My End-of-the-Year Review (2024)

Some of What I Wrote This Past Year

Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

Hello y’all, I am late again in offering you an end-of-the-year review of this Substack, but better late than never! I like to think posts like these are not only helpful in filling in some of the lacunae in what subscribers have read from me, but also give people a sense of what can be expected of me. They are also helpful if any of you beloved subscribers wish to share my work with friends (or enemies!) you think would enjoy it (or hate-read it!). So…

Sermons/Biblical Reflections

I have had the pleasure of taking a couple preaching courses over the past year at my theological institute, and many of the sermons I wrote for those classes found their way here as well. I will only point out a couple favorites: this one meant to help young children reflect on Jesus as the Good Shepherd and a Eucharistic reflection on the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

In a similar vein, I also wrote reflections on the life of Hagar (in four parts here) and reflections for each week of Advent (in four parts here).

Liner Notes

Over the past many years, I have developed a habit of crafting lyrics and melodies in spare moments on the commute; these have helped me process (and understand? and tame?) the Big Feelings to which I am prone. This year, I wrote up some liner notes on two of those sets of lyrics: “glitter” (a sort of love letter to, and apologetic for, the gay nightclub—in three parts) and “revisions” (which I wrote about the heartbreak experienced by a close friend of mine—in two parts). I suspect there will be more of these liner notes to come, but while we are on the subject: I have about fifty or so sets of lyrics on my phone just waiting to be brought to musical life. Any of y’all wanna help with that, or know someone who would? Tips? Ideas? Let me know!

Interviews

I thought I would try my hand at some interviews this year, and I started off with a couple of the most interesting people I know. I was honored to have been able to interview Eve Tushnet (author, blogger, and co-founder of Building Catholic Futures) and Natalie Grace (mother, veteran, and peace advocate—this interview was so rich it had to come in two parts). The interview with Eve was about her work with Building Catholic Futures, an organization I really believe in. You can learn more about it here.

LGBTQ+ Christian Issues

This year I shared notes from two speaking engagements, one about the redemption of the time spent in the closet from a retreat for LGBTQ+ Christians years ago, and one for leaders of a local campus ministry on how to care for LGBTQ+ folks who may come out to them. A couple pieces ended up forming a breakout session I gave at the past Revoice conference, titled “Imagining Our Lives: Metaphors for Christian LGBTQ+/SSA Experience,” including this piece on the metaphor of yeast (a subscriber favorite!).

As a counterpoint to these more structured pieces, my “Snapshots of a Celibate Gay Christian Life” offered little vignettes of what my life looks like as a celibate gay Christian (three parts so far). My goal is not to provide a model of living, but just to start a more honest and vulnerable conversation about what Side B lives in the real world actually look like. We need that!

Another series came from my reading of The Stonewall Reader. As I read first hand accounts from the decades immediately before and after the Stonewall Riots, I was struck by some of the lessons learned that might be applicable to LGBTQ+ Christians (and in particular, the Side B community). Four pieces were inspired by selections from four pioneering individuals: Ernestine Eckstein, Audre Lorde, Samuel R. Delany, and Craig Rodwell. Some of these reflections have become components of a breakout session I hope to give at the upcoming QCF Conference (January 22nd-26th) titled, “What Hath Stonewall to Do with Jerusalem?” Please pray for me in preparing for and leading that breakout session! I hope to share more about it in the future.

A Side B Collective

You might be aware that I am a part of a writing collective with a few other Side B folks called A Side B Collective. A few of my pieces have appeared over there this year, and if I am honest, they are some of the pieces of which I am most proud. They include an extended allegory on navigating sexual identity language, a piece exploring conceptual models of disability and how they relate to LGBTQ+ experience, a reflection on the “savior complex” in pastoral ministry through the lens of the account of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus, and my rationale for preferring the word “celibacy” to “singleness” in describing the state of life flowing from my sexual ethics.

Miscellaneous

My reflection on a more solid base for interfaith dialogue (that God is being itself rather than a being) turned out to be a favorite post for subscribers!

Studying at a Dominican theological institute with brothers in formation and trying to live my own gay life in the real world prompted this piece on the spirituality of being weird and the spirituality of being normal.

I shared two of my most vivid dreams over the past several years, and offered tentative interpretations of them (I named the posts after two tarot cards whose imagery seemed related, the blasted tower and the nine of swords).

I also penned a fairly snarky checklist of things to do and say if you really want to get people around you to idolize marriage and sexuality.

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Thanks again to subscribers old and new for joining me here! It really is a special blessing to have a space to share from my heart and mind, and a community with which to engage. I have no idea what this year will bring, but we’re in this together. If you have any suggestions for pieces you would like to see, or writing or music or movies you think would interest me, suggest in the comment section; and if you know of a person or platform who would be interested in my work, please share it with them!