Customer Reviews

Courage to Love: A Gay Priest Stands Up for His Beliefs

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I just finished reading "Courage To Love" for the SECOND time (not bad, considering that I only purchased my copy a week ago!), and I have been enthusiastically recommending it to gay and straight friends of all denominations on discussion boards all over the Internet. This is truly a love story. Not only in the "traditional" sense (though it is that too...the love between Leckie and Stopfel comes through loud and clear on every page), but also in a much broader sense. The love of two men for their God and their faith, the love of the Christian people who rallied around them, the love of God for ALL His children...it's all there, beautifully written in a style that makes all the players come alive for the reader. No longer are "Stopfel," "Leckie," "Righter" and "Spong" mere names on a piece of paper...they are real people with real emotions and strong convictions. This is also truly a book about courage...courage that goes beyond even the incredible courage it takes simply to live as an openly gay person in today's society. The stakes for all the players were unbelievably high...loss of love, loss of personal security, loss of faith, loss of power and position. I think that anyone who thinks he or she is alone in the struggle against prejudice and fear would draw strength from Stopfel and Leckie's story. Most of all, however, this is a book about integrity. Despite the seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, Stopfel refused to repudiate either his calling or his being. At any time, he could have left Leckie, or claimed to be celibate, and his ordination would have proceeded without comment. At any time, he could have denied his calling to the priesthood and fallen back on a fairly lucrative career. At any time, Spong and Righter could have done the safe thing and washed their hands of the whole "issue." Instead, all involved found that the need to be true to their convictions outweighed the need to "play it safe." Mostly, this is a book about rights...not civil rights, but God's rights. Specifically, it is about God's right to call whom He will...his right to love and employ all his children despite the box in which society would like to confine Him. As I said, I have recommended this book highly to a lot of people...but mostly to straight people who are still struggling, in spite of themselves, with issues of homophobia. It is hard to read this book and maintain an "us-and-them" sort of dichotomy. The overwhelming message is, all people love and are loved. All people are, when all is said and done, simply people. And God, who made us all, loves us all.