The Master Is Here: Stories Christian and Gay

by John Addison Dally

An Episcopal priest has a fateful encounter with an Amsterdam teenager who may be a prostitute—or something else entirely. An Iowa supermarket patron repurposes Bible verses for a love note to a handsome cashier, with consequences both tragic and transformational. A disgraced seminarian shows up at his lover’s ordination Mass, determined to be remembered.

One way or another, the characters in The Master is Here happen to find themselves in a place larger and more interesting than many others can imagine: the intersection in the Venn diagram of Christian and gay experience. Whether there by choice or quite against their will, whether making good decisions or bad ones, whether driven by love or lust or foolishness or faith, their lives are a valuable testament to the complexities and the conundrums of the human experience, and their stories chronicle the reckonings that none of us can avoid.

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful collection of (as the subtitle suggests) Christian and gay stories. I was half-expecting to see a lot of the same themes that pop up whenever these two subjects meet: gay men dealing with Catholic Guilt™️, family members in denial or being outwardly hostile due to their conservative views, and angst and existential crises abound. And maybe smut, in like a god-honouring way.

Basically, I go into most Christian and gay stories expecting to have my own bleak and depressing past as an (ex)Catholic, gay man reflected back at me. To my surprise, this was not entirely my experience with this book.

Yes, there are stories of sadness - being caught between two worlds that seem so diametrically opposed is often a heartbreaking experience. There are stories that deal with the dilemma of your most authentic self and your deepest human desires being contradictory to the doctrine that was hammered into you from a young age and - whether you like it or not - feels intrinsic to who you’ve been as a person until this moment.

But there are also stories about joy. Joy in finding “God” in whatever shape or form “God” takes - whether it’s in the biblical all-powerful, omnipotent being, or in the moment that you learn to love parts of another person that make you believe they are out of this world. Or in the moment you learn to love parts of yourself that make you believe, “I am out of this world.”

(And yes, there is some smut. And it is in like a god-honouring way.)

My personal favourite story was “The Miraculous Mass of St. Jeremy of Portland”, in which a recently-excised seminarian says a silent goodbye to his lover, who is celebrating his first mass as an ordained priest. The story being framed around the order of the mass is so beautiful and heartbreaking. I was happy to see the two characters get a follow-up story towards the end of the book, but the first story stands on its own so well even though we’re only seeing the final hour (literally) of this couple’s relationship.

[Gabriel Lee Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book turned out way better than i expected when i bought it. it has some incredible showcases of the huma condition, and showcases the negative parts of organized religion. the characters felt real and relatable. while i wished these chapters had trigger warnings cause it got ROUGH a couple of times, i thoroughly enjoyed reading it. it gave me some interesting insight on how people experience faith and celebrate religion that was different from my understanding of Christianity.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some of these stories were just fine, if a bit melodramatic. Some are downright confusing. Some are kind of icky. None are engrossing or all that deep.

[Eva Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

really insightful looks into the ways religion can play out in the lives of queer people that isn't just entirely based in "religion bad"