Personally, I have always thought gays make better spiritual leaders and advisers than straights. I think it's because as gays we are social outcasts to a degree and even when in the closet we have to give much more thought and soul searching to issues of religious belief (or nonbelief) . In any event, it is interesting to learn that a former pillar of the Episcopal Church was in fact gay. I suspect that Bishop Moore found himself following the expected path just as I did and that like me, at some point he just could not keep doing it. Being older than me and from an even more conservative generation, I suspect he felt he could never come out. Hence the boyfriend on the side. The full story will be in next week's New Yorker. For the time being, here are somee highlights from the New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/02282008/gossip/pagesix/bishops_secret_life_exposed_99575.htm):Episcopalians are reeling from the news in this week's New Yorker that the late Bishop Paul Moore - the 6-foot-5 patrician whose political activism drove many parishioners from the church - was a closeted homosexual who had a gay lover for the last 30 years of his life. While the Episcopal Church has embraced gays and ordained lesbian priests, Moore's secret life came as a shock. Moore - who made the cover of Newsweek in 1972, when he took over the Archdiocese of New York - died in May 2003.
His daughter, Honor Moore, the eldest of nine children he had with his first wife, Jenny McKean, writes that six months after his death, "the telephone rang. [The caller] had a confident voice. Andrew Verver (as I'll call him) was the only person in my father's will whose name was unfamiliar." When Honor asked "Verver," who had traveled with Moore to the Greek island of Patmos the summer before, about her father's sexual life, he replied, "I was his sexual life," and, "Of course, there were other men." Then, Honor describes bringing "Verver" on a touching visit to Moore's grave in Connecticut.
3 comments:
Well good for him! I think it's great that he had a partner (albeit a secret one) for that much of his life.
How heartbreaking for his wife to have lived with a man who cheated on her and had numerous affairs through out their marrage.
Annonymous,
I very much agree that it is heartbreaking that his wife was put through what she experienced. I can at least say that I never had numerous affairs while married and was honest with my wife early on when I reached a point of admitting to myself that I was gay.
However, by the same token, I do understand how Moore found himself in the situation of being married to a woman and yet gay. Sadly, as long as many in society, the Christian Right elements in particular, continue to demonize and make every effort to marginalize gays, there will be more men and women who will be unable to admit to themselves the truth about their sexual orientation and ultimately find themselves like Moore - trying to be what they are not. Most will fail and/or suffer a needlessly tormented life.
Post a Comment