty of sin? Just who am I to even ask that question? And i wonder why Gutierrez mulls over the question so belaboredly in an article where he writes of "Cathilic self-righteousness and rank hypocrisy."

Is there sin? Yes, there is sin. Yes, there is self-righteousness. Yes, there is hypocrisy.

Sex-positive theology does not erase, condone, cover over, or play blind to sin.

Sex-positive thinking is positive about the great gift of our loving God -- the great gift of unharmful, unforceful, loving sex.

"God is Friendship." (St. Aelred, 1110-1167)

REV. FR. RICHARD MICKLEY, OSAE, founding PASTOR MCC-MANILA,
founding abbot, The Order of St. Aelred

------------------------------------------------------------
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D.
Abbot
The Order of St. Aelred
St. Aelred Friendship Society
82-D Masikap Extension
Barangay Central, Quezon City
1100 Metro Manila, Philippines
Landline: 63 2 921 8273
Mobile: 63 920 9034909
E-mail: saintaelred@gmail.com
Website: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/saintaelred/index.html
E-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saeffriends
Fr. Richard’s personal blog: http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com
Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS) website: http://www.onespiritcatholic.org