Monasticism and boylove
Submitted by Forgiven on June 25 2000 07:28:24
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No guys, I'm not suggesting that monasticism was a cover for boy lovers..... At the heart of monasticism is the individual's search for God - thus the word 'Monk', reflecting the call of the individual to seek for God for themselves. That is the primary call of the monk - and one which overides any call to be 'more active in the community' - a tension that was completely overlooked in that overwise wonderful Whoopi Goldberg film 'Sister Act'. And it is one that overides the desire to build relationships with the others in the monastic community. This is the origin of the concern of 'Novice Masters' at the development of 'Special Relationships' between members of the community - because such relationships can divert the person's energy from the pursuit of God to affection for the other; of course it is easy to assume that the issue is fear of a gay relationship, and that is a element, but it is not the crucial point. The relationship that the monk finds with God is, or should be, his primary relationship. It is fulfilling and primary in his life, in the same way as that of a man and a woman should be in marriage. (Great thoery, very hard work in practice.....) The issue for us boylovers is the degree to which we are 1) Called to make God our primary relationship in the same way 2) In danger of allowing our relationship with our YF to become the primary relationship that it should not be. So - I'm setting up an overly idealised paradigm here - but it may help us to think through a few issues! |
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