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| John McDargh |
The Heights reports today that Boston College theology professor John McDargh delivered a talk on campus in which he told attendees why he “never felt like same s@x attraction is unnatural.” The report says the talk titled “Boundary Crossing and the Journey of Faith: A Personal Account” was given as part of Boston College’s ”Agape Latte” series. We checked out the “Agape Latte” page on the College website and found that it is cosponsored by Campus Ministry. The Heights article recounts Professor McDargh’s comments on his homosexuality and why he left the Catholic Church. Here’s more from the article:
At Harvard, he said he learned what it felt like to “be on the margin.” He fell in love with his costar in a theater group, a man named Michael. Though he is hom@sexual, McDargh said he never felt ostracized from religion.
“The reason I never felt like same s@x attraction is unnatural is because when I met Michael, I felt like a duck in the Sahara, who had suddenly been brought to the Mediterranean, and said, ‘Oh, that’s what webbed feet are for,’” he said. At Harvard, McDargh met his partner of 30 years and expanded his knowledge of different views of God by occasionally attending Evangelist masses.
He was offered a job at Boston College in 1979, where he has worked since. It was during the 1980s that McDargh said he faced one of his greatest “zags” in life. For the GLBTQ community, that time was marked by the AIDS epidemic. “It was a time where at mass when you were ask to remember the dead you couldn’t get through it all,” he said. “I had buried more people and attended the death of more people then I ever thought I would.”
It was in the midst of this turmoil that he eventually broke from the Catholic Church, when the healing liturgies in his church aimed at helping people with AIDS was canceled by his pastor. “I think it was not because the pastor wanted it to be, because he was told to,” he said.
“After that, I couldn’t go there anymore. You have to find a place where you are welcome, that challenges and supports you. You need to find the community where you can live and the community where you can die.” He is now Episcopalian.
Link (here) to the Cardinal Newman Society to read the full post.
10 comments:
Why is this apostate teaching theology at a Catholic university? Oh, my mistake... it's a Jesuit university.
I sent my kid to a $50,000 a year Jesuit University and all I got was this lousy teacher.
You have to find a place where YOU are welcome, that challenges and supports YOU. You need to find the community where YOU can live and the community where YOU can die.”
No mention of God. I couln't help but think that the wages of sin is death...Homosexulaity is not life giving . It destoys and is by its nature selfish. YOU YOU YOU....
Mother Newe posted this at her blog @ Abbey of St. Walburga. It seems appropro:
"Sin alone shrivels up life and withholds abundance. When we are full of sin, we turn in on ourselves and shrivel up; but when we flow with grace it’s abundant and so are we. You bear fruit in abundance when you’re in God".
Maria, above:
"No mention of God."
"selfish"
From the same article Maria quoted:
'I believe that the God that we know is a God that has a particular interest and care for all of those who find ourselves marginal,' McDargh said. 'I would guess that that is everyone in our room to a certain degree and some to a larger degree. . . . Our goat [referring to icon of Christ, pictured in the original article] has a shepherd, and our shepherd has a flock, and we are it guys.'
. . . "No mention of God"? "selfish"?
Choosing to be sterile and committing adultery seems to be what John McDargh describes as his duck.
I would prefer that Prof. McDargh were not teaching at a Jesuit University.
He should be reflecting Catholic values. And while those values accept non-traditional marriage and embrace those who adopt that lifestyle, God prefers traditional marriage. Those values should be communicated, even if traditional marriage should someday no longer exist. I have no problem with his views being expressed at a Catholic University, but God’s perspective should be given greater emphasis.
His personal stories undermine this message. And his message fundamentally undermines that which God would prefer. Accepting alternate lifestyles is not the same as actively encouraging them and justifying them.
We need people who are not judgmental toward non-traditional marriage, but can still understand the obligation to communicate that which was communicated from a perspective of omniscience. We do not need to claim understanding beyond that. For all we know, traditional marriage may lead to more unhappiness, while non-traditional marriage may lead to fewer lessons for our souls. We should be more humble about things that we don’t fully understand.
"No mention of God. I couln't help but think that the wages of sin is death...Homosexulaity is not life giving . It destoys and is by its nature selfish. YOU YOU YOU...."
Maria -- I know PLENTY of gay priests who talk about God. I don't find them particularly selfish, either. What they are are hypocrites to the core.
Sounds like the guy is in a loving relationship--that's great actually/
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