How About A Homophile Monastery?

by

James Alexander

History affords the stories of many ventures into voluntary segregation with happy and beneficial results both for the venturers and for the societies in which they operated. The origin of the Judeo-Christian culture that still persists in the West is found in a divine call to one man and his family to leave his people and go into a land apart. From this sprang "the peculiar people" of God, whose cardinal obligation was to dissociate from neighboring tribes. Peter exhorted his followers to be strangers and pilgrims among the peoples of "this world." St. Augustine saw the Christian people living together in a "City of God" that was set apart from purely mundane society. Many took this literally and withdrew to live in deserts as hermits. By the time of the Middle Ages, this cleavage had hardened into a choice, and (in contrast with today's prevailing opinion) at that time heterosexual marriage did not claim

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to be the ideal of every Christian, and anyone could decide he was "called" to a life nobler than that of the married state and could enter into a "more perfect" celibate society.

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These considerations should help a conscientious homosexual to happy conclusions and, possibly, goals for action. The discovery that he is not fitted for the life of marriage and parenthood should not make one feel like a hitherto unheard of monstrosity. Since time began, millions have decided against marriage and parenthood and have been held in honor and reverence.

Mere negation, of course, did not win this honor and reverence. It was their positive decision to embrace a "more perfect" way of life. Each homosexual who is imbued with orthodox Christian belief must consider the possibility that he has been providentially suited for entry into

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