Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet and theologian who oversees Corrymeela, a peace and reconciliation organization in Ireland with “fifty years of experience working alongside fractured communities and groups who are finding their relationships difficult.” He is also a gay man who worked for the evangelical organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for 15 years.
Pádraig realized he was gay as a young boy going through puberty. It was something he kept secret for fear of how people would react. When he eventually disclosed his sexual orientation, he was advised to undergo exorcism and reparative therapy. In his memoir In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World he writes:
“I searched for answers about why I might be gay. There were books on shelves in church shops about the causes and cures of homosexuality and I lied when friends asked me what books I was reading. I abandoned fiction and poetry for a few years until it felt like my faith abandoned me and I clawed my way back to words using the only thing that worked: fiction and poetry and the love of language. There, I discovered something more true than the halftruths I’d stung myself with.”
Pádraig often heard cruel remarks about LGBT people from fellow Christians–even from loved ones who did not yet know he was gay. But despite the pain he has experienced, he works in the field of reconciliation, participating in such events as the Irish Peace Centres’ conference that brought together faith leaders and LGBT advocates.
In an interview with Krista Tippett, Pádraig said, “[W]e are failed by headlines that just demonize the other and are lazy. And where I might read a headline about myself and go, ‘I don’t recognize myself in the language that’s being spoken about there,’ we are failed by that. But we are upheld by something that has a quality of deep virtues of kindness, of goodness, of curiosity, and the jostle and enjoyment of saying, ‘Yeah, we disagree.’ But that curates something, and in a psychological context, contains something that actually is a vessel of deep safety and community.”
At times, the church’s response to LGBT people has made it hard to maintain faith, but Pádraig remains a Christian. When someone asked why, he replied: “I could answer that I’m a Christian because I grew up loving my faith, and praying. I could answer that I’m a Christian because when I began hearing that gay people were going to hell, it was to God I turned . . . I’m a Christian because I love Jesus. I have been excluded from Christian organizations, intimidated from streets where I lived, uninvited from friendship and professional circles, and made to feel ignorable because, as a gay man, my words were deemed to be automatically dismissible. But, I have never felt that the gospel treated me that way.”
Pádraig’s faith no doubt influences his relationship with his partner as well: “I love my partner. My love for him is about putting him first, about the shared love we have for our friends and family, about getting through bad weeks at work, about having arguments, about making up after arguments, about thinking, ‘I should be more loving.’ This is what active homosexuality looks like.”
To learn more about Pádraig and his work, see his website. You can also hear him recite his poem “Travelling Light” in this video (words here).