“No one has a vocation of no. Everyone has a vocation of yes to something.”
That line from Eve Tushnet has stuck with me for years.
When Jesus speaks in Matthew 19 about some being called to vocational singleness, He isn’t offering a consolation prize. He’s casting a vision for a sacred calling, a vocation worth saying yes to.
Gay Christians don’t need a different kind of yes. We need the same beautiful, embodied vocation that straight Christians called to celibacy need too.
The real challenge is that most churches haven’t offered that kind of yes to anyone. Singleness is treated like waiting. Celibacy is assumed to be lonely. And we rarely invite people to discern whether God might be calling them to vocational singleness.
So it makes sense that gay Christians are the ones asking for more. Not because we need a special solution, but because no one else has been invited to say yes to celibacy either.
Gay and straight Christians called to vocational singleness long for the same things:
A vision of celibacy that is joyful, sacred, and vital to the mission of the Church.
Intentional Christian community where single people can find long-term, committed, lived-in family.
A Church that treats singleness not as second-best, but as a vocation worthy of formation, celebration, and support.
Gay Christians don’t need a new theology. We just need a Church that takes Jesus seriously.
Let’s become that Church. Let’s give people something to say yes to!
Comment/DM “vocation” for an article about how I’d be celibate even if I were straight
