Born in rural Minnesota and raised on a dairy farm, I grew up in a devout Catholic family.continue at Star Tribune
While attending St. John's Prep School in Collegeville, I confessed to a priest that I was attracted to another boy who slept across from me. The priest responded that if I ever acted on that, I would go to hell.
As a sincere Catholic teen, I did not act on my attraction but started a harmful journey of self-loathing and personal destruction. I didn't know what "homosexual" or "gay" were, but I understand "queer" and thought it was evil and perverted.
I did not date girls in high school and dated only a couple in college. One of them became a good friend, so I did what all the rest in my family had done: I got married, the summer after graduating from college. I loved all my nieces and nephews and wanted to become a teacher and a father.
With a major in elementary education from St. Cloud State and later a master's as a reading specialist, I taught successfully for 40 years in public education in several Minnesota towns. My marriage never worked.
The sexuality was mostly repulsive, and that was communicated indirectly to my ex-wife. That is the most unfair part. She was one of the innocent victims in the masquerade of "I'm straight."
For years and years, I would prostrate myself on the floor and ask God to change me. Maybe if I just pray more, fast more, do more "works of charity," the male attraction will go away.
After more than 30 years of trying to "burn" the evil out of me, I finally came out at age fifty four. God finally broke through to my heart of hearts and said, "I love you just as you are. You are praying for healing, but you are not sick!"
Our God does not change. God is God always. And God was with me always. After all the self-hatred and foibles of life, God was still there waiting for me.
At that moment, the shame and guilt I had felt for years left -- once and for always. If Pope Benedict had been standing right there to tell me I was "disordered," I would have said to him, "You are wrong. God made me and loves me just as I am."
This is the same argument you will get at many Catholic colleges actually. Don't forget Daniel Maguire,
a Marquette professor, has been advocating for gay marriage inside and outside the Church in Minnesota and spoke in Minneapolis last October. Catholics are being lead astray by wolves, tenured wolves.
I haven't been posting all the news but there's are boat loads of money being shipped into Minnesota to break marriage. It would seem that getting a Midwestern state to pass gay marriage could be a striking point then for the rest of the country. Iowa doesn't really count since the activist judges got the boot for their hijinks.
One nice thing about the homosexual act getting shoved in everyone's faces is that the Church finally has an effective way to minister to those with same sex attraction with compassionate and effective pastoral care(even amongst Her own clergy). It's no longer seen as a "just don't do that" thing. The human experience can be complex and bludgeoning with hell isn't always the most effective way to change or heal a heart (don't get me wrong, it certainly can be effective in certain circumstances - but not all).
That said, he's blaming traditional marriage and the Church for his decision to leave his wife and children... Let's all say a prayer for this guy.
HT Bliss