DREADCLARITY: On Being 'Faithful' Rather Than 'Conservative', On 'Gay' Per Se

[UPDATE] Norman Mailer est mort. R.I.P.

[UPDATE] New York Times memoir: homosexuality, Catholicism, family and seeing the 'naked heathen' as a potential 'convert'.

:: Huh? ::

Many DREADNOUGHTERS have queried the labels 'gay', 'Catholic' and 'conservative' in 'gay, Catholic, conservative'. Feedback seems to be divided between those who think DREADNOUGHT is no conservative and those who think I am an ultra-conservative and so on. It might help to know that DREADNOUGHT has always found the 'gay' and 'conservative' labels clunky. They don't accurately describe who I am and what I'm doing.

:: On Being 'Gay' ::

First, that g-word.*

DREADNOUGHT continues to use 'gay' in the site title and sidebar because it is, for good or ill, the term commonly used to denote men who are same sex attracted. Such am I. This last description is, however, DREADNOUGHT's label of choice.

Why? Because, in line with a more robust account of human sexuality, it picks out attraction. It does not either denote or imply any particular activity, political affiliation, posture, etc. This account is half in line with what Gore Vidal said on the matter:

"There was no vocabulary otherwise. Homosexual and heterosexual are nouns that I would not use myself, it's true. Nor would [Kinsey], when he was thinking. These are not semiological signs to a state of being. They aren't saying anything at all. Except, you know, 'I prefer rice to potatoes.' What great news that is. Tell it and gasp."

Certainly, Catholic teaching is clear about the difference between an unwilled attraction and a willed act.

Merely being attracted to another man is not sinful. Sons are attracted, after all, to their fathers and there is wide scope for same-sex friendships, relationships and unions of various sorts.

Rather, sodomising your mate, or otherwise engaging in homogenital acts is sinful. Attractions to homogenital acts, then, are what is disordered. Homogenital acts are - if they follow on from unwilled attractions - the only thing that is wrong with same sex attraction. Short of that sort of attraction and activity, however, same sex attraction is - from the moral agent's perspective - generally morally neutral.

In the wide sweep of human affection, interaction and desire, then, 'gay' just doesn't pick out these differences. Certainly, it is a much less nuanced term in the political sphere. 'Gay' too often still means 'homoactivism', even though most same sex attracted men reject the claims made by those few homoactivists who still attempt to arrogate legitimacy under false pretences.

:: On Being 'Conservative' ::

If DREADNOUGHT is a conservative, I am of the sort described by G. K. Chesterton. That is, I am also his sort of 'progressive' (reform-minded), even a 'radical'. For, with reference to 'progress' Chesteron wrote:

"We need not debate about the mere words evolution or progress: personally I prefer to call it reform. For reform implies form. It implies that we are trying to shape the world in a particular image; to make it something that we see already in our minds. Evolution is a metaphor from mere automatic unrolling. Progress is a metaphor from merely walking along a road--very likely the wrong road. But reform is a metaphor for reasonable and determined men: it means that we see a certain thing out of shape and we mean to put it into shape. And we know what shape."

and on being a 'radical' argued that:

"The great and grave changes in our political civilization all belonged to the early nineteenth century, not to the later. They belonged to the black and white epoch when men believed fixedly in Toryism, in Protestantism, in Calvinism, in Reform, and not unfrequently in Revolution. And whatever each man believed in he hammered at steadily, without scepticism: and there was a time when the Established Church might have fallen, and the House of Lords nearly fell. It was because Radicals were wise enough to be constant and consistent; it was because Radicals were wise enough to be Conservative."

These passages accurately describe DREADNOUGHT's approach to the world. My conservatism is not mere conservation. This ideal informs my posture in any political debate. It demands an openness, an independence that is not best described by purely partisan understandings of the ideas, and movements that currently group under the banner 'conservative'. DREADNOUGHT is no man's Myrmidon.

:: On Being 'Catholic' ::

Finally, DREADNOUGHT is sometimes called an 'ultra-orthodox Catholic'. This queer epithet usually only appears in the 'gay' press and on some homoactivist sites. Assuming it is used in good faith, it is still, of course, tautologous.

For a Catholic is, indeed must be, orthodox. If he is not, then he is either mistaken (i.e., wrong about what it is to be a 'Catholic') or else fooling himself about the same (i.e., persisting in wilful error). Newman's Firmly I Believe and Truly provides a neat summation of what it is to be a Catholic. The creeds are the first place to check. They are the start and finish of adherence to Catholicism. Adding an 'ultra' to the mix can only, I'm afraid, ascribe to DREADNOUGHT a zeal that is not always mine to claim. If only I were as solid as that 'ultra' implies.

:: The Upshot ::

I've changed the title, then, from 'conservative' to the more hopeful, and accurate, 'faithful'. As many DREADNOUGHTERS will know, I also use same sex attracted or 'SSA' in the body of my posts, columns, articles, etc. I will continue to use 'Catholic', and pray that I may live up to the designation.

:: Resources ::

- Read G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy for free online;

- John A. Hardon S. J. Archives.

* (This post was suggested by an excellent email from a DREADNOUGHTER at the University of Toronto).