Strange, eccentric, and saintly

The delightful Eve Tushnet is treated with respect in this NYTimes column:

As the hundred or so daily readers of eve-tushnet.blogspot.com, and a larger audience for her magazine writing, know by now, Ms. Tushnet can seem a paradox: fervently Catholic, proudly gay, happily celibate. She does not see herself as disordered; she does not struggle to be straight, but she insists that her religion forbids her a sex life.

“The sacrifices you want to make aren’t always the only sacrifices God wants,” Ms. Tushnet wrote in a 2007 essay for Commonweal. While gay sex should not be criminalized, she said, gay men and lesbians should abstain. They might instead have passionate friendships, or sublimate their urges into other pursuits. “It turns out I happen to be very good at sublimating,” she says, while acknowledging that that is a lot to ask of others.

Abstinence is one of those deadly words that will not be considered in our generation. Forsaking something comfortable out of reverence for God is ignored by the wider world, not to mention the bulk of us in the pews. Holiness goes against the grain and leads to Calvary, where we find God has already gone.

Perhaps we should pay more attention to her pet topic, the theology of friendships, so that we can become better friends to all we encounter -- whether quirky or mundane, saintly or the "not yet."

Comments

[Biscuitnapper]

Thank you so much for linking to her blog. It's quite a relief to see I'm not the only one whose made a similar choice.

I'm really enjoying reading your blog as well. It's very inspiring!