![\"Gay](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/225\/2014\/11\/Gay-and-Catholic.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere\u2019s the thing about Eve Tushnet<\/a> \u2014 she\u2019s Catholic through and through, in a way that I only long (and sometimes pretend) to be.<\/p>\n When I read her posts about sublimation <\/a>and obedience<\/a>, I am equal parts inspired and ashamed. I\u2019m inspired because she\u2019s taken her faith and woven a life of such beauty with it that it seems transcendent, otherworldy \u2014 saintly, even. I\u2019m ashamed because her cross is so much heavier to bear than mine is, yet she bears hers unflinchingly, with joy and gratitude. Most days I have trouble even picking mine up without blaming everyone around me for the weight of it.<\/p>\n The book she has written is a raw, wonderful distillation of her character. It\u2019s beautiful, compassionate, honest, generous, humble, and unerringly faithful. It\u2019s a book that our culture desperately needs \u2014 and no, not so that us straight people can understand and love the gays<\/em> better, or so that gay people can learn how to be gay without being, you know, gay \u2014 <\/em>but because the virtue of obedience is lacking everywhere. On the left and on the right, at the Novus Ordo Mass and at the Tridentine Mass, at the National Catholic Reporter and at Rorate Caeli. We are all of us rebelling against something, and Eve\u2019s book stands in stark contrast to all of our self-important squabbling.<\/p>\n When the book was released I wrote a review of it on Amazon. This is what I said, then:<\/p>\n \u201cThere are few treasures of the Church more beautiful and more forgotten than its theory and practice of friendship. It seems every generation of queer Catholics must rediscover this neglected legacy and be startled by it: the \u2018wedded brothers\u2019 buried together in English cemeteries, the vows of kinship taken by friends in the Eastern Church, the intimacy and wry, practical wisdom of St. Aelred\u2019s Dialogues.\u201d<\/p>\n That is how Eve Tushnet opens the seventh chapter of Gay and Catholic, titled \u201cFriendship in Theology and History.\u201d That\u2019s also the part where my jaw hit the ground and stayed there. Her book is packed with brilliant insight and fascinating memoir, but her ruminations on spiritual friendship put her book above and beyond what the title suggests. Far from being a niche book for a niche market, this is a book for everyone, gay or straight, Catholic or non-religious. If you are a human being living on earth and have contact with other human beings, then you need to read this book, particularly the sections on friendship \u2014 a type of relationship that has deteriorated rapidly in Western culture. Eve Tushnet goes a long way toward reminding us of the depth and and importance of same-sex friendship, especially for gay people.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that the rest of the book isn\u2019t good \u2014 the rest of the book is pretty spectacular, actually. Her retelling of her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood is self-aware, honest, and unflinching. And despite the fact that I come from a vastly different background and am living a very different vocation, I was surprised to find that her writing about living a vocation was hands-down the best thing I\u2019ve ever read on the subject. It was practical, honest, mercifully unflowery, and full of things I needed to hear. The question-and-answer section in the back is like those secret tracks that used to be at the end of cd\u2019s\u2026just when you think all the good stuff is over and wishing it didn\u2019t have to end, surprise! I was particularly impressed by her thoughts about attending gay weddings.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something worth highlighting on virtually every page of this book, and I\u2019ve been recommending it to everyone I know since I read it. My own copy is heavily marked up and starred, and I have no doubt it will get more so every time I open it. This is not a one-time read\u2026.it\u2019s a book to return to again and again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s all true, but after re-reading it, I just don\u2019t think it goes far enough. Eve is a gift to Christianity. In a time when we\u2019re ready to claw each others\u2019 eyes out over marriage, we\u2019re suddenly faced with a gay (!!) celibate (!!!) liberalish (!!!!!!) female (!!!!!!!!!!!!) Catholic (!@#%@#@!!!) writer who speaks truth, in actual<\/em> love. She doesn\u2019t flinch from the hard teachings, but she also never forgets that these are human beings who have to live these teachings. Most importantly, though, she doesn\u2019t tell anyone what to do or how to do it\u2026she uses her own life as a rough draft for her readers to build on, thereby showing us what faith is instead of admonishing us to have it.<\/p>\n This is not merely a book for those who are gay and Catholic\u2026this is a book for anyone who wants to understand what it is to follow Christ.<\/p>\n Read an excerpt of <\/em>Gay and Catholic at the Patheos Book Club<\/a>, then buy it from<\/em> Amazon <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Other reviews: <\/em><\/p>\n The Anchoress, \u201cGay and Catholic: A Vital Book for Our Time\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Aggie Catholics, \u201cA Call to Extravagant Love\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Tom Zampino, \u201cCan You be Both Gay and Catholic?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Will Duquette, \u201cThe Pole of Attraction\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n Jennifer Fitz, \u201cWhat\u2019s Not to Love?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n