A few days ago, I found this horrifying text on Facebook. It is a question asked of an internet-based AI system. AI plagiarises everything it has received from human writings, and then uses an algorithm to imitate human reasoning. It might seem uncanny but it smells “off”. Read the text for yourself with a bucket at your side and ready for if you feel sick :

An interesting response shared from GeminiAI:

Why are homosexuals attracted to Latin Mass and Anglo Catholic culture?

The attraction of gay men to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) and Anglo-Catholicism is a well-documented phenomenon that historians and sociologists often call the “Bells and Smells” affinity. This connection is not usually about agreeing with conservative politics, but rather a deep-seated pull toward aesthetics, mystery, and historical sanctuary.

Here are the primary reasons for this attraction:

1. The “Aesthetic of Resistance”

Historically, high-church environments (with their incense, ornate vestments, and elaborate choreography) offered a space that felt “separate” from the mundane, often judgmental world.

* Sensory Richness: For many, the visual and auditory beauty of a Solemn High Mass or a Latin liturgy provides an emotional and “queer” sensibility—a focus on drama and beauty that contrasts with the “beige,” utilitarian feel of many modern churches.

* Symbolic Language: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Anglo-Catholicism was a subculture where men could express a “difference” through symbolism, ritual, and art without having to use explicit labels that were socially dangerous at the time.

2. Homosocial Spaces and Celibacy

Historically, the priesthood and monastic life offered a “religiously sanctioned” alternative to marriage.

* A Way Out: Before gay identity was widely accepted, becoming a priest or monk was a way for a man to avoid the social pressure to marry a woman while still maintaining high social status.

* Intellectual and Fraternal Bonds: High-church traditions often emphasize intense, chaste male friendships and “homosocial” environments (all-male choirs, guilds, and clergy houses), which provided a sense of community and belonging.

3. Objective Truth vs. Personal Judgement

While it might seem counterintuitive for gay people to seek out “traditional” or “strict” spaces, the formalism of the Latin Mass can actually feel safer for some:

* The “Privacy” of Ritual: In a traditional Latin Mass, the priest faces away from the congregation (ad orientem), and the liturgy is fixed and unchanging. There is less “personal” interaction or focus on the individual’s private life compared to a modern, “low-church” evangelical setting where there is often a high pressure for personal testimony and social scrutiny.

* Transcendence: The focus is on the “Mystery of God” rather than the “Community of Man.” For someone who feels like an outsider in society, a liturgy that ignores the modern world entirely can be a profound relief.

4. The “Anglo-Catholic” Exception

In the Anglican/Episcopal tradition, Anglo-Catholicism has a specific history of being “High Church but Open.” * While Roman Catholic traditionalism is often doctrinally rigid, many Anglo-Catholic parishes (especially in the UK and US) are “Affirming.” They keep the incense, the Latin, and the gold vestments but are fully inclusive of LGBTQ+ people.

* This allows individuals to have the maximalist religious experience they love without the doctrinal rejection they fear.

Key Historical Figures

Several famous gay or bisexual figures were deeply attracted to these high-church aesthetics, viewing them as a refuge for the soul:

* Oscar Wilde: Drawn to the “theatricality” and beauty of Catholicism throughout his life, eventually converting on his deathbed.

* John Henry Newman: A leader of the Oxford Movement (the birth of Anglo-Catholicism) whose intense male friendships are often studied by queer historians.

* T.S. Eliot: An Anglo-Catholic whose poetry deeply reflects the tension between traditional form and modern identity.

Would you like to know more about the “Oxford Movement” and how it changed the way people experienced the church?

* * *

My first critical impression of this text is the dialectic polarised mentality of many of our contemporaries. It is the “all-or-nothing” without any nuance or consideration of the imaginative and creative mind. My immediate reaction is that it can go either way : a claim by the “queer”, “LGBTQ+” world over a liturgical Christianity ignoring that many gentle and sensitive heterosexual people can also be attracted to the same without being aggressive ideologues and rigid bigots – the other position perhaps implied as might be expressed by low-church Anglicans and progressive Roman Catholics would be that high-church liturgy and aesthetics are immoral by association. The terms used like queer and the acronym LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and more) would suggest the former of the two positions.

I am quite puzzled by the use of the term queer, originally used to mean bizarre, odd or abnormal. We hear in Yorkshire There’s now’t so queer as folk, meaning that other people are not necessarily homosexual but hard to understand because of eccentricities or particularities. It then became used pejoratively to designate people who deviated from heterosexuality. In the 1920’s and 30’s, the word would be used by homosexual men to differentiate themselves from effeminate or “camp” men, to award themselves a title of middle class respectability and discretion. After World War II, queer in this meaning fell out of fashion and was eventually replaced by the word gay. Queer came again to be used pejoratively by heterosexual people in regard to any known homosexual. “Are you queer ? I’ll smash your face in, you puff !”

In our own century, it has been used by homosexual people as an identifying label. The word was then extended to describe cultural and political interests. The word is contained in the LGBTQ+ acronym. It seems to be associated with radical gender and sexual identity liberation, but not exclusively.

One puzzling use of this word is to make a verb of it, queering or to queer. It is used in academia as an interpretive key to read and understand texts and literature from a viewpoint other than heterosexual. It moved from gender and sexuality to other systems of oppression and identity politics. It is a part of what some call “Woke” ideology, perhaps inspired by Marxist critical theory. I personally refuse all these terms and other slogans and words used to draw people into mass collectivist ideologies.

Perhaps, some who follow these ideologies or allow themselves to be known as homosexuals are attracted to “camp” Bells and Smells Anglo-Catholicism.

My dears, next Sunday, we have, not one, but two bishops and an orchestra!

If it hangs, put a tassel on it. If it moves, incense it.

I have heard such things in London churches displaying an extreme degree of shallowness.

An “Aesthetic of Resistance” ? This is not a concept with which I am familiar – taking refuge from the modern world of brutalism and ugliness. Perhaps these were characteristics that drew working class people in the Victorian era living in the slums in dire poverty. Anglican priests  of that era led exemplary spiritual lives and risked everything for illegal liturgical practices or rites other than the plain low-church 1662 Prayer Book. What I want to say is that many of us are attracted by liturgical beauty without identifying in any particular way in our personal lives.

In the past, a layman who was not married by a certain age was considered as suspect. The celibate priesthood and monastic life have often been accused as providing a cover. I have known many priests and monks who do not seem to have been so insecure, but rather acted on a sense of vocation stemming from their spiritual lives. Those who aspire to social status have a lot to learn ?

* The “Privacy” of Ritual: In a traditional Latin Mass, the priest faces away from the congregation (ad orientem), and the liturgy is fixed and unchanging. There is less “personal” interaction or focus on the individual’s private life compared to a modern, “low-church” evangelical setting where there is often a high pressure for personal testimony and social scrutiny.

This observation must surely refer to different kinds of personality between extroverts and introverts. Personally, I abhor parties and small talk. Life for me is richer in small groups of friends and time spent alone for prayer and study. Not being attracted to Evangelical praise services or modern liturgies has nothing to do with sexual questions.

* Transcendence: The focus is on the “Mystery of God” rather than the “Community of Man.” For someone who feels like an outsider in society, a liturgy that ignores the modern world entirely can be a profound relief.

Again, this has nothing to do with homosexuality but a spiritual and mystical notion of Christianity that I share.

As for the opposition between Anglo-Catholicism with its openness and the rigidity of Roman Catholic traditionalism, I understand the question about who is “included”. It depends on individual parishes. I wish they would not be LGBTQ+ inclusive as an ideology but rather respect people who respect the majority, a question of doing to others as you would have them do to you. Roman Catholic traditionalists can be very inquisitorial in regard to unmarried laymen!

Oscar Wilde was above all a Romantic in his thinking and understanding of individual freedom. He was a victim of his own imprudence by suing the Marquis of Queensberry for the nasty visiting card. His In Carceris et Vinculis written during his imprisonment is a particularly moving piece of writing, expressing his suffering. Of course, he was attracted to Catholicism by beauty as well as truth and goodness.

Myself, music was my evangelist, not some Bible-bashing fanatic !

I see no justification for “queering” the story of John Henry Newman. If he had sexual relations with his friends, let the accuser produce proof ! So it goes on and on in the same dreary way. All this stuff makes me want to continue to take refuge from this noisy and violent modern world. The piece by Mendelssohn inspired by Psalm 55 comes to mind.

Hear my prayer, O God, incline Thine ear!
Thyself from my petition do not hide.
Take heed to me! Hear how in prayer I mourn to Thee,
Without Thee all is dark, I have no guide.

The enemy shouteth, the godless come fast!
Iniquity, hatred, upon me they cast!
The wicked oppress me, Ah where shall I fly?
Perplexed and bewildered, O God, hear my cry!

My heart is sorely pained within my breast,
my soul with deathly terror is oppressed,
trembling and fearfulness upon me fall,
with horror overwhelmed, Lord, hear me call!

O for the wings, for the wings of a dove!
Far away, far away would I rove!
In the wilderness build me a nest,
and remain there for ever at rest.