Amazon reader review: Paul Monette's "Becoming a Man" is generally considered to be the classic account of growing up gay in America. I myself, however, found much more to identify with in Bruce Bawer's "A Place at the Table," a half-memoir, half-polemic that I think speaks for at least as many gay men as "Becoming a Man." Bawer, who is both openly gay and a conservative Christian, causes his coevals on both sides to swallow hard as he blasts the in-your-face outrageousness of gay radicals and the smug homophobia of right-wing fundamentalist pundits. Some have accused Bawer of sounding a little smug himself; nevertheless, it is impossible not to be moved at his insistence at being taken at face value, as a man both proudly, devoutly Christian and proudly, openly gay. Bawer is a distinguished poet and literary critic, and perhaps the best part of the book is his analysis of gay-themed novels and how they reflect on both gay and straight society. First published a decade ago, "A Place at the Table" remains a clarion call for sanity and understanding.

In 300-odd pages, Bruce Bawer has opened a floodgate of incisive religious criticism that will reverberate across the American political scene. He has put into eloquent and decisive language what many mainline Christians and non-Christians have quietly suspected but been unable to verbalize--namely that Fundamentalist Christianity is barely Christian at all. A Baptist theologian says he is "not interested in who Jesus was." Pat Robertson argues the Golden Rule as Jesus' justification that "individual self-interest is being a very real part of the human makeup, and something not necessarily bad or sinful." In page after page, Bawer reveals a so-called Fundamentalist movement that readily displays a blatant disregard for the most salient message of the Gospels: selfless love and service to all. As for the significance of this revelation in the face of the ballooning presence of Fundamentalist Christians in American politics, readers will have to decide for themselves.

 

 

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Amazon reader review: There is nothing more frustrating than being fully misrepresented in the sweep of fierce political debate, demonstrations, and dogmatic activism from both sides of an issue. As a gay man who neither abuses children nor devotes all his time to "eating, sleeping, and drinking GAY," I am overlooked by both the Religious Right and the lockstep ideology of the more vocal gay activists. Finally, voices are being heard (and published!) which speak a truth that a silent majority has wanted to convey for so long: most gay people are individuals first. Despite what the higher-ups among the left-wing gay activists claim, being gay does not imply supporting a disparate array of trendy leftist ideals -- in other words, "gay Marxist" should not be assumed redundant. Paradoxically, this left-wing orthodoxy resists and opposes some of the most crucial and potentially beneficial goals gays and lesbians might work for: the right to recognized marriages or honest military service, for instance. We who support such issues, or who are not diehards, are lampooned as the gay equivalent of an "Uncle Tom" by many liberals, gay or straight. Meanwhile, a vocal group on the right continues its religiously-tinged bigotry. Where to turn? Bruce Bawer's new reader is a worthy place to start. Like his earlier monograph, A PLACE AT THE TABLE, BEYOND QUEER offers a diverse selection of essays on many issues related to being gay in today's society, all unified by the idea that for most, being gay is secondary to being an individual -- and this is as it should be. That Bawer's book has been written, published, and is being read, is a heartening sign that this new focus is being noticed, and, hopefully acted upon. Anyone concerned with the dignity of the individual will find this book compelling and valuable.