Can someone help?

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Do you also choose not to believe scientific research results related to cancer or to educational problems in inner city schools or is it only scientific studies concerning gay etiology?
Two problems:
  • The G-word has no place in this discussion as it changes meaning every few seconds (this is also addressed to those others who have introduced it into earlier posts in this thread)
  • Far better than social science methods is to respect good old-fashioned first person testimony such as by people who have been to “Courage”/“Encourage” whom I have heard and read about, concerning matters of their emotions
Why get so emotional about the emotions of “Courage”/“Encourage” members?
 
…Incidentally you jjr9] keep using the word “capacity”. Who brought that in?
I believe that word arose (in the relevant context) in Post 19.

Note also jjr9 attributes to the Church what is a conclusion of science. In his mind, by accepting a conclusion of science, the Church is deemed to teach that conclusion. Of course, that is wrong.
 
…- The G-word has no place in this discussion as it changes meaning every few seconds (this is also addressed to those others who have introduced it into earlier posts in this thread)…
That’s right, there is typically ambiguity as to whether it refers to one who experiences SSA, or one who experiences and embraces same sex sexual relationships. It is not unusual to see that ambiguity exploited in debates.
 
… jjr9 attributes to the Church what is a conclusion of science. In his mind, by accepting a conclusion of science, the Church is deemed to teach that conclusion. Of course, that is wrong.
Who brought some form of “science” in?

What happened to the good old-fashioned idea of giving respect to good old-fashioned first-person testimony?

😦
 
Who brought some form of “science” in?

What happened to the good old-fashioned idea of giving respect to good old-fashioned first-person testimony?

😦
jjr9 rejects first person testimony, as he states the relevant persons are “confused”, and thus (I presume he would say…) unable to give reliable, meaningful, testimony.

Science (I raised it for the reason stated in an earlier post) conducts studies which both receives and tests “good old-fashioned” testimony (at scale) and conducts other tests to understand and validate the claims, experience, behaviour and motivation of the persons studied.
 
…Although I have no definitive proof I do believe that SSA is a temptation do you believe that SSA is a temptation or is it something else?
This question risks a dive into semantics, to no useful end, but let’s see if it can be addressed…

It is clearly the case that a person who can be aroused by, sexually attracted to, a person of the same sex [experiences SSA] is by virtue of that fact amenable to a temptation. Would we therefore say that SSA is identically the same as a temptation? Or is in fact what we call SSA - this predisposition - something separate?

It is clearly the case that a person who can be aroused by, sexually attracted to, a person of the opposite sex [experiences “OSA”] is by virtue of that fact amenable to a temptation. Would we therefore say that OSA is identically the same as a temptation? Or is in fact what we call OSA - this predisposition - something separate?

What are these separate things [that exist, absent any current object of attraction]? The “Blue Print” for man/woman provides that our sexual attractions are to the opposite sex, making them consistent with our bodies. But this is a fallen world, and not everything always matches the blue print. We don’t know why. We don’t even know what specifically in the blue print governs/directs the attraction of male to female, and female to male.

The other experience that needs to be addressed is the reported absence of sexual attraction to the opposite sex. What is to be made of that? In itself, that does not seem to be a temptation.
Is the “reality of the experience” based on something beyond self-identification?
Undoubtedly - something is not made real simply because it is said. However, science does not know what gives rise to the (claimed) experience, hence it can’t point to it in any individual. We are left with individuals “telling us” of their experience. We have a few choices:
  1. presume them to be liars;
  2. presume them to be confused (your word - though I’m not clear what it means or implies);
  3. presume them to be earnestly reporting their experience (their reality).
I note that 2. and 3. need not be mutually exclusive. Perhaps their experience reflects a psychological or pathological condition. We don’t know. I contend something must be “amiss” in a person whose sexual attractions are inconsistent with their bodies. And that provides an opening for Satan to tempt.
 
I am a cradle Catholic and have had difficulty receiving a response from the Church on what I believe to be a serious error by the Church. The Church makes the claim that a group of people “experience an exclusive or predominate sexual attraction
toward persons of the same sex1]”. I believe this defines (5) two types of “homosexual persons2]” those with an “exclusive sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex” and those with a “predominate sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex”.

I believe this is a “new” teaching by the Church circa 1993 with the new CCC. I cannot quantify what a predominate “homosexual person” is, the exclusive “homosexual person” is clear they are not capable 3] of sexual attraction towards persons of the opposite sex.

For the past eleven years I have been seeking answers for this “new” teaching from Catholic clergy and scholars most do not respond, for the rest it ultimately comes down to go away kid and don’t bother me without providing a truly right and just reason for this “new” teaching. I believe the “homosexual person”(as defined by the Church) to be a false premise that is a stumbling block that has been laid on the path of confused people.

I believe that accepting the false premise of the “homosexual person” keeps souls from the Father Almighty, and turns them over to Satan 4]. Does anyone know of a truly right and just reason for this “new” teaching?

God bless and thanks
I am new to this thread in recent hours and there is a lot of very interesting nuances and I am working my way through some of them gradually. I hope my observations will be of help.

Statement 1 draws on the unfashionable first-hand testimony of whoever it draws on. Those testifying to my knowledge and observation have not inerrantly defined ex-their sitting areas that they are never going to have different attractions or non-attractions or emotions (which they just plain don’t know and just plain isn’t an issue at all and see more on this below *), merely relating where they were at in it so far. This has the immense value of speaking to outsiders who can identify with some part of their life’s story. In a world where all authorities are shifting the goalposts it is unfashionably poignant to have to “to thyself be true” (like St Paul and Jeus Himself also enjoin us).

Phrase 2 occurs both in a document of B XVI and in the CCC. The phrase is copied from the world and does what John says it does in his point 4, because it tends to confirm the catechesis of the world that the person described’s actions, his desires (whether serious or not), his merest emotions and his identity are all the same thing.

Most of those John has enquired of probably have an institutional investment in the poor wording. I am surprise this wasn’t commented on earlier.

At the same time when John claims to be paraphasing himself he is often apparently making a different point (which doesn’t quite come over clearly) and it is this apparent second point that almost all the other posters have attempted to address, sometimes by invoking some form of “science” rather than calling for respect for unfashionable first-hand testimony.

John’s C-word (3) is will do fine as a vague word for where one has been and is at so far as far as one is aware, and for reasons I stated a few paragraphs back (*) the context is not appropriate for attempts to rigidly categorise matters of the internal forum such as emotions, by something like an additional canon law - not by Church authorities, not by John, not by the people concerned themselves, not by me, not by anybody.

For “defines” (5) a loose “alludes to” would be better suited to the reality.

I am beginning to wonder if in more than one part of this thread there isn’t a whiff of that commonplace but taken-for-granted species, SCRUPULOSITY-BY-PROXY !!!

Cheer up everybody!

👋 :love: :nope: :sad_yes:
 
Undoubtedly - something is not made real simply because it is said. However, science does not know what gives rise to the (claimed) experience, hence it can’t point to it in any individual. We are left with individuals "telling us" of their experience. We have a few choices:
  1. presume them to be liars;
  2. presume them to be confused (your word - though I’m not clear what it means or implies);
  3. presume them to be earnestly reporting their experience (their reality).
I note that 2. and 3. need not be mutually exclusive. Perhaps their experience reflects a psychological or pathological condition. We don’t know. I contend something must be “amiss” in a person whose sexual attractions are inconsistent with their bodies. And that provides an opening for Satan to tempt.
It is possible to do actual scientific studies that do not just involve what individuals are “telling us.” For example:
Patterns of Brain Activation during Visually
Evoked Sexual Arousal Differ between
Homosexual and Heterosexual Men
RESULTS: Statistical parametric mapping showed that viewing erotic film excerpts that induced sexual
arousal was associated, in both groups, with activation of the middle prefrontal gyrus, bilateral
temporal lobe and postcentral gyrus, thalamus, insula, vermis, left precuneus, occipital cortex, parietal
cortex, and cerebellum. In homosexual men, the left angular gyrus, left caudate nucleus, and right
pallidum were activated; in contrast, heterosexual men showed no activation in these regions.
However, heterosexual men showed activation in the bilateral lingual gyrus, right hippocampus, and
right parahippocampal gyrus, areas not activated in homosexual men. In both groups, region-of-interest
analysis revealed no correlation between the magnitude of amygdala or thalamus activation and the
reported level of sexual arousal.
CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that different neural circuits are active during sexual arousal in
homosexual and heterosexual men and may contribute to a better understanding of the neural basis
of male sexual orientation.
ajnr.org/content/29/10/1890.full.pdf
Haemodynamic brain response to visual sexual stimuli is different between homosexual and heterosexual men.
Abstract
The underlying neurobiological factors involved in sexual orientation are largely unknown. This study investigated whether neural circuits or different cognitive processes accounted for differences in brain activation in 14 heterosexual and 14 homosexual males. Brain scans were undertaken in each subject using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed different sexual stimuli, i.e. heterosexual couple stimuli (HCS), gay couple stimuli (GCS), lesbian couple stimuli (LCS) and neutral stimuli (NS). Ratings of sexual attractiveness of the stimuli were assessed. Subjective sexual arousal was induced by HCS and GCS in heterosexual and homosexual men, respectively. Sexual disgust was induced by GCS and LCS in heterosexual and homosexual men, respectively. Compared with viewing NS, viewing sexual stimuli induced significantly different brain activations, most of which had the characteristics of cognitive processes. These observations suggest that different cognitive patterns may be the major cause of different subjective responses to sexual stimuli between heterosexual and homosexual men.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21672322
 
To deal with point 1 first - the person from “Courage” is correct and the church documents are badly worded for the reason stated by the person from “Courage” (friends of mine who know tell me) but not for the reason you state in point 2 the unrealism of which the other posters point out.
Thank you for taking time to respond, what is “unreal” about my reasoning, Jesus said:

Matt 5:27-28
"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone
who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

I believe that one must have much thought and confusion before they conclude that they are a
“homosexual person”. So to declare oneself a “homosexual person” may be sinful in itself and to live
one’s life as a “homosexual person” “practicing” or not, is a sinful lifestyle. For the Church to accept
the existence of the “homosexual person” or to not actively refute it I believe to be an error.

Do you you believe Jesus’s view “unreal”?

God bless
 
From my observations as a single man and from what I am often told by astute and well qualified acquaintances, the role of emotions in marriage shouldn’t be taken for granted but must continually receive long, slow thought :extrahappy:

Is that your viewpoint from your point of view jjr ?
I do not have issue with Church teaching on marriage. Are you in favor of same sex “marriage”?

God bless
 
This question risks a dive into semantics, to no useful end, but let’s see if it can be addressed…

It is clearly the case that a person who can be aroused by, sexually attracted to, a person of the same sex [experiences SSA] is by virtue of that fact amenable to a temptation. Would we therefore say that SSA is identically the same as a temptation? Or is in fact what we call SSA - this predisposition - something separate?

It is clearly the case that a person who can be aroused by, sexually attracted to, a person of the opposite sex [experiences “OSA”] is by virtue of that fact amenable to a temptation. Would we therefore say that OSA is identically the same as a temptation? Or is in fact what we call OSA - this predisposition - something separate?
Several of me mates including some Catholic and Protestant ones over the years knew about this. Give them a break, an attraction is an attraction. Over the years they haven’t always sexualised this, so neither should you always. I hope you will be comfortable with the general concept of “attraction” when people are just trying to make conversation in a way that will help others identify (including identifying that abstention is an open path to them).
 
It is possible to do actual scientific studies that do not just involve what individuals are “telling us.” For example:
As an “experiment” of such a sort as you allude to wouldn’t be ethical, I do not dignify it by my phrase “some sort of science”.

Even more, what exactly have you got against John or anyone else listening to another human being?

Does ECLA believe in protecting human beings’ boundaries?
 
Jjr9, I do not have an issue with Church teaching either as far as I am aware.

If you can - without us prying - give us a little “local colour” on the background to your second point - which as far as I can see is about emotions - I hope we will between us be able to give you the other part of the help you have requested.

I don’t know which testimony you are referring to. The only testimony I am referring to refers to emotions only, not a self-description, i.e is in line with the philosophy of Courage/Encourage and with core Church teachings (not well expressed in those documents).
 
… believe in protecting human beings’ boundaries?
Thorolfr, Apologies, for a start I should have said do you rather than does ELCA but in any case only insofar as it doesn’t distract from Jjr9’s thread. Sorry.
 
Jjr9, I do not have an issue with Church teaching either as far as I am aware.

If you can - without us prying - give us a little “local colour” on the background to your second point - which as far as I can see is about emotions - I hope we will between us be able to give you the other part of the help you have requested.

I don’t know which testimony you are referring to. The only testimony I am referring to refers to emotions only, not a self-description, i.e is in line with the philosophy of Courage/Encourage and with core Church teachings (not well expressed in those documents).
Just for clarity the only help that I am seeking is to have the Church recognize and correct what
I believe to be an error.

The Church makes a claim that a group of people has the capacity to “experience an exclusive …
sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex” I believe that this is a fundamental error by the
Church. The important aspect of the error has to do with the view of temptation the Church has taken
which is inconsistent with any Church history, tradition or prior church teaching. The sexual aspect
is just incidental due to the nature of this “new” Church teaching.

God bless
 
…The important aspect of the error has to do with the view of temptation the Church has taken…
God bless
Post #149 touches on this. Our differing circumstances may render us prone to differing temptations. This is not a “view of temptation”.
 
Just for clarity the only help that I am seeking is to have the Church recognize and correct what
I believe to be an error.

The Church makes a claim that a group of people has the capacity to “experience an exclusive …
sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex” I believe that this is a fundamental error by the
Church. The important aspect of the error has to do with the view of temptation the Church has taken
which is inconsistent with any Church history, tradition or prior church teaching. The sexual aspect
is just incidental due to the nature of this “new” Church teaching.

God bless
I believe the Church to merely be describing a group of people who identify themselves in such a way. Prior to the '60’s and the sexual revolution, ‘gays’ were less public about their sexual desires, hence the lack of descriptive terms in the church. If the Church were to talk about ‘gays’ or ‘queers’ in the 1950’s, people would take it to mean ‘happy people.’ Currently, to express a self-identifying significant aspect of a certain population, the Church must use the terms the population uses, hence the use of ‘homosexual persons’ in the catechism. The Church isn’t teaching anything new, just using descriptive language. Why do you think that after 2000 years of being kept in truth by the Holy Spirit that all of a sudden the Spirit went on vacation?
 
Post #149 touches on this. Our differing circumstances may render us prone to differing temptations. This is not a “view of temptation”.
This is the first and only time the Church has linked a group of people to a specific
temptation. Please feel free to prove me wrong.

God bless
 
Thank you for taking time to reply
I believe the Church to merely be describing a group of people who identify themselves in such a way. Prior to the '60’s and the sexual revolution, ‘gays’ were less public about their sexual desires, hence the lack of descriptive terms in the church. If the Church were to talk about ‘gays’ or ‘queers’ in the 1950’s, people would take it to mean ‘happy people.’ Currently, to express a self-identifying significant aspect of a certain population, the Church must use the terms the population uses, hence the use of ‘homosexual persons’ in the catechism.
I believe the Church must not “use the terms the population uses, hence the use of ‘homosexual persons’ in the catechism”
if in doing so it supports views contrary to Church history, tradition and Apostolic teaching as in this instance.
The Church isn’t teaching anything new, just using descriptive language.
Can you cite prior Church teaching where the Church claims a group of people “experience an exclusive … sexual
attraction toward persons of the same sex”?
Why do you think that after 2000 years of being kept in truth by the Holy Spirit that all of a sudden the Spirit went on vacation?
I fully expect the Holy Spirit to correct this error by the Church the Church has made and corrected errors
in the past and will in the future. This will happen in the Lord’s time not mine but I have an obligation to the
Lord to point out an error by the Church if I see one. The Church is free to point out if I am in error the Church
has not.

Do you believe anyone is incapable of attraction to persons of the opposite sex? I do not.

God bless
 
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