Sex and The Sacred: Gay Identity and Spiritual Growth, by Daniel A. Helminiak (Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 2006), 235pp.

                Daniel Helminiak’s project in his 2006 collection of previously published essays, Sex and the Sacred: Gay Identity and Spiritual Growth, is a naked act of reclamation.  Helminiak, a Catholic priest, professor of psychology and longtime member of the gay Catholic group Dignity, sets his sights on terms like “spirituality”, “Christianity”, and “natural law,” and wrests them from those who would use them to oppress gay people.  He provides a cogent re-description of these and related terms in an effort to draw gays and lesbians back to the Eucharistic table.  Helminiak’s manner is gentle and affirming: he knows that he is preaching to a GLBT audience of the wounded, who regard religious concepts with wariness at best and an understandable outright hostility in many cases.  Heroically, he barely acknowledge Sisyphusian nature of his project; he says one thing that brings GLBT spiritual beings close; religious authorities say something new and hurtful that drives them away all over again.

                Because he starts from Ground Zero (literally: many of these essays invoke 9/11), some of Helminiak’s statements and conclusions are so obvious as to be banal.  But patience with these initial assertions pays off: they are building blocks to more ambitious arguments.

Helminiak begins by … [remainder of the review at http://sincemylastconfessionnews.blogspot.com/2008/05/sex-and-sacred.html

Tags: book review, books, sacrament, sacred, sex