Baring Witness: 36 Mormon women talk candidly about love, sex, and marriage

Abstract

him for Oxford, but his vocation to Christian ministry, frustrated pre-transition, remained undeveloped. In Bristol, he found a trusted friend and counselor in Canon A.R. Millbourn, who offered similar non-judgmental support to Roberta Cowell, and even wrote the foreword to her autobiography. It would be interesting to know more about this mid-twentieth-century Anglican advocate for transgender people. Evangelically inclined at Oxford, while at sea Dillon/Jivaka also appreciated the pastoral care and hospitality of the Missions to Seamen, but his belief in Christ’s divinity waned and, increasingly immersed in Buddhism, he came “to the view that Christ was a Bodhisattva of a very high order who gained Buddhahood on the cross” (197). Coincidently, just prior to reading that passage, I encountered John Hick’s suggestion in The Myth of God Incarnate (SCM 1977, 176) that had Christianity moved east instead of west, Buddhists would probably have conceptualized Jesus’ religious significance by hailing him as a Bodhisattva. Inspired by Bodhisattva compassion for others, rather than preoccupation with personal salvation, Dillon/Jivaka also took the Bodhisattva Vow, but his whole life – he was just 47 when he died – exhibited unfailing patience, diligence and long suffering in the face of setback and betrayal. Even his ordination as a novice-monk was delayed because his gender history, shared in confidence, was revealed to others due to its presumed conflict with Buddhist norms of gendered perfection then prevalent. His modesty and hope in the face of these and other adversities make this a moving story as well as a valuable record.