The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The price of freedom

For those of you who still manage somehow to believe in a deity, I submit for your consideration a lesson in what it means to be truly courageous.

Father Geoffrey Farrow, a priest at UC/Fresno this past Sunday gave what I am certain will be his last sermon from a Catholic pulpit. In so doing he became my hero.

By proclaiming his sexuality, and his opposition to Proposition 8 in California he effectively resigned the priesthood. I am certain that if it weren't illegal, those fucking hypocrites in the Catholic Church would have him stoned to death in the town square. Personally, I think we should erect a statue in his honor.

This man knows what it means to pay a price for freedom and was willing to do so. The following is a portion of his sermon, and that is followed by a quote from a phone interview he did shortly after.

I am in awe of people who are willing to give that much for another human being. Always will be.


"...Recently, I was speaking with some of our parishioners who advocate for the ordination of women. In the course of our conversation, a question arose which has haunted me: "At what point do you cease to be an agent for healing and growth and become an accomplice of injustice?" By asking all of the pastors of the Diocese of Fresno to promote Catholics to vote "Yes" on Proposition 8, the bishop has placed me in a moral predicament.... In directing the faithful to vote "Yes" on Proposition 8, the California Bishops are not merely entering the political arena, they are ignoring the advances and insights of neurology, psychology and the very statements made by the Church itself that homosexuality is innate (i.e. orientation). In doing this, they are making a statement which has a direct, and damaging, effect on some of the people who may be sitting in the pews next to you today...

How is marriage protected by intimidating gay and lesbian people into loveless and lonely lives? What is accomplished by this? Worse still, is to intimidate a gay or lesbian person into a heterosexual marriage, which is doomed from its inception, and makes two victims instead of one by this hurtful "theology." This "theology," which is parroted by clerics in polished tones from pulpits, produces the very prejudice and hatred in our society which they claim to abhor....

I do not presume to tell you how to vote but I do ask that you pray to the Creator of us all...The act of casting a vote takes you a few minutes but it can cause other human beings untold happiness or sorrow for a lifetime. It can grant them hope and acceptance, or it can cause them to lose civil rights. It can be a rebuff to bigotry and hatred, or it can encourage bigotry and hatred. Personally, I am morally compelled to vote "NO" on Proposition 8. It is my hope that the people of California will join with those others around the world such as Canada, Europe and South Africa who welcome their gay and lesbian family members fully into society by granting them the civil right to marry.

I know these words of truth will cost me dearly. But to withhold them, would be far more costly and I would become an accomplice to a moral evil that strips gay and lesbian people not only of their civil rights but of their human dignity as well. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." He didn't promise that it would be easy or without personal cost to speak that truth."

And in an interview he gave the basis for his courageous decision.

"My grandfather was a Sephardic Jew and he left Spain and went to Cuba. He was never religious in his whole life and in that country, they have state atheism imposed. He started going to synagogue all of a sudden. And then he got into an argument with the police over that and he said, 'This is why we left Europe.' And they took him to the police station, beat the crap out of him and he had a heart attack and died.

My family collected the body and then my parents came this to country with an infant, a toddler, two suitcases, $20 and started a whole new life.

I remember being a kid in grammar school and going to mom and saying, 'How come we don't have grandparents? Everyone else in the 4th grade has grandparents.' And she was preparing dinner and she stopped what she was doing, she sat me down at the kitchen table and said, 'Honey, you have grandparents. But we had to leave everyone behind because your father and I wanted you kids to be free.'

I can't betray that. And I know the reason a lot of people aren't speaking out is for fear. But it just takes one or two people to crack that nut and then things start to change. And it's worth it."

Father Farrow, I bow to your valor, and to your honor.