Review of "Father Joe"

Andrew Sullivan reviews a new spiritual memoir by Tony Hendra in this piece (registration required) for The New York Times. Here's a short excerpt: Father Joe elaborates to Tony: ''Sex is a wonderful gift, a physical way to express the most powerful force in all existence -- love. Sex is a brilliant idea of God's, I think. Almost like a sacrament.''

''Sex is a sacrament?''

''D-d-don't tell the Abbot!''

''There's no sin in having sex?''

''Yes yes yes. There can be. But sex is a sin less often than we're led to believe. It's all a question of context. If you have sex to hurt or exploit another, or to take pleasure only for me, me, me, and not return as much or more to your lover . . . then it becomes sinful. . . . They've made sexual sins the worst sins of the lot, haven't they? Because sex is so powerful, people are fearful of it! We must take the fear out of sex as well.''

Sullivan concludes his review with this advice: "If you are a Catholic who feels, as I have, more estranged from his faith than ever; if you are simply a person longing to live a deeper, more meaningful life; then I beg you to read this book..."

Update: For more, see this commentary at GetReligion.

Comments

[Ben]

Actually, I think it was galatians 6 that elevated sexual sin as a sin against the person, inside his body -- Paul made it a point to seperated sexual sin from all other sins.

Context is a good point. But that quote paints a picture too wide -- God makes the issue very clear.

[mike]

Are you going to read the book, Ben? ---or at leat the wholw review.

[Brian McNaught]

I have a new book which I know will interest your readers. It's called "Sex Camp" and a press release follows. To geta review copy, please write to pressreleases@authorhouse.com. Thank you. Brian McNaught
PRESS RELEASE
January 28, 2005
Contact: Ron Robin (info@robinteo.com)

“SEX CAMP” GIVES FUN, NEW PERSPECTIVE
TO PUBLIC DEBATE ON “MORAL VALUES”

“…searing honesty…for those among us who are courageous and radically open.”
Bishop John Shelby Spong

In his cutting-edge new book “Sex Camp,” Brian McNaught brings together a delightful assortment of strangers who struggle with their feelings and values, and at times with each other, during a legendary, intensive, weeklong workshop on sexuality. Promised that in seven days they would know more about sex than ninety percent of the population, the thirty-two participants leave for home at the end of the week with a lot more than they planned on taking.
“Sex Camp” is a lighthearted fictional story based on the very real Annual Workshop on Sexuality, the nationally-renowned training that has been held for nearly thirty years at an Episcopal Church-owned retreat facility in upstate New York. Led by a Baptist theologian and sexologist, and five others considered to be among the best sexuality educators in the country, the workshop is affectionately called “Sex Camp” by participants and staff alike. This exciting program is the setting for a fun, moving, informative, honest, and topical book about sexual values, body image, sexual orientation, gender identity, intimacy, abuse, lifestyles, aging, disability, and sexual decision-making.
A nun, an “ex-gay” man, and a cross-dressing heterosexual church organist arrive in Cazenovia, NY, on a hot Saturday in July and there meet a “queer” activist, a homophobic Planned Parenthood educator, a hunky straight man in a wheelchair, two football coaches, and a half a dozen ministers, among others. In the next few days, under the watchful guidance of the staff, these fictionalized characters, all based on the stories of real life participants, identify for themselves and the others the five events in their lives that have most impacted their sexuality.
Brian McNaught, a staff member at “Sex Camp” and the author of this highly-anticipated book, is a certified sexuality educator who has spent thirty years educating the public about gay and transgender issues. He works in both corporations and universities as a trainer and has written four previous books on homosexuality, including “On Being Gay,” “Gay Issues in the Workplace,” and “Now That I’m Out, What Do I Do?” He’s also been featured in five educational videos, three of which have aired regularly on PBS affiliates. The New York Times referred to McNaught as “the godfather of gay sensitivity training.”
Episcopal Bishop and author John Shelby Spong commends this book to “the courageous and radically open.” He says McNaught “ventures into places where most people fear to tread. His searing honesty combines with an overt ability to pose issues about human sexuality that desperately need to be faced.”
“Sex Camp” is published by Author House and can be purchased on line at www.authorhouse.com, and at all bookstores and Internet bookselling sites.