ABSTRACT
The term spiritual director refers to an ancient tradition found mainly in Catholic Christianity and, to some extent, Buddhism. The term spiritual direction' is generally associated with sacramental confession and, thus, offered by ordained priests. James Fowler identifies various stages in spiritual development though which people grow. Those in the Moral Majority (MM) would seem to be best labelled as being in the Mythic-literal and imperial self stage. Spanish mystic, spiritual guide, and major figure of the Counter-Reformation, St John of the Cross, offered a way forward through what he identified as three stages of spiritual development: the purgative, the illuminative and the unitive. The final stage of spiritual development explored by St John of the Cross is the unitive. Those lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s are likely to have believed in progress for minorities, following the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.
