Gay marriage, adelphopoiesis, and Saints Sergius and Bacchus

Just now I read a story on io9, by Annalee Newitz, about John Boswell's theory that Saints Sergius and Bacchus were joined in a "gay marriage" ceremony (located here: http://io9.com/gay-marriage-in-the-year-100-ad-951140108)

There are numerous problems with this theory, but first, a bit about the saints.

According to their Passion, they were two high-ranking soldiers serving under Maximian (Roman Emperor from 286 to 305).

One day, Maximian was informed that Sergius and Bacchus were Christians, a doctrine outlawed in Rome at the time.  Since they were both high-ranking and trusted members of the military, and much esteemed by the Emperor, he disbelieved the claim.

To prove it in error, however, he decided to enter a temple devoted to Zeus and see to it that Sergius and Bacchus sacrificed with him and consumed the meat of the sacrificed animal.  Certain that this was mere slander, he told the supposed slanders that they would instead be treated as Christians, and killed accordingly, should Sergius and Bacchus sacrifice as expected.

Of course, Sergius and Bacchus refuse to sacrifice and declare their faith in Christ, so the Emperor strips them of their Roman army clothing, bounds them in chains, dresses them as women to disgrace them, and parades them in the marketplace.  All this time, S&B are singing psalms and reciting Biblical passages, quoting St. Paul and Christ.

The Emperor tells them that Christ was born out of wedlock, was a bastard, was executed by the Jews for His crimes, etc, and S&B and reply with the standard Christian doctrine of virgin birth, atonement, etc.

They are eventually brought to trial before a Duke Antiochus (I have no idea who this person is - he does not appear to exist outside of this Passion).  Bacchus is executed, Sergius is crushed by the loss of Bacchus, then Sergius is executed.

There's no real hint at any sort of romantic union, nor is there any suggestion that the two were engaged in any sort of "adelphopoiesis" ceremony.  In fact, many scholars think that the Passion was based on earlier martyrologies of other saints - in other words, the saints may not even EXIST as historical people.

Newitz admits that the ceremony is probably not the same as "gay marriage" as we understand it, and even Boswell decried efforts to link gay marriages with the ceremony.

Most likely, it was a form of blood-brotherhood in a Christian context.  Blood brotherhood was a popular, albeit long lost in the modern world, rite, in which two men would vow to take care of one another, and would literally 'adopt' one another, legally.  However, there's no reason to assume that there was anything sexual in this.  In fact, in early Christianity, there were cases of heterosexual couples who would be married but live chastely.

While I suppose Newitz's point - that 'marriage' is a flexible term - is taken (and is true).  Defenders of "traditional marriage" generally take the point of view that marriage is inflexible and firmly established - when, of course, marriage can be used to solidify alliances, to make financial deals legal, etc.  But it isn't necessary, or advised, to make things up to justify homosexual marriage.

There's this curious notion in her writing that "love" by definition involves sex - but people can love one another without sex, and in chivalry, the highest form of love is a completely unfulfilled devotion to a woman (this is heterosexual in perspective, of course).

Lancelot was not wrong for being devoted to Guinevere - Lancelot was wrong for consummating that devotion.

Of course, this is an ideal and by no means something that was likely routinely practiced - and even the advocates of courtly love varied in whether or not consummating the relationship was the end goal or if spiritual adulation of a woman, leading to further spiritual quests and purification was the purpose.

Some used devotion to a living woman to aid them in their devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

It may seem quaint or even absurd to-day, but there are many variations of love, not just the purely sexual that dominates modern society.

Also, no-one should use the term "Dark Ages," ever again.

We Give Our Lives [The Process, Church of the Final Judgment, part 1]

By all rights, I shouldn't be writing this - or, rather, I should be, but no one should care, because this group was really just one of a million weird cults that cropped up in the 1960s and died out or stopped becoming newsworthy in at least the mid 70s.  Does anyone but me know, or care, about the Solar Lodge, the Brotherhood of the Ram, the Om Lovers, the Children of God, the Source Family, Jesus Freaks, etc.?  Doubtful.

With the exception of a couple major blood-baths (Manson's "family," Jonestown) the world of 60s and 70s cults is basically unknown.  An entire cultural movement happened, but no one really remembers it.

Somehow, the Process Church has survived, at least to some degree, where those others have become little more than trivia topics (or obsessions for freaks like myself...).  Interestingly, the Process Church has its origins in one of the biggest, best known, and most reviled cults of the 20th century - Scientology.

A brief run-down of Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp sci-fi author and ceremonial magician who hobnobbed with one of Aleister Crowley's proteges, Jack Parsons.  Whether guided by a divine force, cash-hungry, or simply hitting upon an idea that worked, Hubbard began the Church of Scientology in 1953, which itself was based on a method of psychotherapy that Hubbard had developed called Dianetics.

Ten years later, two former Scientologists took Scientology, gave it a twist, called it Compulsions Analysis, and set up shop in London.

Those two former Scientologists were Robert Moor, a well-off architecture student, and Mary Ann MacLean, a prostitute who grew up in poverty in Glasgow.  The two met at the Hubbard Institute of Scientology in London, where they both worked as auditors (spiritual counselors in the CoS).  The two fell in love and, after Moor divorced his first wife, married.  The couple decided to adopt the sinister moniker de Grimston.

They also, as I said, adapted Hubbard's methods and broke away from the Church of Scientology (after stealing a number of e-meters, which Scientologists use to measure a person's spiritual state), setting up their own psychotherapy clinic in London.  They were declared as "Suppressive Persons" (basically, Scientology's term for heretics, apostates, infidels, etc.) after that by the CoS.

According to Ed Sanders, whom I shall fully introduce later, Moor was declared "Clear" before his break from Scientology.  In Scientology terms, a "clear" is, essentially, a person who has been freed of all his, as the hippies would call it, "hang-ups."  His unconscious mind is no longer affected by past traumas, and he is able to move at will with no "psychic baggage" in tow.  Of course, it is much more involved than this and involves Scientology's spiritual ideas of Thetans, etc. but that's the basic gist.

Their psychotherapy practice was fairly successful, and by 1966, the de Grimstons decided to drop the unwieldy moniker of Compulsions Analysis and change it to a more friendly, forward-looking name:  The Process.

If their name was friendly, their attire was decidedly not, because by this point, the de Grimstons and their followers began wearing a uniform consisting of black robes and capes, with the Goat of Mendes ("Baphomet" by Levi) stitched onto the capes.  

Both the de Grimstons and their followers moved into a mansion in Balfour Palace, Mayfair, London, and Followers gave everything they owned to the de Grimstons. While the followers panhandled on the streets and solicited people to the cause, Robert and Mary lived in style and rarely deigned to be seen among the followers.  What had begun as psychotherapy had become a quasi-religious order with a totalitarian bent.

This totalitarian bent was no accident.  While the former Robert Moor was not necessarily totalitarian, the former Mary Anne MacLean was.  She was an admirer of the Nazis and had a very authoritarian personality.

Mary Ann is a curious figure on her own, because it appears that she enjoyed making up stories about her life, and the hard facts are difficult to come by.  She was born in poverty in Glasgow, UK, in 1931 and during the 50s and 60s, she supported herself by turning tricks until she met Moor.  She claimed to be formerly engaged to Sugar Ray Robinson and involved in the Profumo affair (a 1963 scandal in British politics that involved prostitutes and national security).  Neither claim is true, of course.  She also claimed to have astrally projected as a child into Hitler's bunkers, where her spirit would whisper to Nazi generals.  While this, unlike the Sugar Ray Robinson and Profumo claims, is not able to be proven false, let's just say that most people now tend to think it's likely she was engaging in a bit of wishful thinking.

There are only a couple of surviving images of Mary Ann.  While Robert was the public face of the Process, Mary Ann kept to the shadows.  One image which has made it into the Internet is a photograph of a photograph that was removed early on from the Balfour Mansion on Mary Ann's orders.  She was at this point seen as a goddess figure by the Process movement, while Robert was her anointed prophet and consort.

The Process flourished while in Mayfair. They opened a coffee shop in the basement of the Balfour, named Satan's Cavern, and in keeping with the occult-chic of Swinging London, held open classes, engaged in "I Ching" readings, held meditation circles, instructed on Tarot, etc. and attracted a number of followers.  Unfortunately for the Process, they also attracted negative publicity and were dubbed the "Mayfair Mindbenders."

Journalist Alistair Cooke, for example, recounts his own exposure to the group when, according to Cooke, the group brainwashed his step-daughter and daughter.  Cooke and his wife had to take action to get the teenagers away from the group. (read this here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1999/oct/20/features11.g22)

Mayfair was also where the group began collecting Alsatians (German Shepherds).  First, Mary and Robert both got one, then followers began getting them, leading to the group having a large pack of the dogs.  One wonders if Mary Ann's Nazi festisch led to the pair getting German Shepherds...

Due to the bad publicity, the leaders decided to leave Mayfair in 1966, followers and dogs in tow, and ultimately ended up in Xtul, in Mexico, where they once more had a large estate where the peons worked and Robert and Mary Ann lived in luxury.

At least, they did until Hurricane Inez.  Inez was a Category 1 hurricane, but it nevertheless led a trail of death and destruction behind it, and the Processeans were right in the line of fire.  It was here at Xtul, under the onslaught of Inez, where the Process would go from a quasi-religious psychotherapy cult to a bonafide religious group.

Hail and well met.

I am your King, and I will be henceforth issuing my writing and royal proclamations alike on this fine blogspot blog.

I may even transfer the blogspot blog over to its own domain at some point, but not currently.

yrs,

The Rt. Rev. Michael Lee Röhm