FUCK YEAH! THEOLOGY

signsandwonders:

On Saturday my (Catholic) church had a cabaret to raise money for the restoration of the building. It was as ridiculous and campy as I expected. There was a sensual male-on-male dance, an almost naked belly dancer, a drag queen, a duet by a grossly-in-love newlywed couple, and culminated with the priests and staff doing a song and dance from the Chorus Line, except they wore construction hats and changed the lyrics to be about donating money.

My church is awesome. It is completely welcoming of everyone. There is a huge gay population, and it even officially sponsors a group to go on the Pride parade. On All Saints day, one of the priests gave a homily on the sexual orientation of saints. It is also an accessible congregation and there are a lot of disabled people. And a lot of misfits. The whole church kind of reminds me of this parable. Because of its welcoming spirit it is the busiest church in New York I’ve ever been to (besides the cathedral)- people come from all over the 5 boroughs and beyond. The pews are full and there are many active groups and volunteer missions.

Anyway, the director of the cabaret was a man with a mohawk covered in tattoos, with tattoos on his scalp too. He’s also in the choir and other church groups. I decided to google him and his artist statement says, “In my spiritual evolution I have rejected all organized religion.” I thought, huh? Why would he choose a Catholic church to be where he spends all his time?!

Then I thought about the 2nd-to-last sentence of Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness. “We have all known the long loneliness, and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”

Ten points to Gryffindor! I mean… *cough* your church. From what you’ve said it sounds pretty cool and God knows cool churches are in low supply lately.