Review of Beyond Gay by Caroline Chisholm Library Newsletter

by Paul Gray

Beyond Gay by David Morrison is an autobiographical book which charts the spiritual growth of the author, a formerly active homosexual man and opponent of Christianity who is now a Catholic convert and promoter of chastity.

Beyond Gay is a very intelligent book which charts the stages of the author's spiritual growth. He describes how, for a period of years during which he was a self-described "gay activist" and critic of Christians who opposed homosexuality, he continuously felt a sense of spiritual emptiness.

Closely related to this was the feeling that while he and many of his friends based their lives around being homosexual, this was in fact too narrow a basis for living a fully human life. Put simply, Morrison began to feel that there was much more to life than sex, but within the confines of the homosexual sub-culture he had adopted as a young man, he had a growing feeling that he was missing out on much of the rest.

A long struggle with the issue of whether his sex life was against God's will began after a gay friend suggested he should try prayer as a way of combating the emptiness he felt. A further turning point came when he chanced on the writings of martyred German Christian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Morrison felt moved and challenged by Bonhoeffer's distinction between cheap grace and costly grace: "Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares," Bonhoeffer wrote. "The sacraments, the forgiveness of sins, and the consolations of religious are thrown away at cut prices.
Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits."

By contrast, wrote Bonhoeffer, costly grace is "the treasure hidden in the field, for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out eye which causes him to stumble ...

"Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ."

Bonhoeffer's writings resonated deeply with Morrison, and helped him to embrace Christianity. After seeking baptism into an Anglican communion, he continued living as a gay man, seeking guidance and support from a Christian movement which aimed to encourage homosexual people in their relationships without challenging them to live chastely. This attempt at accommodation between his active homosexuality and his newfound faith proved a source of further spiritual tension.

However, developing friendships with new Anglican friends who were not homosexual also proved liberating for the author, enhancing his growing confidence that there was indeed more to life than sex. In this way, social experience complemented his growing interior conviction that Biblical injunctions against homosexuality had to be taken seriously.

David Morrison embraced chastity before he embraced Catholicism. In a moving passage, he relates how he told his living partner that he loved him but no longer wanted to have sex with him. This led to a year-long series of conversations around the theme "if we're not having sex, what do we mean to
each other?" In the end, Morrison writes, "in a graced moment, we concluded that we experienced so much of life together that our relationship meant far more than merely what happened in the bedroom." From then on, despite the absence of a sexual relationship, Morrison and his friend "remain very close friends, akin to brothers."

After moving on from Christian circles which were promoting what he regarded as an unsustainable accommodation between practising Christianity and countenancing homosexual activity, Morrison embraced Catholicism.

Particularly important here was the Church's teaching on the need to use one's sexuality in a way that is open to fertility and new life. The Church's insight, much developed in the writings of Pope John Paul II, that the essential unity of life and love is nothing less than a reflection of the life-giving and self-giving love of God within the Trinity, proved ultimately irresistible to the author.

One essential strength of Beyond Gay is that it does not read as polemical, though it strongly defends the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is a personal book, and all the more convincing for it.

Particularly effective, for a book which enters the difficult pastoral area of care of the homosexual person, is Morrison's insight that the teachings of the Catholic Church are descriptive, not prescriptive. In a cultural climate which constantly emphasises the alleged unreasonableness of Catholic teachings on sexuality, it is arresting to encounter an author who argues that these teachings are in fact not an exercise in co-ercive control over individuals by a powerful human institution but rather, that they represent a liberating education for life based on mystical insights into the nature of love.

One of the most important liberations on Morrison's spiritual journey was finding the Catholic sacrament of Penance. His belief that through individual Penance and absolution, sins can be left behind in a unique way, has clearly been of enormous benefit to him in later years. His comments on
this sacrament project an image of a Church which, despite the sinfulness and at times the shortsightedness of its human members, is ultimately a place of compassion and rest for the weary soul.

Morrison goes to great lengths considering and then rebutting the arguments often levelled against the Church over terms like "intrinsic evil" and the "disorder" of homosexual orientation. With the rise in activist public protest against the Church over homosexuality in recent years, these arguments make highly topical reading.

They are also pastorally important. In fact, it is hard to imagine a more useful book to give to any person today who is struggling with the issue, either personally or in a family context. It's usefulness comes in large measure from the fact it is written at all times in a rational and intelligent way, with no rancour or emotionalism evident.

For those who are not directly touched by homosexuality, the book is also valuable and timely because of the light it sheds on the nature of sexuality -- an issue of importance to all adult human beings, regardless of orientation or marital status. It is a book which underlines the continuing relevance of Catholic wisdom on sexuality, in an age when even Catholics fail to understand this.