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EBookClubs

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Book In the Closet of the Vatican

Download or read book In the Closet of the Vatican written by Frederic Martel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times Bestseller - Revised and Expanded "[An] earth-shaking exposé of clerical corruption" - National Catholic Reporter The arrival of Frédéric Martel's In the Closet of the Vatican, published worldwide in eight languages, sent shockwaves through the religious and secular world. The book's revelations of clericalism, hypocrisy, cover-ups and widespread homosexuality in the highest echelons of the Vatican provoked questions that the most senior Vatican officials--and the Pope himself--were forced to act upon; it would go on to become a New York Times bestseller. Now, almost a year after the book's first publication, Frédéric Martel reflects in a new foreword on the effect the book has had and the events that have come to light since it was first released. In the Closet of the Vatican describes the double lives of priests--including the cardinals living with their young "assistants" in luxurious apartments whilst professing humility and chastity--the cover-up of numerous cases of sexual abuse; sinister scheming in the Vatican; political conspiracy overseas in Argentina and Chile, and the resignation of Benedict XVI. From his unique position as a respected journalist with uninhibited access to some of the Vatican's most influential people and private spaces, Martel presents a shattering account of a system rotten to its very core.

Book God and the Gay Christian

Download or read book God and the Gay Christian written by Matthew Vines and published by Convergent. This book was released on 2014 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reinterpretations of key Bible texts related to sexual orientation, written by a Harvard student, present an accessible case for a modern Christian conservative acceptance of sexual diversity.

Book The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church  1968

Download or read book The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 1968 written by United Methodist Church (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Face to Face

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jeffrey Heskins
  • Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
  • Release : 2006
  • ISBN : 9780802863034
  • Pages : 214 pages

Download or read book Face to Face written by Jeffrey Heskins and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the word of God," Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said. While a lot of ink is spilled debating the place of homosexual Christians in the life of the church, few people take Bonhoeffer's advice. In "Face to Face" Jeffrey Heskins takes a step back from heated rhetoric to listen to Christians who are committed both to ordained ministry in the Anglican Church and to a life of holiness with a partner of the same sex. As Heskins invites these couples to tell their stories and reflects on their experiences, he raises difficult questions: What does it mean to live a "holy life"? Should the pattern for "holy living" be any different for gay and lesbian couples in ministry than for others? Based on more than thirty hours of recorded interviews with couples all across England, this volume heeds Bonhoeffer's words, producing a refreshing instance of Christian hospitality -- listening to brothers and sisters before presuming to speak God's word to them. While "Face to Face" will not end the controversy, these human voices will speak to both sides of this explosive debate. "In trying to lead a holy life, I think that we are responsible for trying to see the effect that it has on others, even beyond the relationship. It is very easy to think about the two of us, but if a life together is lived in holiness, it has enormous impact on those around you." -- Female priest with partner 3 years "When I first met her, I was really angry with God and I found God's maleness and the patriarchy of the church all too much. I stopped going to church. It was my partner who helped me heal from all those open wounds, and if I hadn't healed from them, then I don't think that I could have found God again." -- Female priest with partner 13 years "Where there is love there is God . . . so while living a life of Christian holiness may be difficult to quantify, those who want to make pronouncements or recommendations on what constitutes holy living really do need to go and see people's lives in action. It's the meeting face to face that really is transforming of opinions and attitudes." -- Male priest with partner 32 years

Book Confessions of a Gay Priest

Download or read book Confessions of a Gay Priest written by Tom Rastrelli and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Rastrelli is a survivor of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse who then became a priest in the early days of the Catholic Church’s ongoing scandals. Confessions of a Gay Priest divulges the clandestine inner workings of the seminary, providing an intimate and unapologetic look into the psychosexual and spiritual dynamics of celibacy and lays bare the “formation” system that perpetuates the cycle of abuse and cover-up that continues today. Under the guidance of a charismatic college campus minister, Rastrelli sought to reconcile his homosexuality and childhood sexual abuse. When he felt called to the priesthood, Rastrelli began the process of “priestly discernment.” Priests welcomed him into a confusing clerical culture where public displays of piety, celibacy, and homophobia masked a closeted underworld in which elder priests preyed upon young recruits. From there he ventured deeper into the seminary system seeking healing, hoping to help others, and striving not to live a double life. Trained to treat sexuality like an addiction, he and his brother seminarians lived in a world of cliques, competition, self-loathing, alcohol, hidden crushes, and closeted sex. Ultimately, the “formation” intended to make Rastrelli a compliant priest helped to liberate him.

Book Gay and Catholic

    Book Details:
  • Author : Eve Tushnet
  • Publisher : Ave Maria Press
  • Release : 2014-10-20
  • ISBN : 1594715432
  • Pages : 224 pages

Download or read book Gay and Catholic written by Eve Tushnet and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2014-10-20 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a 2015 Catholic Press Award: Gender Issues Category (First Place). In this first book from an openly lesbian and celibate Catholic, widely published writer and blogger Eve Tushnet recounts her spiritual and intellectual journey from liberal atheism to faithful Catholicism and shows how gay Catholics can love and be loved while adhering to Church teaching. Eve Tushnet was among the unlikeliest of converts. The only child of two atheist academics, Tushnet was a typical Yale undergraduate until the day she went out to poke fun at a gathering of philosophical debaters, who happened also to be Catholic. Instead of enjoying mocking what she termed the “zoo animals,” she found herself engaged in intellectual conversation with them and, in a move that surprised even her, she soon converted to Catholicism. Already self-identifying as a lesbian, Tushnet searched for a third way in the seeming two-option system available to gay Catholics: reject Church teaching on homosexuality or reject the truth of your sexuality. Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith is the fruit of Tushnet’s searching: what she learned in studying Christian history and theology and her articulation of how gay Catholics can pour their love and need for connection into friendships, community, service, and artistic creation.

Book Witness

    Book Details:
  • Author : Dann Hazel
  • Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
  • Release : 2000-01-01
  • ISBN : 9780664257873
  • Pages : 160 pages

Download or read book Witness written by Dann Hazel and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on interviews with gay and lesbian clergy, Dann Hazel constructs a mosaic depicting the ministry of gays and lesbians across the denominational spectrum. He poignantly describes the personal challenges these clergy face in their efforts to do constructive work in theology in order to build faith communities where gay men and lesbians can flourish spiritually.

Book Hidden Voices

    Book Details:
  • Author : Gary M. Meier
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2013-05-06
  • ISBN : 9781484106792
  • Pages : 140 pages

Download or read book Hidden Voices written by Gary M. Meier and published by . This book was released on 2013-05-06 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is written to give voice to the thousands of voices in the Catholic Church that feel the way I do and to give hope, albeit just a little, to those who struggle with the Catholic Church's stance on homosexulity. What follows are some of my reflections on what it means to negotiate life as a gay priest in the Catholic Church, to struggle with self and hierarchy, and to move from silence and shame to hope and forgiveness.

Book Messy Grace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Caleb Kaltenbach
  • Publisher : WaterBrook
  • Release : 2015-10-20
  • ISBN : 1601427379
  • Pages : 226 pages

Download or read book Messy Grace written by Caleb Kaltenbach and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, grace gets messy. Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by LGBT parents, marched in gay pride parades as a youngster, and experienced firsthand the hatred and bitterness of some Christians toward his family. But then Caleb surprised everyone, including himself, by becoming a Christian…and a pastor. Very few issues in Christianity are as divisive as the acceptance of the LGBT community in the church. As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy. “Messy Grace is an important contribution to the conversation about sexual identity for churches and leaders. Caleb's story is surprising and unique, and he weaves it together compellingly. He states his views clearly, leaves room for disagreement, and champions love no matter where you are in this conversation.” —Jud Wilhite, Sr. Pastor, Central Christian Church

Book Life in Paradox

Download or read book Life in Paradox written by Paul Edward Murray and published by Christian Alternative. This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: States that no issue divides the Christian community more than homosexuality. This book looks at life on both sides of the liberal/conservative divide that crosses through church and society alike.

Book Queer Clergy

    Book Details:
  • Author : R. W. Holmen
  • Publisher : The Pilgrim Press
  • Release : 2014-01-15
  • ISBN : 0829820019
  • Pages : 338 pages

Download or read book Queer Clergy written by R. W. Holmen and published by The Pilgrim Press. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attorney, historian, and novelist R. W. Holmen brings a unique voice to the conversation of gay clergy in the pulpits. "Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism" provides a detailed history of the ways in which the following denominations have dealt with the issue of ordaining gay clergy: United Church of Christ; Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; United Methodist Church; and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) It provides an important historical reference for continuing dialogue.

Book A Letter to My Congregation  Second Edition

Download or read book A Letter to My Congregation Second Edition written by Ken Wilson and published by Read the Spirit Books. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A breakthrough work coming from the heart of evangelical Christianity,” writes theologian David Gushee. “Wilson shows how God has led him on a journey toward a rethinking of what the fully authoritative and inspired Bible ought to be taken to mean in the life of the church today.” “This book … will shape what the church becomes,” writes anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann. “One of the most exquisite, painful, candid, brilliant pieces … that I have ever seen,” writes Christian author Phyllis Tickle. The second edition contains expanded material.

Book God Believes in Love

Download or read book God Believes in Love written by Gene Robinson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the IX Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected to the episcopate and the world’s leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage—a groundbreaking book that persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage using a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument. Robinson holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred and the ensuing two millennia of church history to be relevant to the discussion. He is equally familiar with the secular and political debate about gay marriage going on in America today, and is someone for whom same-sex marriage is a personal issue; Robinson was married to a woman for fourteen years and is a father of two children and has been married to a man for the last four years of a twenty-five-year relationship. Robinson has a knack for taking complex and controversial issues and addressing them in plain direct language, without using polemics or ideology, putting forth his argument for gay marriage, and bringing together sacred and secular points of view.

Book Confessions of a Gay Priest

Download or read book Confessions of a Gay Priest written by Tom Rastrelli and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Rastrelli is a survivor of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse who then became a priest in the early days of the Catholic Church’s ongoing scandals. Confessions of a Gay Priest divulges the clandestine inner workings of the seminary, providing an intimate and unapologetic look into the psychosexual and spiritual dynamics of celibacy and lays bare the “formation” system that perpetuates the cycle of abuse and cover-up that continues today. Under the guidance of a charismatic college campus minister, Rastrelli sought to reconcile his homosexuality and childhood sexual abuse. When he felt called to the priesthood, Rastrelli began the process of “priestly discernment.” Priests welcomed him into a confusing clerical culture where public displays of piety, celibacy, and homophobia masked a closeted underworld in which elder priests preyed upon young recruits. From there he ventured deeper into the seminary system seeking healing, hoping to help others, and striving not to live a double life. Trained to treat sexuality like an addiction, he and his brother seminarians lived in a world of cliques, competition, self-loathing, alcohol, hidden crushes, and closeted sex. Ultimately, the “formation” intended to make Rastrelli a compliant priest helped to liberate him.

Book Chosen

    Book Details:
  • Author : Elizabeth Stuart
  • Publisher : Geoffrey Chapman Publishers
  • Release : 1993
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 136 pages

Download or read book Chosen written by Elizabeth Stuart and published by Geoffrey Chapman Publishers. This book was released on 1993 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There have always been gay priests in the Church, but attitude to them and understanding of their situation have varied over the centuries. This book will move many readers and scandalize others. In it, British Roman Catholic priests and seminarians who also happen to be homosexual share thoughts, feelings and experiences about being a gay man in a Church which condemns homosexuality as "disordered." We learn about their attitudes to their sexuality and Church teaching; their struggles with celibacy and how they survived; their time at seminary and how they integrate their sexuality and their vocation. The stories, told under altered names to ensure that the men will be safe from reproach, cry out for the Catholic Church to face up to the reality of the live and ministry of gay priests. The book offers guidelines for the training and pastoral care needed by such men in the future to help them continue to function as healthy and effective priests"--Page 4 of cover.

Book Messy Grace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Caleb Kaltenbach
  • Publisher : WaterBrook
  • Release : 2015-10-20
  • ISBN : 1601427360
  • Pages : 226 pages

Download or read book Messy Grace written by Caleb Kaltenbach and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, grace gets messy. Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by LGBT parents, marched in gay pride parades as a youngster, and experienced firsthand the hatred and bitterness of some Christians toward his family. But then Caleb surprised everyone, including himself, by becoming a Christian…and a pastor. Very few issues in Christianity are as divisive as the acceptance of the LGBT community in the church. As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy. “Messy Grace is an important contribution to the conversation about sexual identity for churches and leaders. Caleb's story is surprising and unique, and he weaves it together compellingly. He states his views clearly, leaves room for disagreement, and champions love no matter where you are in this conversation.” —Jud Wilhite, Sr. Pastor, Central Christian Church

Book Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct

Download or read book Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct written by Donald Boisvert and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Why did it take 30 years for American bishops to listen to the victims of Catholic clerical abuse?” Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct: Breaking the Silence is a compelling indictment of Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality and sexuality. Inspired by The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism, Mark Jordan’s controversial examination of homoeroticism in American Catholic culture, this groundbreaking book examines how the current crisis of clerical abuse affects and stigmatizes gay priests living in a climate of hysteria and condemnation. The book’s contributors, an eclectic mix of scholars and clerics, question whether the church can survive centuries of secrets and scandals. In the wake of very real concerns about a possible inquisition launched by the Catholic Church against its gay members, Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct continues the efforts of the Gay Men’s Issues in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion to honor the work of Mark Jordan, who contributes his thoughts on the issues raised by the book. A panel of former Jesuits, a former seminarian with the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, a Dominican, a Franciscan, and several feminist authors present different perspectives on gay priests, clerical/ecclesial misogyny, games of power and abuse, and religious scapegoating, writing with eloquence and pain, a great deal of pride, and a touch of justifiable divine righteousness. Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct includes:“Celibate Men, Ambivalent Saints, and Games of Desire”, “A Call to Liberation of Gay Catholic Clergy”, “Speaking Loud or Shutting Up: The Homosexual-type Problem”, “Those Troubling Gay Priests”, “Catholicism and a Crisis of Intimate Relations” and much more! Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct: Breaking the Silence is an invaluable resource for academics, members of the clergy, seminarians, chaplains and counselors, and anyone interested in homosexuality and religion.