EP. 04: Second Adolescence as…the Integration of Sexuality and Spirituality
February 3, 2022
This week's guest is Jon Carl Lewis (he/him), who is a spiritual director and writer focusing on the intersection between spirituality and sexuality for queer folks. Lewis shares about his childhood and adolescence, and what it was like for him to discover his gay identity and then later come out amidst the AIDS pandemic of the 1980's. He goes on to share about how his Second Adolescence involved completing developmental tasks missed out on from his first adolescence, and how maintaining and redefining a relationship with Christianity that invites more space for queerness has been integral to his path and to the work he now does in the world.
Resources for LGBTQ+ youth and folks seeking support highlighted in the episode:
Human Rights Campaign’s faith resources
believr, dating app for queer Christians
Scarlateen
About the Guest:
Jon Carl Lewis (he/him) is a 56-year-old, Gay Christian living with his husband of 26 years in Trenton, NJ. A lifelong Christian and undeniably gay—he has wrestled for over forty years with the question of integrating his sexuality and spirituality. Although raised in the Black church, a flirtation with fundamentalism landed him in conversion therapy—which didn’t work. Deciding to choose life rather than the living death fundamentalism prescribed, he joined the Episcopal Church, where he worshiped for almost 30 years. After a period of deconstruction, he reconstructed his approach to Christianity from a more contemplative perspective and became a spiritual director. He now worships in a radically inclusive and LGBTQ-celebrating Methodist congregation where he has been asked to preach. He is a graduate of Princeton University and has been trained to think theologically and biblically at Princeton Theological Seminary, Harvard Divinity School, and the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. In October 2020, he launched the Sex & the Gay Christian website as a place to provide resources and gather community to support Queer folks seeking to live integrated sexual lives. He is currently working on a book on the topic which is expected to be published in 2023.
download episode transcript here