Gomes, Peter John

May 22, 1942

Theologian Peter Gomes, whom Time magazine called "one of America's great preachers," was born in Boston and grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father was a Cape Verdean immigrant who labored in the local cranberry bogs, while his mother was a fourth-generation African-American Bostonian, from an affluent family, who had studied music at the New England Conservatory before becoming the first African American to work in Cambridge's city hall. Gomes attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he received his B.A. in 1965, then attended Harvard University Divinity School. After Gomes earned an S.T.B. degree from Harvard in 1968, he was ordained a minister in the American Baptist Church. He subsequently took a position as professor of history and director of Freshman Studies at the Tuskegee Institute.

In 1970 Gomes accepted the post of assistant minister at Harvard's prestigious Memorial Church and was named professor of Christian morals. Over the following two decades he was a notable figure at Harvard for his dynamic preaching and thoughtful biblical exegesis and for his conservative Republican politics. In 1984 and 1988 Gomes was selected to deliver sermons at the inaugurations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

In 1991, at a rally held in protest of an antigay piece in the conservative Harvard magazine Peninsula, Gomes came out as "a Christian who happens as well to be gay." He thereafter became an important figure in the gay rights movement. In 1998, two years after he published a bestselling Bible analysis, The Good Book, Gomes announced that Memorial Church would solemnize same-sex unions.

Gomes was named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life. Gomes has spoken and delivered sermons all over the world, has been a guest on numerous television programs, and has been the subject of many magazine articles.

See also Baptists; Gay Men; Lesbians; Theology

Bibliography

Gomes, Peter J. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart. New York: Morrow, 1996.

Higgins, Richard. "Polishing the Truth. (Interview)" The Christian Century 119, no. 11 (May 22, 2002): 19–20.

Ostling, Richard N. "Christians Spar in Harvard Yard." Time 139, no. 11 (March 16, 1992): 49.

greg robinson (2001)
Updated by publisher 2005