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Know My Name : A Gay Liberation Theology
The place of gay men and women in the community of faith has become one of the most divisive debates in the church today. Writer and activist Richard Cleaver takes a fresh approach to this issue by examining the struggles of gay men and lesbians in the church through the lens of liberation theology. He offers a "gay" reading of scripture, but one that is also spiritually challenging to all readers. Cleaver interweaves biblical reflections with historical, social, political, and personal commentary. He discusses personal identity issues and "coming out," the development of class consciousness as members of an oppressed group, and solidarity with other oppressed groups. This provocative book brings a new voice to the debate about the place of gays and lesbians in our churches.
- GenresNonfictionLGBTReligion
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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July 3, 2024
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSALS FOR A GAY THEOLOGY
Richard Cleaver is an openly gay priest, ordained in the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America.; he has also written 'New Heaven, New Earth: Practical Essays on the Catholic Worker Program.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1995 book, “This book is a contribution to a gay, white, male… theology of liberation, nothing more. I cannot claim to speak for lesbians or gay men of color. Much of our experience is shared, still more is familiar, but much remains distinct if not estranged. All the same, I want to acknowledge the enormous debt I owe to lesbian and other feminist theologians. My understanding of the gay male experience has been significantly altered by listening to women and reading women’s reflections on their own experiences. Therefore I hope that what I have written here will have some meaning for my sisters in the journey, even as I confess that my tasks are different.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He continued, “a confession of where I stand in relation to the church (in my case, the Roman Catholic Church): I knew myself as a gay man before I knew myself as a Christian. This priority of commitment remains at the heart of my life as a member of the body of Christ. I joined the church not in spite of my gayness but because of it… Put another way, being Christian for me is very much like being gay: something not so much decided as discovered, then (and only then) chosen. I resisted, and continue to resist, the discovery that I am Christian more than ever I did the discovery that I am gay.” (Pg. viii)
He also advises, “To reach those for whom ‘the plain meaning of God’s word’ is hatred of homosexuality, we must offer not elaborate analyses in form criticism or research on the lexicography of Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Koine (important as those tasks are) but an equally direct reading of ‘the plain meaning’ of the gospel of love. That is what this book is intended to provide.” (Pg. xiv)
In the Introduction, he points out, “This gap between my personal experience and the teaching of the church on sexuality and, indeed, on salvation gives rise to a suspicion that the traditional view of who is ‘good’ enough to be a member of the body of Christ is wrong. This suspicion, in turn, leads me to look at the question ‘Who is good?’ only to find Jesus stating firmly that no one, not even himself, is good. In place of goodness (an abstract quality) Jesus puts love of neighbor (concrete acts).” (Pg. 12)
He outlines, “[In this book] I want to accomplish two things: one for gay men ourselves, one for the churches in general. First, I want to help gay men---and… lesbians---develop the tools for doing theology for ourselves and our communities… I believe liberation theology can make a contribution to the field of lesbian and gay studies, it---and only if---we do not limit our audience to Christians. Many people in our communities are anti-Christian or, at least, anticlerical because… of being oppressed by the churches’ structures… Those of us who continue to think of ourselves as Christians … see our community as a whole in ways the community in action often cannot. My second task in this book is to provide some of the information that has been missing in the debates in the churches: stories about what the lives of gay men are like and about how we reflect on them.” (Pg. 14)
He suggests, “There are… more fruitful and respectful ways to search the scriptures than picking verses here and there about Sodom. I do not believe that looking for what may appear to us to be ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ relationships in the scriptures is helpful. Such proof-texting is ahistorical. It fails to recognize that all relationships have different meanings in different cultures; and poor history is bound to be poor theology. It is useless to speculate about whether David and Jonathan or Ruth and Naomi or Jesus and John were lovers. ALL biblical heroes are lovers. Instead, we must look for stories of people breaking out of the slavery of social and personal relations patterned by gender or class or race or any other category that divides people…” (Pg. 27)
He observes, “The churches are a major obstacle facing gays and lesbians. Many of us abandon our churches, sometimes in great sorrow and anger because they have meant so much to us. Others some to the church for guidance and help. Asking for bread, the get a stone… [A] common bit of advice… is, ‘…Repress your impulse to love other people…’ This keeps us isolated and cuts us off from any opportunity to learn from others how to make sense of our lives.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “when public figures… call for tattooing HIV positive individuals or quarantining ‘carriers’ in concentration camps [it] contributes to gay men’s suspicion that some powerful heterosexual interests ignored AIDS in the hope that it would kill off undesirables and spare everyone else…This fear of annihilation forces us to stop seeking individual salvation. So great a threat can be met only by working together, not only among lesbians and gay men but with other movements of oppressed people struggling for liberation.” (Pg. 75)
He argues, “Lesbians and gay men have put a lot of eggs in the born-that-way basket, based on a faulty understanding of the concept of a protected class. We have based our politics on an analogy between sexual orientation and gender or race. This has led us to believe that the only way to secure our rights is to argue that gayness is innate… Innateness is not a necessary condition of becoming a protected class… The failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment should teach us that Americans are not altogether sure that just because a characteristic is ‘inborn’ it is necessarily neutral. In the long run, protection as a class can be won only by political struggle. There are no shortcuts.” (Pg. 93)
He proposes, “An authentic gay, male, Christian life, then, will be based in liturgy and in our emerging forms of popular piety… They are a gift we bring with us to the altar. Above all, they are our traditional theological language. We need only reclaim them, proud in the knowledge that they are by no means second best… liturgy and popular piety will help restore the balance upset then theological work was monopolized and thus narrowed by the ordained and the degreed.” (Pg. 117) Later, he adds, “For people who have been excluded… from the formal credentials required to be straight teachers, acts of worship are our teaching medium.” (Pg. 134)
He concludes, “gay male liberation is our part of the whole revolutionary project of our time… How are we to achieve this revolutionary change? Gay men share with other revolutionaries the need to construct a system of ethical norms that will allow our revolution to grow in a seedbed of justice. For Christian gay men, this must be consistent with Christian ethics, but it will have its own answers for the questions that affect us particularly… Accustomed to nothing, we have settled for much less than God wants for us.” (Pg. 143-144)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying gay/queer theology.
Richard Cleaver is an openly gay priest, ordained in the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America.; he has also written 'New Heaven, New Earth: Practical Essays on the Catholic Worker Program.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1995 book, “This book is a contribution to a gay, white, male… theology of liberation, nothing more. I cannot claim to speak for lesbians or gay men of color. Much of our experience is shared, still more is familiar, but much remains distinct if not estranged. All the same, I want to acknowledge the enormous debt I owe to lesbian and other feminist theologians. My understanding of the gay male experience has been significantly altered by listening to women and reading women’s reflections on their own experiences. Therefore I hope that what I have written here will have some meaning for my sisters in the journey, even as I confess that my tasks are different.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He continued, “a confession of where I stand in relation to the church (in my case, the Roman Catholic Church): I knew myself as a gay man before I knew myself as a Christian. This priority of commitment remains at the heart of my life as a member of the body of Christ. I joined the church not in spite of my gayness but because of it… Put another way, being Christian for me is very much like being gay: something not so much decided as discovered, then (and only then) chosen. I resisted, and continue to resist, the discovery that I am Christian more than ever I did the discovery that I am gay.” (Pg. viii)
He also advises, “To reach those for whom ‘the plain meaning of God’s word’ is hatred of homosexuality, we must offer not elaborate analyses in form criticism or research on the lexicography of Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Koine (important as those tasks are) but an equally direct reading of ‘the plain meaning’ of the gospel of love. That is what this book is intended to provide.” (Pg. xiv)
In the Introduction, he points out, “This gap between my personal experience and the teaching of the church on sexuality and, indeed, on salvation gives rise to a suspicion that the traditional view of who is ‘good’ enough to be a member of the body of Christ is wrong. This suspicion, in turn, leads me to look at the question ‘Who is good?’ only to find Jesus stating firmly that no one, not even himself, is good. In place of goodness (an abstract quality) Jesus puts love of neighbor (concrete acts).” (Pg. 12)
He outlines, “[In this book] I want to accomplish two things: one for gay men ourselves, one for the churches in general. First, I want to help gay men---and… lesbians---develop the tools for doing theology for ourselves and our communities… I believe liberation theology can make a contribution to the field of lesbian and gay studies, it---and only if---we do not limit our audience to Christians. Many people in our communities are anti-Christian or, at least, anticlerical because… of being oppressed by the churches’ structures… Those of us who continue to think of ourselves as Christians … see our community as a whole in ways the community in action often cannot. My second task in this book is to provide some of the information that has been missing in the debates in the churches: stories about what the lives of gay men are like and about how we reflect on them.” (Pg. 14)
He suggests, “There are… more fruitful and respectful ways to search the scriptures than picking verses here and there about Sodom. I do not believe that looking for what may appear to us to be ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ relationships in the scriptures is helpful. Such proof-texting is ahistorical. It fails to recognize that all relationships have different meanings in different cultures; and poor history is bound to be poor theology. It is useless to speculate about whether David and Jonathan or Ruth and Naomi or Jesus and John were lovers. ALL biblical heroes are lovers. Instead, we must look for stories of people breaking out of the slavery of social and personal relations patterned by gender or class or race or any other category that divides people…” (Pg. 27)
He observes, “The churches are a major obstacle facing gays and lesbians. Many of us abandon our churches, sometimes in great sorrow and anger because they have meant so much to us. Others some to the church for guidance and help. Asking for bread, the get a stone… [A] common bit of advice… is, ‘…Repress your impulse to love other people…’ This keeps us isolated and cuts us off from any opportunity to learn from others how to make sense of our lives.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “when public figures… call for tattooing HIV positive individuals or quarantining ‘carriers’ in concentration camps [it] contributes to gay men’s suspicion that some powerful heterosexual interests ignored AIDS in the hope that it would kill off undesirables and spare everyone else…This fear of annihilation forces us to stop seeking individual salvation. So great a threat can be met only by working together, not only among lesbians and gay men but with other movements of oppressed people struggling for liberation.” (Pg. 75)
He argues, “Lesbians and gay men have put a lot of eggs in the born-that-way basket, based on a faulty understanding of the concept of a protected class. We have based our politics on an analogy between sexual orientation and gender or race. This has led us to believe that the only way to secure our rights is to argue that gayness is innate… Innateness is not a necessary condition of becoming a protected class… The failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment should teach us that Americans are not altogether sure that just because a characteristic is ‘inborn’ it is necessarily neutral. In the long run, protection as a class can be won only by political struggle. There are no shortcuts.” (Pg. 93)
He proposes, “An authentic gay, male, Christian life, then, will be based in liturgy and in our emerging forms of popular piety… They are a gift we bring with us to the altar. Above all, they are our traditional theological language. We need only reclaim them, proud in the knowledge that they are by no means second best… liturgy and popular piety will help restore the balance upset then theological work was monopolized and thus narrowed by the ordained and the degreed.” (Pg. 117) Later, he adds, “For people who have been excluded… from the formal credentials required to be straight teachers, acts of worship are our teaching medium.” (Pg. 134)
He concludes, “gay male liberation is our part of the whole revolutionary project of our time… How are we to achieve this revolutionary change? Gay men share with other revolutionaries the need to construct a system of ethical norms that will allow our revolution to grow in a seedbed of justice. For Christian gay men, this must be consistent with Christian ethics, but it will have its own answers for the questions that affect us particularly… Accustomed to nothing, we have settled for much less than God wants for us.” (Pg. 143-144)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying gay/queer theology.
August 31, 2017
I have the privilege of knowing the author personally; in fact I have a presentation copy of this book. It is an easy read and intelligently thought out and presented. It is a little dry in spots but it's worth the read if you are interested in the subject matter.
Want to read
September 28, 2007sposed to be good...
January 7, 2014
Very well written and informative. Out of date a bit but still worth the read
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews