Being gay is immutable. Maybe someday we'll figure out more of the science and it will be changeable, but we have no leads so far.

If really good people who are deeply committed and who are thriving spiritually have to beat down the nature with which they seem to have been born and cut themselves off from the full realization of love, how can that be pleasing to God?

That, in essence, is the catastrophe of suicide for those who survive: not only the loss of someone, but the loss of the chance to persuade that person to act differently, the loss of the chance to connect.

It's deeply humbling to realize that there is no such thing as a society with a purchase on truth.

The strengthening of faith, I think, is the ultimate goal of organized religion altogether.

Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds.

Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with hope. It's a hard combination to sustain, but if you can do it, you can change the world.