Bryce

The Second Semester

Chapter 2 - Conversations

            It was early January, and a new semester was about to begin at the University of Clifton.  But let’s not rush things.  Let’s take a little time to catch up with friends before plunging into the academic work of classes and research papers.  Four friends sat around a table in a quiet corner of the University Center, sipping coffee or cokes, just passing the time.  They were, in fact, feeling very superior, as they had all completed registration for the spring semester months ago, not being involved in the rat race which those who procrastinated, or those who were new this semester, were going through at the moment.

            “So,” Mike Sandoval asked his friend Bryce Winslow, “are we going to see you in another English Lit class this term?”

            “Oh, sure,” Bryce replied.  “English is my minor, so I’ll be around quite a bit.  I’m taking the Johnson course from Dr. Etheridge.  Do you know anything about him?”

            “Way I hear it, he’s a lot like Dr. Drake.  Knows his stuff.  No nonsense.  Not going to be your best buddy,” Mike replied.

            “Suits me.  I can find my own friends.  What I want in a teacher is someone who knows the material and is fair.  And, of course, if he or she is interesting in the classroom, that’s a definite plus,” Bryce stated.

            “Don’t know about that,” Mike said.  “I haven’t had him for anything yet.  I guess both of us will find out this semester, but from what I hear, he’s not a very dynamic person in class.”

            “Oh, well.  Can’t have everything, I guess,” Bryce sighed.

            “I have this person listed as G. Mattingly for English Lit,” Damon Watson said.  “Any idea who that is?”

            “Never heard of him ... or her,” Mike responded.

            “It’s a she, and she’s a TA,” David Simpson informed them.

            “And just how do you know that?” Mike kidded his boyfriend.

            “My sister.  Jenny knows her from some class she took in the English Department,” David replied.

            “And?” Damon insisted.

            “And what?” David kidded, prolonging the agony.

            “And is she any good?” Damon demanded.

            “Good at what?” David insisted on pretending he did not know what Damon wanted to know.

            Damon reached over and placed his hands around David’s neck in a strangle hold.

            “Awk!” David protested, turning to Mike, “are you going to let this big bruiser choke your only boyfriend?”

            “You brought this on yourself,” Mike said with a smile, offering no help.

            “I give up then,” David conceded.  “If Mike’s going to cop out on me, then I have no choice but to reveal this top secret information.”  Damon removed his hands.  “The ‘G’ is for Gloria, and according to the news I have, she is glorious, especially if you’re straight, so forget it, Damon.  Of no interest to any of us.  And,” David said, avoiding Damon’s efforts to encircle his neck once again, “she’s supposed to be pretty good in the classroom.  Makes the literature come alive, and gets everyone involved in discussions.”

            “Finally, some useful information,” Damon sighed.

            “I don’t know,” Mike hesitated.  “That getting everyone involved in discussions bit can go either way.  If everyone does the readings, and the instructor keeps one person from dominating things, it can be great.  But I’ve been in a class where it was a real drag.  Most of the kids did no preparation, and just came in and shot the bull.  One guy was particularly bad, always mouthing off, but I’m pretty certain a good half the time he had not read the material.  Just liked to hear himself talk.  He had an opinion about everything, usually cloned from some talk show, but it was mostly hot air, with nothing to back it up.  And the teacher never seemed to direct the discussion or anything, but just sat there and vegetated as long as everyone kept talking.  I think he was just damned lazy.”

            “Yeah, I had one like that in high school,” Bryce agreed.  “But I’ve had really good ones, too.  Like you said, it can go either way.”

            “I need another coke,” David said.  “Can I get anyone else something while I’m up?”

            “Yeah, get me one, too,” Damon requested, but the others were okay.

            After David was out of earshot, Mike said, “David had a pretty difficult time over the holidays.  If he needs some support, can I count on you guys?”

            “You know it,” Damon immediately assured Mike.

            “Sure.  Not very accepting, huh?” Bryce asked.

            “It’s his mother.  When he told the family about being gay back at Thanksgiving, she went ballistic, and was even worse at Christmas.  The others backed David, so now his mom has moved out, and he feels guilty about that,” Mike told his friends.

            David returned and handed Damon his coke.  Sensing something, he looked at his friends.  “What?”

            “Rough holidays, I hear,” Bryce advanced.

            David gave Mike a hard look.

            Mike pulled David to him and hugged him.  “Look, you need friends.  We’re here for you.  All of us.”

            David sighed.  He looked like he could not decide whether to cry or burst out in anger.  “I guess you’re right.  It’s just ...”

            “... personal, and embarrassing, and painful,” Mike completed the sentence.  “And that’s when you need friends.”

            David sighed again.  “Well, you know I intended to have a long talk with my folks, and introduce them to Mike.  The talking was mostly yelling as far as my mom was concerned.  And we never quite got to the second part of that program. ”

            “No Mike?” Bryce asked.

            “Nope.  I didn’t want to put his life in danger.”

            Damon’s eyes got very wide.

            “Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration,” David conceded, “but it was very unpleasant.  You recall I came out over the Thanksgiving break, and when I didn’t hear much flack after getting back to campus, I thought they were just taking a little time to let the news sink in.  Wrong!  When I got home for the Christmas holidays, it was like walking into an armed camp.  My dad was still at work, so it was my mom and my little brother, Greg, there.  Thank God Jenny was with me.  I just plunked my stuff down and held out my arms to hug Mom, like I always do, but she was standing across the room, arms crossed in front of her, and with a sour look on her face.  I looked at Jenny, then at Greg.  Jenny looked as surprised as I was.  Greg stared at the floor, and wouldn’t look at me.  I started across the room towards Mom.  She put up her hand, like a traffic cop. ‘You just stay right there.  First you tell me whether you’ve given up your sinful way of life.’

            “I kind of knew then that things were going to be tough.  I said something like, ‘Mom, I don’t claim to be perfect, but I don’t think my way of life is any more sinful than most guys my age.’

            “‘Don’t play games with me.  You know what I mean.  Have you given up that disgusting homosexual nonsense you talked about at Thanksgiving or not?’ she said.

            “The way she said the word ‘homosexual’ you’d think it was the equivalent of devil worshiper or baby killer.  I said, ‘Mom, this is just who I am.  It’s not something I chose and it’s not something I can give up.  Do you want me to live a lie?’

            “She said, ‘Well, I guess you’ve been living a lie all along.  When you were thirteen, you said you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, and were saved.  But if you want to live in filth and degradation, you can’t have been telling the truth then.  Once saved, always saved, as Brother Timothy says.  So go ahead, be degenerate, but not around me, and not around your brother.  I expected this.  You’re sleeping in the basement.  I won’t have you corrupting Greg.’

            “‘Mom, I was not lying then, and I’m not lying now.  I still believe in Jesus.  But I don’t think he wants me to act like a hypocrite, pretending to be something I’m not.  That’s what he accused the Pharisees of doing.’

            “Mom marched over to me and slapped me across the face.  ‘Don’t you go blaspheming the Lord,’ she said, and walked out of the room.

            “‘That bitch!’ Jenny said, which made me feel a little better.  Thank goodness I had the support of my sister.  I looked at Greg.  My brother’s just 15.  I didn’t know what to expect from him.  He looked embarrassed.

            “‘Not sharing the room, huh?’ I said.

            “‘Not my decision,’ Greg said.  ‘Why couldn’t you just keep quiet about it?’  Then he turned and scampered down the hall.

            “I looked at Jenny.  She was as angry as I’ve ever seen her. ‘Welcome home!’ she said.  ‘Merry Christmas!’  She picked up her bags, and took off, mumbling, ‘That bitch!’  So, I took my stuff down to the basement, where there’s a couch.  I dumped my things and just sat here.”

            Mike was holding David close, and David was trying his best not to burst into tears.

            “Geez, David, that really sucks.  I mean ... well .... geez, that really sucks,” Bryce inarticulated.

            David almost smiled.  “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Bryce at a loss for words,” he said.  “Anyway, that was the start of my Christmas holidays.  How about you?”

            “Nothing to compare,” Bryce stated.  “My brother Chip sat around looking like a very superior being whose majesty was offended by our presence.  I’m not certain whether it was the fact that I’m gay, or the fact that I have a black lover, or the fact that Damon’s family is not listed in the social register, which offended him most.  And my father’s parents were a bit cool, but then I’ve never seen them really effusive.  Otherwise, all went well.  Evidently you guys convinced my dad when he was here back at the beginning of December.  I can’t say he was overjoyed, but he was accepting of both me and Damon, and Mom and Nan were wonderful.  For most of the break, we ignored Chip and had a fine time.”

            “I’ll say,” Damon added.  “I never had a real Christmas where I grew up, so this was a great experience for me.  I kept thinking I would wake up and find it was just something I read in a story book.  Snow - well, we get plenty of that in Chicago, but this snow was clean.  Snowmen, snowball fights, hot chocolate, decorations in every room, little sprigs of mistletoe in interesting places, where I could catch Bryce when he wasn’t looking.”

            “And where Nan caught you at least twice,” Bryce laughed.

            “Jealous?” Damon asked.

            “Naw.  Watching you was like watching a little kid.  Really heartwarming,” Bryce said, hugging his boyfriend.

            “Don’t get maudlin,” Damon instructed.

            “Oooh, a new word!” Bryce teased.

            Damon hit him from one side, and Mike did from the other.  “Behave yourself!” Mike told his friend.

            “My mom said that a lot over the holidays,” Bryce admitted with a grin.

            “Oh, poor boy,” Mike pretended to commiserate.

            David caught his breath, getting everyone’s attention, not that he was trying for that effect.  His friends saw that he was crying, although he was trying to keep it inconspicuous.  Mike immediately hugged him, pulling him closer.

            “Sorry, guys.  I don’t mean to be a wet blanket,” David apologized.  “It’s just, you know, hearing about Christmas at Bryce’s place, and then thinking about mine ....”

            “Hey, man.  Not your fault,” Damon assured him.

            “So, did they ever let you up out of the basement?” Bryce asked.

            “Oh, yeah.  When my dad got home, I heard him and Jenny talking.  Then I heard him and my mom yelling at each other.  Then Dad came down and talked to me.  He said things had been getting worse and worse ever since Thanksgiving.  Mom was out at that church of hers almost every evening.  She even had Brother Timothy over to the house, to try to convince Dad and Greg that I was corrupt and should not be allowed to come home at all unless I repented.  I mean, I knew Brother Timothy was pretty homophobic, but I never thought it would go this far,” David said with a sigh.

            “It sounds like a real fundamentalist church,” Bryce said.

            “Yeah.  Well, I knew that.  Even back in high school, I knew that most kids thought the church we went to was kind of extreme, but, you know, it didn’t seem to matter all that much.  I mean, the Methodist and the Baptist kids snuck around and took a drink from time to time, and even had sex sometimes, so I figured it was the same with us.  And, of course, I was never allowed to attend church anywhere else, so I thought they were all pretty much the same.”

            “I’ve heard of this idea of ‘once saved always saved’ before.  It’s connected to the idea of predestination, isn’t it?” Bryce asked.

            “Yeah,” David replied.  “According to Brother Timothy, it’s in the Bible, but I’ve checked out some of the verses he cites, and I’m not sure that’s what they mean.”

            “You talked to him about being gay?” Mike asked, obviously surprised.

            “No way!  After that introduction from Mom, and knowing him from the past, I wanted nothing to do with Brother Timothy,” David answered with feeling.  “No, I mean from his sermons back when I was attending church.  Before I came here to the University, we all marched off to church every Sunday and Wednesday like clockwork.  Brother Timothy would get all worked up there in the pulpit.  After the first five minutes or so, he would be shouting, and the congregation would be shouting ‘Amen’ back at him.  By the time he was finished, he would be sweating like he’d put in an eight hour day doing road work in July.  And when he said something, he would then add something like, ‘Leviticus 18:22.'  That’s the one that says it’s an abomination for a male to have sex with another male.  Well, he did that for all kinds of things, and at least half the time, when I got home, and checked the references I could remember against the Bible, the verse he cited didn’t seem to have much, if anything, to do with the point he was supposed to be making.  So, long before I left home, I decided Brother Timothy didn’t know what he was talking about most of the time.  But I could never tell Mom that.  When I asked her about a couple of his citations that didn’t seem to fit, she said I would see the connection if my faith was strong enough.”

            “Seems like we’ve got several issues here,” Bryce said.  “There’s predestination, and there’s this particular version of predestination, and there’s how to read the Bible.”

            “What do you mean?  I always thought you guys just read the Good Book, and it told you what was what,” Damon said.

            “That would fit with what I’m getting from David about his minister, but that’s not the way we Catholics see it,” Bryce said.

            “No?” Damon queried.

            “No,” Mike replied.  “As I understand it, the Bible is the inspired word of God when it comes to who God is, and who we are, and how we are to relate to him and each other, but not for other things, like science and ... and what I guess are local customs.  I don’t know anybody at church who believes the world was created in six days, for example, or that Joshua actually made the sun stand still.  And I mean, nobody pays attention to all the rules in Leviticus and the like, like David quoted.”

            “Explain that,” Damon requested.

            “Yeah.  We’ve gone over it a couple of times, but I’m still not sure I understand your church’s position,” David said.

            Mike and Bryce looked at each other.  “You first,” Bryce said.

            “Okay, it’s something like this.  God inspired the writers of the Bible to the extent that they would tell us what God was like, and what we were like.  God is not just some powerful natural force that has to be appeased, like the pagan gods.  God is the creator of the universe.  He exists outside nature and outside time.  I think the word is ‘transcendent.’  That means he’s so much above or beyond us that we can never fully understand him.  You get that a lot in some of the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah.  So, in a way, we just have to accept him and what he tells us.  There’s a passage that says something like, ‘My ways are not your ways, says the Lord,’ but I don’t remember the actual source.  And we humans are body and soul, material and spiritual, not just another animal, and God loves us even though we don’t deserve it.  But the ancient writers put things in their own words, and in the context of their own times.  The ancient Jews had all kinds of stories and laws and rules.  The reason for all that was to set them apart from everyone else.  God wanted to preserve one people who believed in the true God down until the time he was ready for Christ to enter the world, so they had to be constantly aware that they were different from all the other peoples they came into contact with.  If you read the Old Testament, you see it was hard enough, as the Jews were always falling into the ways of the surrounding pagans, and worshiping all the pagan gods and goddesses.  That’s why, in Old Testament times, they had all those rules about purification, and not eating pork or shellfish, and washing dishes, and not wearing cloth made of linen and woolen and all the rest of that stuff.”

            “That kind of makes sense, but isn’t that still the word of God?” David asked.

            “Well, I don’t think we’re required to accept that all of it is.  I mean, I don’t really think God demanded that a blasphemer be stoned to death, or that he approved of slavery, or of polygamy.  And I really don’t think he approved of the ethnic cleansing found in the Book of Joshua.  Those things were how the ancient Jews interpreted the will of God, and I guess in those times they were more acceptable than now, but I really have my doubts that God approved even then,” Mike said.

            “And don’t forget,” Bryce added, “St. Paul tells us over and over in his epistles that Christians are not bound by the laws of Moses.  So, even if you believe those things in Leviticus were valid for the ancient Jews, they don’t apply to us.”

            “Where do you get that?” David said, clearly interested.  “I don’t remember anything about that in the stuff you gave me before Christmas.  That was no use at all in talking to Mom.”

            “No, probably not,” Bryce conceded.  “There was too much already assumed between me and Father Miller, too much that Brother Timothy and Catholics would not agree on.  It’s like two people speaking different languages.”

            “But it does say in the Bible that for a male to lie with another male as with a woman is an abomination,” David persisted.

            “Yes, that’s the Leviticus passage you cited earlier.  That’s in a section dealing with ritual purity.  Who can offer sacrifice, and who can approach the temple, and the like.  The chapter before that says it’s wrong to eat any animal without draining its blood.  That’s part of kosher eating.  It’s also ‘unclean’ to have sex with your wife during her menstrual period.  That’s an abomination, too.  In the next chapter, sowing a field with two kinds of grain is prohibited, as is wearing a garment made of two kinds of thread.  Don’t clip you hair at the temples, or trim your beard.  Don’t have a tattoo.  Don’t get me wrong, David.  There’s a lot that’s positive in those rules, but there’s a lot that makes no sense today, too.  I don’t think that just because that jacket you’re wearing is part wool and part something else, you’re damned.  And as much as I dislike tattoos, I don’t think getting one will send you to hell,” Bryce said.

            “How can you tell what’s right and what’s wrong?  What’s the permanent word of God, and what’s just valid for the current circumstances, or maybe not even really God’s word to begin with?” David wondered.

            “If you were Catholic, I could answer that.  The Church, founded by Christ for precisely that purpose, can make that decision.  But you Protestants have a very different concept of the Church than we do,” Bryce said.

            “Yeah,” Mike added, “I remember reading somewhere the statement that if you were to ask an informed Catholic what was the most important gift Christ left for his followers, the answer would be the Church, but if you asked an equally informed Protestant, the answer would be the Bible.”

            “I read something like that, too,” Bryce said, “but it wasn’t exactly that way.”

            “Never mind your quotation,” David said.  “I get the point.”

            “There’s something else,’ Bryce added.  “I detect in what David said earlier the theology of predestination which came from Wycliffe and Hus in the Late Middle Ages.”

            “Oh, oh.  Here comes the historian,” Damon said, rolling his eyes.

            “Well, for a Catholic, history is part of our understanding of the Church and of religion.  Our Church is not something dead and static, but a living thing.  It’s not something you read about in the New Testament, and then hop over to yesterday to experience.  Anyway, at the Council of Constance, which met from 1415 to 1418, the teaching that only those who were predestined to heaven made up the Church, was condemned.  We believe that the Church is the presence of Jesus on earth, and includes both saints and sinners, and no one is damned irredeemably until he’d dead.  And then it depends on the choices he made in this life.  But this idea says God has already determined who will be saved, and only those who are saved make up the Church, right David?”

            “Yeah, that’s the way I understand it.  Or, anyway, the way I was taught.  When I was thirteen, I was taken to church, and Brother Timothy preached a real emotional sermon and got everyone real worked up, with lots of people shouting ‘Amen’ and clapping their hands and the like.  And I was clapping and shouting along with the others.  I mean, it was a real turn on.  And my mom asked me if I loved Jesus, and I said yes, and she went wild, marching me down to in front of the pulpit, and telling everyone I was saved.  Brother Timothy asked me if I felt Jesus calling me, and I said yes, and so he said I could be baptized, because I was one of the saved.  So a week or two later, we met outside along with some others who were saved, on the farm of one of the members where there was a creek, and Brother Timothy again asked whether I loved Jesus, and when I said yes, he took me into the water, and ducked me, and I was baptized, and from then on I was counted as a member of the Church, and so were the others.  We were the saved.  I never dared tell my mom that I had some doubts about things later on.  According to what Brother Timothy says, once God tells you you’re one of the saved, that’s it, and you know from then on you’re predestined for heaven.  Either you stick with it, or you were lying in the first place.  That’s what my mom says now.”

            “Geez, that’s weird,” Mike said.

            “I’ve heard things like that,” Damon said, “though I was never a church goer, and was never baptized, I knew people who believed that, people in the projects back in Chicago.”

            “Now that you mention it, I remember reading something in an English class,” Mike said.  “It was a class on early American literature, and I think it was the diary or journal of Jonathan Edwards or one of those other New England divines.  He had a favorite daughter, who became very ill, and was wasting away.  Some kind of fever.  She was like thirteen or fourteen at the time.  All the while she was lying there dying, her father kept asking her, ‘Do you feel Jesus calling you?  Do you feel his presence?’  She just moaned and said nothing.  When she died, he wrote in his diary, ‘Today, my daughter went to hell.’”

            For the next few minutes, none of the four guys said anything.

            Finally, David said, “I wasn’t lying back when I was thirteen.  I do love Jesus.  I do believe he came to save us.  But I can’t believe the way my mom does.  I don’t know what I believe about the church or predestination, but I definitely don’t believe that I’m damned just because I’m gay and I love Mike.”

            “I’m glad to hear that,” Mike said, and kissed him lightly.

            “I think I’ll keep going to your church with Mike until I decide on something definite,” David told Bryce.

            “You’re welcome there,” Bryce assured him.

            Damon looked bothered, and squirmed about.

            “What’s up with you?” Bryce asked.

            “Do you want me to become Catholic?” Damon asked.

            Bryce took a couple of minutes to formulate his answer.  “That’s the wrong question, Damon.  If you asked whether I would like it if you became Catholic, I could answer without hesitation that I would like it very much.  I would like it because I think it would be good for you.  I would like it because I believe Catholic teaching is true, real.  And I would like it because it would give us something more in common.  But it’s not a question of what I want, it’s a question of what you want.  It’s got to be your decision.  I definitely don’t want you to join the Church just because you think I want it, without believing what the Church teaches.  That’s not honest.”

            “Doesn’t your Church teach that gay sex is wrong?” Damon asked.

            “No!” Bryce and Mike answered together.  “Some leaders of the Church say that, but I think they’re wrong.  And it’s not a definite doctrine.  It’s more like those ancient Jewish laws about what you can eat, or types of clothing, and stuff,” Bryce insisted.

            “I’m still not sure I understand all that,” Damon said, and David nodded in agreement.  “But, like David says, I guess I’ll keep going with you until I make up my mind otherwise,” Damon added.

            ‘Good enough,” Bryce said, and kissed his boyfriend.

            “So, David, how did the rest of the Christmas break go after you got exiled to the basement?” Damon said, definitely wanting the spotlight off himself.

            “Mom and Dad argued the whole time I was home.  Mom tried to make me go to church and confess to Brother Timothy, and, I guess, to the whole congregation.  I think she had in mind something like exorcizing the Devil from me, but I wouldn’t go.  I told her that if she couldn’t accept me the way God made me, I wasn’t interested in her church any more.  Dad backed me up, and so did Jenny, and that led to more arguments.  On the Sunday after Christmas, there was this big blow out.  Everyone yelling at everyone else.”

            “The Sunday after Christmas?  Not Christmas itself?” Mike asked.

            “Yeah.  According to Brother Timothy, Christmas is a pagan celebration, not in the Bible, so at his church there are services only on regular meeting days, Sundays and Wednesdays,” David explained.

            “Where does it say in the Bible that you’re supposed to meet on Wednesdays?” Damon asked.

            David just rolled his eyes.  “If Brother Timothy says it, Mom believes it.  Anyway, on that Sunday, Mom went to church, and the rest of us stayed home.”

            “Even Greg?” Bryce asked.

            “Yeah.  Poor guy, he was caught in the middle.  He’s a sophomore in high school, so he can’t leave home for another two years and a half.  He just tried to keep out of sight, mostly out of the house, the whole time.  He never came out in favor of me, but he never condemned me, either.”

            “I can sympathize with that,” Damon said.  “There were lots of times when I was growing up when all I wanted was to be invisible, and get away as soon as possible.”

            “So, what happened next?” Bryce asked David.

            “When Mom came home from church, she was about an hour later than usual, and she had Brother Timothy with her.  When I saw that, I ducked for the basement.  Mom yelled for me to come there and listen to Brother Timothy, but I wasn’t going to put up with that.  Then Dad began to argue with Mom and the preacher.  It went on for a long time - most of the afternoon.  In the end, Dad told Brother Timothy to get out of his house and not come back.  Mom said if Brother Timothy could not be there, she would not stay there either.  I was downstairs, with the radio blasting to drown them out, but Jenny says Dad told Mom that if she thought more of Brother Timothy than she did of him and her children, she was welcome to leave.  All I know is that about six o’clock Jenny came downstairs and told me to come get something to eat.  Mom was gone.  I never saw her again.  Dad didn’t want to talk about it.  All he said was, ‘She wasn’t always like this.  It’s that damned Brother Timothy.’  That’s when I found out that Mom and Dad used to be Methodists until some kind of revival captured Mom’s loyalty when I was about two or three.  For the next few days, Dad, Jenny, Greg, and I tried to make a go of it, but there was very little Christmas cheer in the Simpson home, let me tell you.  They tried to be accepting, but all the time I felt I was guilty of causing the break-up.  After a while, I gave up, and came back to campus.  I’ve been staying at the fraternity house for about a week now.”  With that, David sort of collapsed.  It was as if he had shrunk into himself.

            “David, I’m real sorry to hear all this,” Bryce said, “but after all, you have the support of your father and your sister, and you have Mike, here.”

            “Yeah, but my family’s destroyed, and it’s all my fault,” David moaned.

            “Let’s get this straight, Boyfriend,” Mike said in a commanding voice.  “What happened is NOT your fault.  If you want to blame somebody, blame your mother, or better yet, blame that preacher with his twisted version of religion, but don’t blame yourself.  All you did was be you.  You’re the way God made you, and I know without a doubt that you’re a good person.  So pack in that ‘it’s my fault’ shit!”

            Bryce and Damon added their agreement to what Mike said.  “Look at it this way,” Bryce reasoned, “your mother and her church are so far out of the mainstream of Christianity that some kind of conflict would have happened anyway.  What if Jenny wanted to marry someone from another church?  What if Greg decided he doesn’t want to keep attending that church?  What if your father finally got fed up with Brother Timothy for something that has nothing to do with you?  It was only accidental, really, that it was you coming out which sparked the crisis.”

            “You think so?” David said hopefully.

            “I definitely think so,” Bryce replied.  “The kind of religion your mother has can only survive by isolating itself from everything that is going on around it, and that’s not healthy, mentally or spiritually.  Any sustained contact with the real world, such as attending college, will bring on a crisis.  You’re not the only one who’s experienced this.”

            “That makes me feel lots better,” David admitted.

            “I’m glad to hear you say you’ll continue attending at St. Boniface with Mike.  So many people in your position go to the opposite extreme, and abandon religion and God entirely,” Bryce said.

            “I seem to have heard that the extremes have more in common with each other than either end does with the middle, and I guess that’s true of religion as well as politics or anything else,” David agreed.

            “The ancient Greeks had one good idea that we ought never forget,” Bryce pontificated, “balance, the golden mean.  Truth and sanity lie between the extremes.”

            “Amen,” Damon intoned.