Rev. Peter Gomes, Noted Gay Theologian and Voice for GLBT Acceptance, Dead at 68

The Rev. Peter Gomes was a rare mixture of things: a gay African American man of the cloth who was until just a few years ago a registered Republican. He was also a voice for acceptance of GLBT people, and an advocate for the reconciliation of faith and gays, the Boston Globe reported on March 1.

Gomes was the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University's Divinity School, and Pusey Minister at the university's interdenominational Memorial Church. He was also a Boston native who graduated from Harvard Divinity School before launching his own storied career as a Baptist minister, theologian, and writer.

The Globe recounted how, in 1991, after the appearance of an anti-gay article in a conservative student publication, Gomes publicly announced that was himself gay--a stunning revelation coming from a religious authority who had delivered the benediction at the second inauguration of President Reagan and given a sermon when Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, was inaugurated four years later.

Upon coming out, Gomes stayed out, putting his sexual orientation and his spirituality on equal par. The New York Times, in a March 1 article on Gomes' death, noted, "One can read into the Bible almost any interpretation of morality, he liked to say after coming out, for its passages had been used to defend slavery and the liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral."

Gomes' coming out proved a launching pad for a new ministry, one that found expression with the 1996 publication of his work The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, which offered alternative readings of Scripture rooted not in Biblical literalism, but in compassion and a living, growing understanding of God. It was a theme that Gomes had developed since coming out.

"Religious fundamentalism is dangerous because it cannot accept ambiguity and diversity and is therefore inherently intolerant," a Gomes-authored piece in The New York Times read in 1992. "Such intolerance, in the name of virtue, is ruthless and uses political power to destroy what it cannot convert," recollected the Times.

"I now have an unambiguous vocation--a mission--to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia," the Times article recounted Gomes telling The Washington Post in an interview subsequent to his coming out. "I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the 'religious case' against gays."

Gomes also recalled for the gay press that the Bible is not a single, monolithic work.

"The Bible isn't a single book, it isn't a single historical or philosophical or theological treatise," Gomes said in an interview with The Seattle Gay News the year The Good Book was published. "It has 66 books in it. It is a library." As such, the Bible could accommodate a range of meaning and perspectives.

Gomes himself authored a small library, but he died without having written a book that many may have found of compelling interest: his memoir. The Globe reported that Gomes had spoken of waiting until he retired to pen a memoir, saying at one point, "If you're too candid while you're still in service--well, you can get in a lot of trouble."

Gomes remained a Republican until 2006, when he changed his party affiliation to Democrat in order to back Deval Patrick, the first African American to become governor of Massachusetts.