Tag: relationships

What Does It Feel Like To Be a Man?

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ Leave a comment

Hafiz was asked: what does it feel like to be a man? His answer:


“My dear,
I am not so sure.”

Then she said,
“Well, aren’t you a man?”

And this time I replied,
“I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might try to enter in some odd contest
To try to win prizes.

“My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
Would have been,

“How does it feel to be a heart?”

For all I know is Love,
And I find my heart Infinite
And Everywhere!

I’m afraid I differ from the great poet. I know what it feels like to be a man, and it is this:

I don’t know how to express myself emotionally — and I mean truly express myself —without feeling like I’m going to lose absolutely everything as a result.

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Creative Wells and Getting Bored

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 1 Comment

The good news: my partner and I are buying a house this week, and soon I will have a brand new studio space. 

The bad news: I’m way behind on the show because of the move. 

Instead of a Sacred Tension episode, here is an interview I did with Matt Langston of Eleventylife. We talk about creativity, love, coming of age as a queer person, and much more. 

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The Good Father: Of God, Doubt, and Gay Relationships

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 5 Comments

It’s been a long, painful and perilous journey from a life of suffocating fear and self-loathing toward a life of fearlessness and love. I spent most of my teenage and adult years trapped in the impenetrable coffin of my self-loathing, absolutely convinced that I was unlovable to God.  As a young boy growing up in the evangelical world, I somehow absorbed the message that being gay makes a person loathsome and subhuman. When I started to discover that I was gay myself, I became the victim of my own undying disgust and hatred. Like a supernova, my being collapsed upon itself, the object of its own unquenchable disgust.

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Three Assumptions Christians Make About Gay Relationships

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 1 Comment

I’m away from the blog this month, focusing on school, work, and vacation, and I will be back next week writing regularly. While I’m away, I’ve decided to repost articles from my previous blog. Enjoy.

As I’ve struggled through questions of faith and homosexuality and arrived at a more affirming position, I have found myself on the receiving end of some persistent and annoying assumptions. Granted, some of these might be stereotypes of affirming gay people for a reason, but I feel that these assumptions become blocks, disengaging people from the uncomfortable and redeeming act of listening to each other.

While I can’t even begin to address all of the assumptions people make about gay people, I will go ahead and list the ones I most frequently run into here.

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Cross Talk, Conflict, and Cultivating Peace

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 4 Comments

When I go to my weekly 12 step meeting, there is a tent card on the table titled “Cross Talk Guidelines.” These guidelines are what make the meeting one of the most life-giving, challenging, and nurturing places I’ve ever been. As I’ve been moving through my recovery, I’ve started to apply the Cross Talk Guidelines to the rest of life – work, family, and most of all, the internet.

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