Life, Love, Freedom:
One Pride, One Struggle
By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 2009
Speech delivered during Baguio City’s Queer Pride Mass.

"But in sex positive theology, as succinctly explained by the famous theologian, Fr. Norman Pittenger, all sex is good – if it is not harmful or forceful.  That replaces the sex negative approach all sex is bad that is not open to reproduction of children. Then when condoms were discovered to be an effective prevention of transmitting the HIV virus, the church still clung to its “no condoms” teaching. You and I know that a couple with six kids  whom they can’t afford to feed or send to school would  be sinful not to use condoms to prevent more starving kids." Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.

At one point in my life, as Assistant Director of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in Ohio, I had occasion to go to civic groups and colleges to present films of  pro football’s Super Bowl games for interested audiences.

Little did I ever dream that later in my life I would be going to television shows, universities and civil society groups in the Philippines to speak on sex-positive thinking.

Then, I spoke as a sports enthusiast. Today I work as a psychologist and priest to bring peace, hope, and salvation to hundreds, perhaps thousands who have been immersed in moral slavery. Think about it. Slavery – moral slavery. More about that later.

In ministry with LGBT people, the work of the priest and psychologist merge. This is because a big challenge of  the priest and psychologist is to counteract the ill effect of moral slavery. This is done by changing from the binding chains of sex-negative thinking to the liberating light of sex-positive thinking.

Years ago, in my abnormal psychology class in undergraduate school, the professor introduced the subject by informing us that most people are in mental hospitals because of sex or religion or both.

In our work in the LGBT community, we see a lot of people adversely affected by the combination of religion and sexuality.  Because of the type “religi0n” teachings they have been subjected to, many  people have a warped reaction to sexuality. Not being able to handle this kind of interpretation of religion and sexuality,  they often get all twisted up psychologically.

A powerful example of this is seen in the effect of Bagong Pagasa, Exodus and those groups which try to use religion to  change people from homosexual to heterosexual. They use religious threat; some call it religious torture; others call it religious brainwashing. It just does not work. I have seen in three countries where I have worked that it does not work.

All too often this method leads to suicide or extreme confusion about  what is religion and what is sexuality, and how do religion and sexuality intersect in  real life? The frustration results from a false confusing picture about what is religion, and what is  sexuality.  The founders of Exodus recognized this several years ago in a speech at MCC General Conference and apologized to the world for all the suicides and messed up lives they had caused. This is documented on internet in the following words
In 1979, Exodus International's co-founder Michael Bussee and his partner Gary Cooper quit the group and held a life commitment (wedding) ceremony together and …made a public apology for their roles in Exodus.[8]

They had tried to use religious threats and persuasions to change LGBT to straight. In the long run, that’s why we have to deal with both religion and sexuality in this matter.  That’s why for nineteen years we have celebrated an annual Queer Pride Mass in the Philippines.

The bottom line is that religion and sex do not merely intersect.

For those who choose to have religion, a healthy life integrates religion and sexuality. For them, a healthy life makes religion and sex compatible, working together for a fulfilled life here and perfectly OK for the goal of heaven. 

Even for those who choose to not practice a religion,  a healthy life must be liberated from the ill effects of moral slavery upon a person’s life. And, to be sure, the life of every LGBT person I have ever met has been negatively impacted by false ideas of how religion and sex interact in life.

Let’s look at a few concrete examples of this phenomenon. The phenomenon is  the way moral slavery can take control over my life, over the normal natural existence of sexuality in my life; and of course it comes from the sex-negative teachings of churches.

This, then, was what led the pioneering work of Rev. Troy Perry to give  the world MCC in 1968, one year before the Stonewall riots.  In his heart Troy knew it was time for people to come  out of moral slavery to the promised land of God’s unfailing and unconditional love.

Let’s look at the first example of moral slavery: many young people are nearly driven crazy by church teachings that masturbation is a very nasty shameful sin.

They want to hear what religion is saying, but their very nature, their very psychological being, and what we now know as their very normal self tells them: if masturbation is sinful and ugly and shameful, why do I find it so irresistible,  so much a part of the needs of my personhood at this time in my life.

That dilemma pulls them in two directions – with no help from religion. For straight guys, it may seem less shameful to make a baby out of sexual “need” than to masturbate.

That’s when they need somebody who can help them integrate religion and sexuality in their life.  Great thinkers, theologians, priests, professors, doctors have led the way in explaining a sex-positive approach to life. Rev. Troy Perry,  Fr. Norman Pittenger, Fr. John McNeill and dozens of others have shown us the way.

The whole LGBT world has a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Rev. Troy Perry who had brought the Love of God for Gays and Lesbians out of the closet by founding MCC a year before Stonewall. I had the great privilege of working directly with Rev. Perry for many years, in his office, in his churches. 

I have been able to take the books, the thinking, the teachings of Rev. Perry, Fr. Pittenger, Fr. McNeill, and develop a sex-positive approach to lead victims of moral slavery  in the Philippines out of these chains of shame and frustration.

There is no justification in the Bible for condemning masturbation.  This condemnation, this requirement for Catholics to admit masturbation in the confessional has caused inestimable harm, not only to self esteem, but to the very spiritual and mental health of countless millions of its victims.   In short masturbation is a harmless, normal,  human function.

Another moral slavery has to do with condoms. It all stems from the very negative view that sex is “bad” unless it is  to produce children. The Catholic teaching is that sex is bad unless it is  open to the reproduction of children. Of course, condoms would prevent that. Therefore condoms are forbidden, even to prevent AIDS.

But in sex positive theology, as succinctly explained by the famous theologian, Fr. Norman Pittenger, all sex is good – if it is not harmful or forceful.  That replaces the sex negative approach all sex is bad that is not open to reproduction of children. Then when condoms were discovered to be an effective prevention of transmitting the HIV virus, the church still clung to its “no condoms” teaching. You and I know that a couple with six kids  whom they can’t afford to feed or send to school would  be sinful not to use condoms to prevent more starving kids. They would be much better off, morally, spiritually, physically, financially, logically if they would use condoms, and surely God would want that. But wait a minute: the church says, “No problem, just solve it all with ‘no sex.’”  That is indeed sex negative and indeed abnormal for anybody, but especially for a married couple, living and sleeping together.

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