We baptized Peanut recently and it’s gotten me thinking a lot about how to reconcile my beliefs and convictions with those of the Catholic church. I agreed to it for Andrea’s sake, since I’m basically agnostic. It means a lot to him and I don’t see any harm in providing this structure for Peanut until he can decide for himself. There is a lot about Christianity that is really wonderful. It’s just hard to embrace as a staunch LGBT ally and feminist.

A few things have been helping me.

One was Silvio Danti, a gay Italian man whom I interviewed for this story, talking about his profound faith despite the Church’s recent corruption and pedofile scandals.

Another was this article in the Florentine:

…the parish priest of Le Piagge in Florence, Don Alessandro Santoro, made headlines when he stated in an interview with the magazine Panorama that he allows same-sex couples in his parish to participate in pre-marital courses together with heterosexual couples. Don Santoro is well known for his acceptance of homosexuals in his parish, contrary to the rulings of the Catholic church. On October 25, 2009, after he married a same-sex couple in the church of Le Piagge, he was removed from the parish for six months.

There was also this article about an Early Christian icon that appears to depict a homosexual couple:

Contrary to myth, Christianity’s concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has constantly evolved as a concept and ritual.

Prof. John Boswell, the late Chairman of Yale University’s history department, discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient Christian church liturgical documents, there were also ceremonies called the “Office of Same-Sex Union” (10th and 11th century), and the “Order for Uniting Two Men” (11th and 12th century).

And now Glennon Melton at Momastery:

I think Jesus would come back as a poor, black, gay teenage girl.

You rock Glennon.

I wrote this post for gay children and adults, just as one more piece of evidence that the tide is turning, and that there are Christians who believe Jesus loves them just as they are. And that these desperate, hate and fear filled folks who always seem to make it to the evening news, are the last, desperate gasps of a dying era. I believe wholeheartedly that soon, very soon, homophobia will be understood to be about as Christian as racism.

I sincerely hope you’re right.