"I can't date Jesus": A conversation with Michael Arceneaux

Michael Arceneaux has stopped going to church. After growing up as
a gay black Catholic in the South, he eventually decided that he
could not find a way to integrate his identities into the
Catholicism he grew up with. In his new memoir: I Can’t Date Jesus:
Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in
Beoncé, Michael describes how coming out as gay led to tension and
conflict with people like his mother, still a devout Catholic. But
Michael hasn’t given up on God just yet. In fact, in I Can’t Date
Jesus he describes taking a friend up on an invitation to go to a
church service. There he met a pastor and theologian who “really
understands the Bible wasn’t just repeating verses kind of like the
equivalent (as I put in the book) like a talking head on cable
news… He was far more informed than me so I actually learned
something from the conversation. I found it elevating.”
   Michael told us how he wished he had been able to have
conversations like that earlier in his life. “I think if you caught
me much earlier around the time when I was generally trying to
still be in church…you would have probably been able to keep me
there.” This week in Signs of the Times we break down the explosive
letter that was released over the weekend by Archbishop Carlo Maria
Viganò accusing many church leaders—including Pope Francis—of
covering up the misconduct and crimes of former Cardinal Theodore
McCarrick. Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and
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