Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, September 8, 2007


Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend and to talk about adults
without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a
window without glass.

- Grace Metalious, author, (“Peyton Place”) ,
born on this day, 1924

You’ve heard about kids reading by flashlight under the covers. Right? I only did that once; did you ever do it? I don’t remember what age I was. But I read “Peyton Place” under the covers. Whoa! Terrific. Why? Because Grace had written a book that I was reading at a time when I was blossoming into a human being, including sexuality. Well, it wasn’t about my sexuality, but it was about the reality of sexuality - and I was thrilled! Have you ever heard about Grace Metalious since “Peyton Place”? I don’t think she ever wrote anything else that was “famous”. She didn’t need to. She exposed the soft underbelly of America - the hypocrisy that our roots in American Puritanism led us to ….. and in which we still live. It is a cultural core that has twisted and tortured and made us liars. Therefore, she is one of my heroes; she forced us to look at the Truth.

Think about it. Countless “religious Christian” Americans rail piously against sexuality – and yet support and maintain a culture that feeds off of sexuality. Why? Because we have never dealt with it - and so it dominates us. Our icons are Tammy Fay Baker. Pious Christian – but a mascara-laden sex queen, Marilyn Munroe, Steve McQueen, Dr. Kildare..

The Bible is full of sexuality. Most people turn a blind eye - how absurd. “Human” and “sexuality” are inextricably bonded. To deny that is to condemn ourselves to a life of lies. But, America is committed tyo a life of lies, on many levels.

Church people - even Episcopalians! - hate it when their clergy talk about sexuality. Good Lord, I became an Episcopalian because I thought “they” were the best hope of honesty! What a disappointment this has been throughout the years. Episcopalians are just as willing as anyone to cower in falsehood.

Friends: Christ is about Truth. And there is no other foundation for Truth than Love. And vice versa.

If you can’t face the truth about what it is to be Human, there is NO salvation.

Be sexy. That’s the road to Freedom.

Brian+