John McNeil: A Pioneer in Reconciling Christianity & Homosexuality

After I first started attending Believers Covenant Fellowship in late 2004, I embarked on my own study to understand the place of GLBT people. One of the main resources I went to was the writing of John McNeil.


This from a feature in The South Florida Express Gay News:


After fighting in World War II, McNeill went to school and entered the Society of Jesus, a Jesuit order, in 1948. He then undertook a ministry of gay and lesbian Catholics. He became an ordained priest in 1959. McNeill then went on to earn his doctorate in philosophy in 1964.

McNeill started to write a series of articles on religion for his church newsletter. In 1976, they were compiled and published as the book “The Church and the Homosexual.”


“It was the first book by a theologian to challenge religion,” McNeill says. “It was the first book to call gay love good and holy.”


A year after the book was published, McNeill received an order from the Vatican’s “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. The church wanted McNeill to be silent in the media.

“I observed [the order] for nine years,” he explains. “I was hoping the church would change its mind.”


Privately, he still provided ministry to gays and lesbians and led workshops and retreats.


In 1988, he received another order from Cardinal Ratzinger. This one told him to give up all ministry to the gay and lesbian community.


McNeill refused.


John McNeil rejected the authority of the Catholic Church because he had opened his heart to a greater revalation from God.


He set the example GLBT people need to follow, rejecting the authority of churches that have claimed homosexuality by its very nature is a sin. God wants to show his gay and lesbian sons and daughters a greater revalation, but they need the courage to break away and travel on a different path.


That does not have to be done alone. There are others, both straight and gay, who will walk with you, and God is ALWAYS with all of his children.


Thanks to A Christian Voice For LGBT Rights for the tip.