Even were we to be free of every homophobe at this moment, we would have years of work to do to remove the institutionalized ways in which we are oppressed into thinking more lowly of ourselves than we ought to think. I have gone to bed restless and bitter, aware that some bishop has just conned me into thinking that he had honored my people merely by taking the time to speak unctuously and ill-informed against us. But I must report, I have not found enough of such persons to give much hope at all, surely not enough for the jobs that must be done. I believe that our real liberation comes only as one by one we tap this spiritual energy and then take seriously the commission to tell others about its unconditional availability. I believe that God is calling Integrity to this kind of ministry.
Integrity is a prerequisite for health and for strength.
Our sexuality is but one of many parts of our own wholeness, but it is a part that we Gay people are systematically taught to deny, detest, or otherwise abuse. I believe that until one has experienced the joy of divine presence in loving sexual union, that person has been deprived of one of the most fulfilling revelations of God. Maybe some Gay people ought to stay in Pharaoh's house, at least until they discover the energies our tribe is going to need in the wilderness. Each will know in her own time. As I watch us timidly, meekly, coming together in the very place where we have been outcasts for almost two millennia, I am sensitive to the reality that our very presence here is just cause for hope in the hearts of many of our Gay sisters and brothers who could not possibly, at this time, make the step of being with us.