Listed by
Time Magazine in 1979 as one of "seven stars of the pulpit", Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout the United States and the
United Kingdom. In 2009, he represented Harvard University as lecturer at Cambridge University on the occasion of its 800th anniversary. Gomes published a total of ten volumes of sermons, as well as numerous articles and papers. and two bestselling books,
The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and
Sermons, the Book of Wisdom for Daily Living. The Right Reverend Lord
Robert Runcie, 102nd
Archbishop of Canterbury, England, ecclesiastical head of the
Anglican Communion, said of Gomes's
The Good Book that it "offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style", which is also "lively";
Henry Louis Gates Jr. called it "Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people". His last work,
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, included extensive commentary and observation on the interrelations of Church and State throughout history and particularly in recent US history. In 1991 Gomes identified himself publicly as
gay, though adding that he remained
celibate, and became an advocate of acceptance of homosexuality in American society and particularly in religion: I now have an unambiguous vocation — a mission — to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia... I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays. Same-sex marriage advocate
Evan Wolfson described Gomes as an integral contributor to the cause of marriage equality. He maintained that "one can read into the
Bible almost any interpretation of morality ... for its passages had been used to defend slavery and the liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral" as paraphrased by Robert D. McFadden in the
New York Times (March 2, 2011). Gomes was a registered
Republican for most of his life, and offered prayers at the inaugurals of United States Presidents
Ronald Reagan and
George H. W. Bush. In August 2006, he changed his registration to the
Democratic Party (United States), supporting the candidacy of
Deval Patrick, who was that year elected the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. (Gomes and Patrick had become friends during Patrick's undergraduate days at Harvard.) According to a book on
Martin Luther King Jr., Gomes "was never easy to label. Conservative evangelicals, for instance, were quick to criticize the liberalism he sometimes displayed during his long tenure as the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University—and yet a photograph of Reverend Billy Graham, hero to evangelicals across the world, towered above all others on the shelf behind Gomes’s stately office desk." ==Honors and tributes==