A courageous voice, a costly sacrifice.

March 4, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

I had the privilege of meeting Father Geoff Farrow last night, at a Love Honor Cherish meeting in Los Angeles.

 You will remember him as the priest who outed himself to the media last September when his bishop John Steinbock, in the San Joaquin Valley instructed his priests to read a letter to all parishioners instructing them to vote in favor of Proposition 8. Farrow refused to read the letter.

Love Honor Cherish is one of the many grass roots organizations that have sprung up in California in the last year to defeat Proposition 8, and have only become stronger in the aftermath of the proposition’s passing by a 52 to 48 % margin in November. Tomorrow, the oral arguments in the combined lawsuits to overturn Prop 8 will be heard in the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.  (Check here for televised stream of proceedings.)

At the time Farrow’s story hit the papers I thought he was another of those unfortunate flash-in-the-pan martyrs who had not previously been a part of the LGBT rights struggle and so in a moment of weakness gets caught and destroyed without the benefit of support or voice in the larger community.

But after hearing Farrow speak last night, I was impressed, and realize that he has done his homework and is very much a part of our community’s struggle. He is articulate and informed, and speaks with focus about the spiritual questions which inform our struggle for human dignity.

It was because of this keen sense of human dignity that Farrow reached the point where he was compelled to break with his superiors, even at the cost of his own job. Bishop __ suspended him from his duties, but then apparently was surprised that he vacated his position as the parish/campus pastor with such has that Steinbock characterized it as abandonment. “My parish was divided” he said, “and everyone expected me to make a statement.”

Farrow is a veteran of 22 years in the priesthood, and has a pastoral sensitivity to the people who are often conflicted over the revelation of human sexuality. He has counseled mothers who “finally get it” that their daughters are not miscreants or emotional cripples because they have discerned their inborn attraction to the same gender. He is aware that kids who are taught to feel self-loathing just for being who they are, will be at higher risk of suicide.

Knowing that a public statement on Prop 8 would require enormous integrity, Farrow prepared himself to speak to the media, decided he would have to come out if asked about his own sexuality, and even began to pack up his office in case things went badly in the aftermath.

Today, Farrow is in the Los Angeles area, and very much in tune with the larger picture about Proposition 8. To allow this bigoted measure to stand is an attempt to shame LGBT people and to tell them, not just that they cannot marry, but that they have no right to live their lives.

Father Farrow will speak tonight at the rally downtown beginning on Olvera Street, one of more than 20 which will happen up and down the state of California. Details are at www.eveofjustice.com.  His own take on the Court date is at Farrow’s blog.

Apart from the purely legal and constitutional issues which will get their day in court tomorrow, people like Farrow will champion the moral issues which Proposition 8 backer sought to mow down with scare tactics and prejudice. But as we say, after Martin Luther King Jr., the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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