In this companion volume to his critically acclaimed, Lambda Literary Award-winning book, Gay Spirituality, Toby Johnson further explicates his visionary stance that gay people's nature as outsiders gives them a uniquely powerful perspective on the nature of God and religion. By living outside gender norms, gay people are more open to seeing across boundaries of gender and gain access to a less dualistic outlook on the nature of life. Once again, Johnson approaches this potentially controversial subject matter with erudition, empathy and visionary speculation and gives meaning to gay consciousness beyond superficial issues of sexual behavior.
Julian Rush is a United Methodist minister who served churches in Dallas, Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs for 17 years until his suppressed homosexual orientation surfaced. With Julian's acknowledgement of his sexuality, in the early '80s, First United Methodist Church of Boulder decided he was no longer suitable to minister to the congregation and chose to stop paying his salary. Julian's situation with the Boulder church and United Methodism became widely publicized as the denomination continued to grapple with the issue of homosexuality. This is Julian's own record of his struggles with being unacknowledged as a gay child, his religion, family and community both before and after the discovery of his orientation and the reaction of those his life has touched. These include persons who are non-gay but supportive, gays and lesbians who are out, non-supportive persons, and an outpouring of pain and suffering from those closeted people who could not reveal themselves. Through a tortuous journey, Julian continues to discover his niche in communities that can benefit from his ministry. He last served as Executive Director for the Colorado AIDS Project as an appointed United Methodist minister. This is the story of how it all began.
What if you learned that the AIDS virus was the result of bioweapons research gone bad, and that somebody knew and was hiding the truth? What if there's a cure? Could you trust your source of information? Could you trust your own perceptions? Could you act on such information? And what would you do? This is the situation that San Francisco AIDS counsellor Jonathan Stiers finds himself enmeshed in in this wisdom-tinged thriller novel by gay spiritual writer, student of Joseph Campbell and former editor of White Crane Journal Toby Johnson. Originally published in 1987 when AIDS was still a mystery disease, successful treatments had not been developed and spiritual/attitudinal healing¿of soul, if not of body¿was the only hope, this novel, with its explanations of healing and presentation of wisdom from A Course in Miracles and The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, was originally titled Plague: A Novel about Healing. Twenty-five years later, the novel's quandary about the nature of evil and its message of hopeful acceptance and love of life are still relevant, perhaps even more so. The story of the "fourth quill" comes from an Indian tale about a previous incarnation of the Buddha who discovers the "treasure of the ages" and it's not what he'd expected; Johnson retells the tale and derives a meaningful and life-affirming attitude that transcends the specific issues of AIDS in the 1980s. The Fourth Quill recasts the story into a parallel universe with a surprising and happy ending where Jon Stiers really can wonder if he has brought about the cure of AIDS. Woven through the hero/adventure plot is a lovely and heartwarming romance¿with an unexpected twist. A little modern, scientific and sensible and a little mystical, The Fourth Quill exemplifies Toby Johnson's style of dramatizing gay spirit through storytelling and speculative fiction. This is a parallel universe readers will likely remember and come back to.
This book is a serious study of male hustlers using experiential dialogue to introduce the reader to real-life concepts and experiences that otherwise could not be effectively conveyed. An intriguing attempt to get into the mind and personality of the male hustler through a largely imagined series of dialogues between a well-known fictional hustler and his so-called amanuensis, Samuel Steward, this unique book covers all aspects of the hustler’s motivations, activities, life style, adjustments, advantages, and disadvantages. It accomplishes this dispassionately, without prejudgment, moral censure, approbation, or more than cursory involvement. Therapists and counselors in all fields of sexual functioning will find here some understanding of the causes and impulses (beyond the popular “broken home syndrome”) that lead young males into prostitution. It signals some of the signposts to danger and serious threats to health that accompany the profession of prostitution and also explains to counselors some of the activities and practices of the male prostitute, enabling them to have a better understanding of the fascination and peril of the hustler’s life. The brevity of success in such a calling is also considered, with some consideration for the necessity of long-range planning for the hustler’s future. Important contents: interview of a well-known hustler brief look at early male prostitution--Greek, Roman, Burton’s theory the peacock period and youth as a prerequisite for hustling lures of the profession--money, power, other motivations paths and mechanisms leading to hustling characteristics of different types of hustlers types of clients patronizing hustlers literary illuminations the modus operandi of the male hustler extraordinary dangers confronting the male hustler today the attractiveness of the “seeing-through” of a hustler to past clients quo vadis for the hustler after youth passes Readers will be amazed by the daily hazards and drawbacks as well fascinated by the curiosities and rewards of the hustler’s profession. Especially of interest to therapists and counselors, Understanding the Male Hustler is also valuable for sociologists, anthropologists, medical specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists.
OK2BG is narrative nonfiction, a Memoir about a guy who wants to be a Mentor preferably to a teenager, so they can have a decent & meaningful conversation about stuff & preferably with a kid at-risk, or just otherwise lost, in order to help both the teenager as well as the determined subject of this story realize their unique potential & find or reinforce their place in the world. Overall, a chronicle about the author’s attempt over several years to understand the question of ‘why do I want to be a Mentor’ which eventually helps him become a more insightful person. Subsequently in September, 2010 after a plague of teen suicides, Jack turns his attention to researching gay biographies into optimistically appropriate groups of books for gay kids at-risk, from bullying. After 5 years Jack has categorized 2,000+ books in the form of Memoirs, Biographies & Autobiographies written by or about 1,000+ allegedly gay men. The primary message in OK2BG is to read & reassess before you run asunder!
In this award-winning title, Johnson explores how the rise of gay identity--their ability to step outside the conventions of culture and see things from a different point of view--has become an important part of religious development.
This commentary expands Johannine studies in two directions. First, drawing on the methods of literary criticism, it gives new force to a view which is both ancient and modern--that John's gospel, far from being a poorly-edited mixture of sometimes-conflicting traditions, is in fact a coherent unity, an account of Jesus which, however diverse its sources, is a finely-chiselled work of art. Second, it indicates that the unity of John's gospel is founded ultimately not on history or theology but on spirituality. This too corresponds to a view which is both very old--John was always known as the spiritual gospel--and very recent. The present study spells out that idea in new detail. It indicates that the account of Jesus is so written that the tensions and complexities of the text reflect the tensions and complexities of human life, providing the reader not only with an account of Jesus but also with an anthropology--a map of the development of the human spirit.
This is the first book-length study of the rich fiction that has emerged from the AIDS crisis. Examining first the ways in which scientific discourse on AIDS has reflected ideologies of gender and sexuality-such as the construction of AIDS as a disease of gay men, part of a battle over masculinity, and thus largely excluding women with AIDS from public attention-the book considers how such discourses have shaped narrative understandings of AIDS. On the one hand, AIDS is seen as an invariably fatal weakening of an individual's bodily defenses, a depiction often used to reconfirm an identification between disease and a weak and vulnerable gayness. On the other hand, AIDS is understood in terms of an epidemic attributable to gay immorality or unnaturalness. The fiction of AIDS depends upon these two narratives, with one major subgenre of AIDS novel presenting narratives of personal illness, decline, and death, and a second focusing on epidemic spread. These novels also question the narrative structures upon which they depend, intervening particularly against the homophobia of those structures, though also sometimes reinforcing it.
First published in 1987, this book encompasses a broad range interdisciplinary research into homosexuality — displaying a full spectrum of points of view — and, given that the major traditions of modern homosexual research began in Europe, is not restricted to works in English.. In general topics that are densely covered in the literature are presented in this guide selectively, with some less studied topics, such as Economics and Music, fleshed out with signposts to more comprehensive research. It seeks to not only mirror existing publications, but also to stimulate new work by pinpointing neglected themes and methods. This book will be of interest to students of sociology.
