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Queer Relationships are Sacred

Pride Eucharist and Party
Sunday, June 21. 7 PM
Skinner Auditorium
St. Mark's Cathedral
1245 10th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
Organized by the Commission for Emerging Mission, Conspiracy Western Washington, Integrity, and St. Mark's Human Sexuality Group.

Seven years on Sunday my wife and I will be married: 7 years of hanging out together, making dinner, supporting each other through school, talking about kids, complaining about work, kissing goodnight, farting, getting in fights, buying each other presents, etc. etc. It's totally mundane. Our marriage is also the most important thing in my life, and it is sacred.

Once again today, courts have decided that society doesn't have an obligation to recognize that minority relationships just like mine are also sacred.

Screw that, and please join my friends and I at Skinner on June 21st as we recognize and celebrate the sacredness of Gay people, Gay relationships and Gay Pride. Eucharistic Communion with Queers, their friends, and anyone who will join us at the Table. Followed by a party with food, drinks, DJs and VJs.

If you're not religious, don't worry. Join us for the Eucharist or just the party afterwards. A website will be up and running soon.

Because dammit, this is what churches are for.
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Curtis Farr said…
Tim, Jesus tells his disciples that gay marriage is wrong:

"Love your neighbor...unless it's another dude."
May 26, 2009 at 4:43 PM
Anonymous said…
This continues to be a tough one for me. I can look at the questionable scriptures and draw the conclusion that the issues addressed are more about lust than about sexual orientation, but then in practice it often seems difficult to separate the two. And then when it gets into the whole GLBT, etc, etc thing (I cannot keep track of this ever-expanding acronym) - when it creeps out into all that stuff it seems to get increasingly difficult to separate whatever the heck might be "normal" or "healthy" from plain old idolatrous lust such as any and all of us are affected by whatever our orientation. I will choose not to attend this Eucharist, probably mostly for the sake of my own issues and nobody else's. I appreciate the efforts of those in the church to identify with people whatever their circumstances, but never feel sure of when we cross the line into at least the perception that we are endorsing plain old lust. If I decide to accept bisexuality as somehow normative is that not essentially accepting promiscuity as normative? I have my own issues around sexuality and lust. Acceptance of myself and my limitations has played a significant part for me in encountering the Grace of God in more and more dark corners of my life, but in accepting those things about myself I have also found that I have had to surrender my rights around them in order to find any measure of serenity and sanity. There are many arguments on both sides of an issue like this and I can easily drive myself crazy trying to sort it all out. Sometimes a challenge like that is worth the risk, but for me right now it is more than I feel willing or able to handle. Sexuality can have overwhelming power in my life and I am still learning to trust God with it.
May 30, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Tim Mathis said…
Hey anonymous - I admit that when I saw an anonymous comment on this particular post I was prepared for the worst - thanks for the thoughtful, personal, and fair commentary on an issue that makes everyone act crazy.

I've actually thought about this quite a bit - I wrote a couple of posts a while back on 'sexuality as sacramentality' that grew out of dealing with this sort of question. (You'll find the posts tagged under 'sex' as 'An Episcopal Theology of Sex'.) There does seem to be a tendency to swing from one extreme to the other - 'it's sinful to be attracted to women/men/whatever' to 'it's okay to do whatever you feel like' - with no in-between. My feeling is that, no matter what your orientation, there are appropriate sexual expressions and inappropriate. (Although, please don't leave me in charge of defining what's what!)

A key is separating orientation from behavior. There was a really interesting hubbub on Eugene Cho's blog a few weeks ago based on an exchange he had with Dan Savage from The Stranger. Eugene referred to his desire to love his gay neighbors, but said that he couldn't condone 'the gay lifestyle'. Dan, I think rightfully if not kindly, jumped on the assumptions that underlie that kind of language - as if 'the gay lifestyle' implies promiscuity, or infidelity, or gay sex, or anything at all. There are certainly excesses in the gay community, but as all frat boys know, there are just as many excesses in the straight community. And, there are plenty of monogamous gay couples, and plenty of gay people out there who aren't having sex at all.

Sexuality, as you have identified, is an extremely powerful aspect of what it means to be human - the goal, I believe, is that we should all be able to understand our own and handle it responsibly. Which is a very different thing from a simple 'laissez-faire' do-what-you-want kind of attitude.
June 1, 2009 at 11:52 AM
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