{"id":891,"date":"1992-07-07T18:18:25","date_gmt":"1992-07-07T23:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=891"},"modified":"2012-07-07T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T23:30:47","slug":"coming-out-within-stages-of-spiritual-awakening-for-lesbians-and-gay-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/coming-out-within-stages-of-spiritual-awakening-for-lesbians-and-gay-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally\u00a0published in\u00a0Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men – The Journey from Loss to Transformation. By Craig O’Neill and Kathleen Ritter. Harper Collins, 1992. $10.00. (ISBN 0-06-250706-0)<\/a><\/p>\n

Not since John Fortunato’s Embracing the Exile has\u00a0there been such a moving and touching work on the pain\u00a0and loss which is ever present in the lesbian and gay\u00a0community. This collection of personal vignettes manages\u00a0to bring the reader in touch with how truly universal loss\u00a0is. The essential theme of this work is that through our\u00a0acceptance of loss in life, which O’Neill and Ritter\u00a0compare to the bearing of the cross by Jesus, we can as\u00a0spiritual beings, transform that loss into something\u00a0wonderful and new. By “integrating” loss within our lives,\u00a0O’Neill and Ritter state that gays and lesbians can then\u00a0move on and “reformulate” their lives and a new realistic\u00a0and meaningful image.<\/p>\n

Most remarkable in this work is the author’s\u00a0compassionate final chapter which embraces all people in\u00a0that it seems to paraphrase 1 Josh by saying “God is love,\u00a0and any relationship that reflects love reflects the source\u00a0of love.” In what seems to be a truly inspired work, one\u00a0statement stands tall:
\n… Regardless of how God is understood or defined, the goodness\u00a0and providence of a supreme being is reflected in the gay and\u00a0lesbian soul. God has knit gay men and lesbians out of the fiber\u00a0of her or his being and as such, their sexual orientation reflects\u00a0the image and likeness of the living God …<\/em><\/p>\n

How ironic that after the publication of this work,\u00a0O’Neill’s Catholic hierarchy has sought once again to do\u00a0“violence” to the gay and lesbian community by rendering\u00a0a loss to the Catholic community of one of its most\u00a0compassionate priests. One can only quote O’Neill and\u00a0Ritter in saying, “God has created lesbian and gay people,\u00a0and to do violence to them heaps contempt on their\u00a0Creator.”<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Charles Whitlow<\/strong>
\nAT& T Tax Librarian
\nMorristown, New Jersey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally\u00a0published in\u00a0Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992. Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men – The Journey from Loss to Transformation. By […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,46,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}