Blog

Andrew Comiskey

Oct 16, 2020
2 min

Discerning Love: Day 4

‘“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness,” as C. S. Lewis has said, and the most unloving thing I could possibly have done to her [a friend with same-sex desires seeking help] would have been to substitute some sort of mindless “loving acceptance” for the very things that were killing her. It is one thing to accept a person where he or she is, and another to accept their malignant behavior that works against them as well as others. It is also one thing t

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 29, 2017
2 min

Justice 1: Shameless

‘Mercy without justice is the mother of disintegration.’ Thomas Aquinas Conviction for sexual sin is dull today. We no longer feel bad for acting badly. Misuses of mercy may well enable the problem. When we placate the disintegrated who sow seeds of disorder everywhere, are we disintegrating others? Where is justice for persons caught in the crossfire of another’s sin? Last week, we as a staff prayed for a godly wife whose husband abruptly left her and is fast-tracking a divo

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 14, 2017
2 min

Love

God gave everything for us at Calvary. He poured out His life, which is the best definition of love I know. We have all (I hope) known someone who sacrificed for us. But he or she did not give everything. God did. He died for us. He died for us in order to gain us: He died to draw near to us, to be with us, to calm us with His Presence, to speak words we can hear, to nourish us with His body and blood. He ‘who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see’ (1

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 27, 2016
3 min

Annette

Love has a name. I discovered its meaning only when I chose to offer myself 35-years-ago to this person named Annette. What I thought I knew about love meant little as I bumped up against my selfishness. (I prided myself on a kind of reflective, poetic awareness of love but actually knew next to nothing about it.) In joy and especially in her tears, Annette invited me to love her because she was worth it. I wanted to do so. Though desire spurs us onto discipline, they are not

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 29, 2016
4 min

Chastity and Mercy 3: Just Love

‘We seek to be chaste because someone we love needs us to be chaste.’ Heather King Justice means giving to another what is due him or her. In the sexual realm, chastity serves justice by freeing humanity to be good and faithful gifts to others; that involves keeping our sexual promises with those we most love. Therein lays our happiness, and another’s. The person undivided by lust of any kind exercises justice by employing one’s self-gift to confirm, not confuse or diminish a

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 9, 2014
3 min

Ambushed, Part 1

‘Do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do so with gentleness and respect…’ (1P 3: 14b, 15) Gay Pride Month is upon us, and our queer nation is prouder than ever. From Neil Patrick Harris dazzling Broadway as a pissed-off drag queen to Obama successfully persuading federal and state officials to overturn traditional marriage laws, we the p

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Fourth of 7 Prayers for Marriage: The Gift of Gender Difference

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 11, 2013
2 min

Fourth of 7 Prayers for Marriage: The Gift of Gender Difference

Gender difference is at the center of such wholeness. Becoming a whole sexual gift to another depends on that difference. Theologian John Mark Miravelli says it best: a gift ceases to be a whole gift if in fact I already possess what the other is offering me. In other words, a same gender friend can only mirror back to me what I already have; (s)he offers me only a variation of what I possess. However blessed, same-gender gifts cannot approximate the offering of gender compl

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 14, 2013
2 min

Lent 1: First Love

‘You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will remove your lampstand from its place.’ (Rev. 2: 4, 5) How much more does God want us to settle next to Him, to draw wordlessly from His very Presence? Lent calls us back to the Source. Just in time: I am ‘worded out’. Speech never ceased in my efforts to help equip the Church in New Zealand and Los Angeles to stay true to

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Andrew Comiskey

Sep 17, 2012
2 min

Ache of God

Prayer unites us with His ache. Beneath His cross, we witness silently His naked broken body. Like rain from heaven, blood and water flow into our shameful nakedness and unites us with the Love that seeks nothing other than our good. Sexual sinners like you and I concur tearfully with Pope Benedict: ‘Any talk of love must begin with the open side of Christ.’ He aches for us, for our good, hating sin (never us!) only because it destroys us. So He pours Himself out generously,

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Andrew Comiskey

Jul 3, 2012
3 min

True Justice

My wife Annette observed an 8-year-old boy in a waiting room trying to make sense of a photo in People magazine of two men in tuxes, probably a feature on some celeb ‘gay wedding.’ Wide-eyed, and too truthful to have anything but a visceral response to the madness, he said: ‘Are those guys… you know, together? That’s real scary.’ No scarier than the wedding photo in front of me of two men, 20-years apart yet mirror images of each other, with their adopted 4-year-old daughter

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 28, 2012
2 min

Justice for Whom

New evidence now exists to show a host of challenges to kids of gay parents. Professor Mark Regenerus found that, when compared to adults raised in married, mother/father families, adults raised by lesbian parents had negative outcomes in 24 out of 40 categories, while adults raised by gay fathers had negative outcomes in 19 categories. (See http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/10/study-suggests-risks-from-same-sex-parenting/) More studies are in the works to debunk t

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 20, 2012
2 min

Deeper, Truer Love

I love this verse: it conveys concisely how I overcame homosexuality. I did not run from my same-sex attraction; I attended to the need at the core of my same-sex attraction, which was for masculine solidarity. My need for masculine love needed to be purified from sensual (‘I need gay sex’) and political (‘My gay self must be recognized on par with straights’) motives. Such refinement is painful and essential. It occurs only as one surrenders his/her entire identity to Jesus

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 6, 2012
2 min

At Peace In War

Many see the end in sight: finally, our nation is recognizing that homosexuality is a moral good—utterly normal, utterly on par with heterosexuality as solid ground for marriage and family. Utter nonsense. While praying the other day, God showed me a picture of an oil spill that was spreading out and encasing vulnerable, beautiful creatures. At first the oil had little effect on them. Then it constricted movement, and finally their breathing. I saw a powerful balm being appli

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Ascending Fear: Jesus’ Absence and Our Authority

Andrew Comiskey

May 24, 2012
3 min

Ascending Fear: Jesus’ Absence and Our Authority

Ascension of Christ. Woodcut after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794 - 1872), published in 1877. ‘Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.’ (Jn 16:6) Jesus had to leave us in order to liberate us. He had to depart in order to give us power. But for the disciples, Jesus’ ascension back to the Father may have felt more like abandonment than the assurance of authority. Think about it. Jesus’ followe

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Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible

Andrew Comiskey

May 19, 2012
2 min

Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible

Jesus’ humiliation has been eclipsed with glory. So is ours, as we testify of how His mercy has washed us and solidified the new creation. Over lunch the other day, a friend recounted his healing story. To do so, he began with his shame, which was founded upon a history of early childhood sexual abuse. Staggering into young adulthood with same-sex attraction, he sought the help of two pastors who abused him sexually and spiritually. He vowed to trust no-one. Yet he knew Jesus

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Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage Fails Us All

Andrew Comiskey

May 10, 2012
1 min

Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage Fails Us All

How tragic that the most influential political leader on earth would use his power to redefine marriage. He bowed his knee to the lie that justice means giving gays all they clamor for, rather than what they need. In that, Obama failed to love gays well. He has failed to act authentically as a Christian, and has failed generations to come whose foundations will be further shaken by yet another battering of marriage. My hope is that Obama’s delusion would wake up all Christian

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 25, 2012
2 min

Pray More

If we want to be more like Jesus, we must be with Him more. And do less of everything else. Our roots must sink and stay deep in the Source if we want to bear fruit that remains. I do badly when first thoughts of the day revolve around unsolved problems. I start striving, and my words and actions become cutting. I know right away that I am not in Christ; I am worldly, and thus unable reveal Him to the world. I used to wake up each morning and see if the little red light was f

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 6, 2012
2 min

Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5

Jesus' crucifixion. Woodcut after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794 - 1872) This is the fifth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5 Weeping and lingering were the earmarks of Mary’s authority. These are the signs of holy intimacy; tears of gratitude spilt while abiding in His love, and tears of grief over the loss of love

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Intimate Authority Holy Week Meditations, 4

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 5, 2012
3 min

Intimate Authority Holy Week Meditations, 4

Mary Magdalene anoints the feet of Jesus Christ, watched by the apostles. Original Artwork: Engraving by W Greatbach after the painting by Rubens. (Photo by Spencer Arnold/Getty Images) This is the fourth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 4 Mary Magdalene, in her recognition and reliance upon her Merciful Deliverer, became authoritative in holy love.

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 4, 2012
4 min

Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

— Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3 Intimacy with Jesus made an ex-prostitute the bearer of the most important event in human history. God entrusted a woman, not one of the 12, with Christ’s resurrection. That’s why the Roman Catholic Church names Mary Magdalene the ‘Apostle of Apostles.’ Mary’s surrender to Christ was marked by weeping and lingering, two earmarks of loving another with all one’s heart. Such sustained intimacy gave Mary authority. Such reliance on

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