Is it time we welcome the gay community to ours?

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LegoGE1947 said:
Seems people want to be entertained, whether it is at church or wherever. Hence Protestant churches where you have theater-style seats, concession stands in the lobbies, services that resemble stage shows and places that put out big neon signs with the slogan “A DIFFERENT WAY TO DO CHURCH”!🤷
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That means we shouldn’t follow that. They may have a lot more people but the commitment isn’t very deep and when one builds a house on a sand bar, the storms will come and blow it away. I would caution you into lumping all Protestant services as entertainment style. It is far to them, very is such a variety in Protestantism from liturgical style to a free form pentacostal. Once needs to be careful in the characterization.
 
kozlosap said:
Paul also said that women should not teach men or be able to attend worship services in the main chapel. Goodness sakes, the Church is not hateful towards gay individuals or their private lives, unlike many posters here on CAF. I certainly don’t ever expect Papa Francis to ever describe gay people as disgusting.🤷
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sfxavier.org/index.php A video of Cardinal Dolan attending a Gay Mass
 
Jessie5000 said:
If the pope does not judge gays, who am I to judge. I figure Christ would welcome them into our church, it is the right and loving thing to do. It saddens me to read the judging comments and hatefilled self-righteous comments following your post. I guess it is easy to forget that none are without sin and all need a savior. What makes people think they are better than homosexuals… it seems overly self-righteous to me.
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Interesting…With a few exceptions I have not seen any hate filled self-righteous comments on this thread…Most all of the comments have said that those with SSA are welcome in the Church.

That said - one must be careful in how one reads and responds to these things. Consider these two points if you will.
First - The Holy Father does not judge gays. Is this the same thing as not judging the homosexual act? One can refuse to pass judgement on an individual and yet still hold that an act is sinful. The old adage of “hate the sin, love the sinner” comes into play here. Any person with SSA (or any other serious sin issues) who wishes to repent (even if they must struggle to overcome) is welcome in the Church.
What is not welcome - what cannot happen is something that is inherent in the title of the thread…which brings me to point number two.

Second - Look carefully at the question in the thread title. It’s asking if we should welcome the “gay community”. What does this term “gay community” mean? Does it mean a community of SSA people who are struggling to overcome this problem? No it does not. Rather, the term “gay community” indicates a certain outlook and lifestyle that says that homosexual acts are OK That they are not sinful Such an outlook is simply not acceptable within the Catholic Church.
So - the outlook summarized by the term “gay community” is not compatible with the long and consistent teachings of the Catholic Church.

The bottom line is that all who suffer from sinful tendencies and who wish to repent and overcome those tendencies (whatever they might be) ARE to be welcomed in the Church. As our fellow poster “the phoenix” said above, they are welcome to join us in the line to confession - to that cleansing and infusion of grace available in confession - and even to the Eucharist - praise God.
What cannot happen is that the Church welcome the “gay community” and all that this term encompasses.

Do you find the above to be hate filled or self righteous?

Peace
James
 
Let the church in Laodicea change the definition of marriage and support abortion on demand and take the Lords Name in vain and do a little bit of money changing…
And let them be the most popular.

Church attendance DOWN.
Support for gay adoption/marriage rights UP.

Yep! There’s a connection alright.
But it’s not what you think.
 
phil19034 said:
Gay people are welcome, but the sin of gay sex is not approved

Single straight people who have pre-marital sex are welcome, but the sin of pre-marital sex is not approved

People who masturbate are welcome, but the sin of masturbation is not approved

Thieves are welcome, but the sin of theft is not approved

Sinners are welcome, but sins are not approved.
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Exactly, all sinners are welcome but sins are not approved. The sinner needs to make a sincere effort to stop the sin call it homosexual acts, pre marital sex ,masturbation, stealing, lying etc
 
Homosexuals are welcome to worship in the Catholic Church. They should be welcome by fellow sinners to come to the font of grace. But they are held to the same standards that heterosexuals are held to. If a heterosexual is in serious sin, they must repent and confess. If a heterosexual refuses to do so, they are not to receive communion. Homosexuals want equality, well, they got it in the Catholic Church. If they are in serious sin, they have to follow the same steps as a heterosexual who is in serious sin.

By “welcoming” the “gay community”, I certainly hope you do not mean accommodating their sexual disorder by changing the Church position on homosexual sex or any sexual deviancy. We are not to conform to this age (Rm 12:2), so just because the world has begun to say this sexual deviancy is not a deviancy, the Church is still going to call it what it is. Homosexual sex is a sin of grave matter. Incest is a sin of grave matter. Adultery and fornication are sins of grave matter. There is no changing the truth no matter how socially acceptable the lie becomes.

PS. It seems there is some real confusion about judgement. The passage in Matthew 7: 1-5 which says “judge not” is a guide to how we are to judge behavior. It tells us we must not be hypocrites -we need to remove the planks from our own eyes and then we can reprove our brother. Also, the Scripture clearly tells us we cannot judge someone’s salvation because that is God’s work alone (Jn 5:22-30) But notice the numerous passages where we are called to rebuke and correct those who are in sinful behavior. (There are many more of these kinds of passages)

From James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone bring him back, 20 he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

John 7:24 Do not judge by appearance, but judge justly.

2 Tim 4:2-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: 2 proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity,will accumulate teachers 4 and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.

Gal 6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any sin, you who are spiritual should recall him in a spirit of gentleness.

Ezekiel 33:7-9
You, son of man—I have appointed you as a sentinel for the house of Israel; when you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them for me.
8 When I say to the wicked, “You wicked, you must die,” and you do not speak up to warn the wicked about their ways, they shall die in their sins,** but I will hold you responsible for their blood.** 9 If, however, you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, but they do not, then they shall die in their sins, but you shall save your life.
 
What exactly is the “gay community”? Gay is not a meaningless label it is a label that explicitly applies to a set of sexual acts between people of the same gender. If one is not engaged in homosexual acts they are not doing anything that would alienate them from being fully involved in the Church. No forms are filled out before you can go to mass asking you if you are attracted to people of the same sex. This is just a diversionary position to change the Church’s position on homo-sodomy. “Gay community” is synonymous with gay agenda nothing more and that should never be welcomed in any Church.
 
Rhys_Sutherland said:
I’m a definite believer yes they should. Lets be honest the popularity of the church is declining at an alarming rate. And we need to get people excited about coming again and not chastise any walk of life we deem unfit.

Ps. I’m straight and catholic

So what is your view?
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Jesus was crucified by a popular vote. The Church is not a popularity contest. The wisdom of the Catholic Church is wisdom that comes directly from God since Jesus is God, and he is the one who instituted the Church. As others have said, the Church says to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is the essence of what Jesus taught with an example being how he was merciful to the woman who was caught in adultery while telling her “go, and do not sin again.” (John 8:11). By the way, heterosexuals have sexual sins that we struggle with, too.
 
M1Garand said:
What exactly is the “gay community”? Gay is not a meaningless label it is a label that explicitly applies to a set of sexual acts between people of the same gender. If one is not engaged in homosexual acts they are not doing anything that would alienate them from being fully involved in the Church. No forms are filled out before you can go to mass asking you if you are attracted to people of the same sex. This is just a diversionary position to change the Church’s position on homo-sodomy. “Gay community” is synonymous with gay agenda nothing more and that should never be welcomed in any Church.
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👍👍👍
 
My answer to the OP is WWJD for the following:

A repentant privately gay person.

A member of the gay community who is openly proud of this behavior and condones and promotes this, influencing little children, to know about such things way before they should.

Two different scenarios and two different answers I believe. If anyone influenced children to sin and think it’s okay then they would not be welcome in my house. Why would it be okay to be in God’s house? This would include any sin to be fair.
 
Jessie5000 said:
If the pope does not judge gays, who am I to judge. I figure Christ would welcome them into our church, it is the right and loving thing to do. It saddens me to read the judging comments and hatefilled self-righteous comments following your post. I guess it is easy to forget that none are without sin and all need a savior. What makes people think they are better than homosexuals… it seems overly self-righteous to me.
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You are wrong about this, Look at what God did to Sodom and Gomarrah, was that act welcoming to homosexuals?
 
mikekle said:
You are wrong about this, Look at what God did to Sodom and Gomarrah, was that act welcoming to homosexuals?
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Look at the fact that we all die. But then also look at the fact that God gave us life in the first place. But not only that, God died on the cross for our sins when he didn’t have to and when he himself was innocent. If you would have been the only human being to ever be created, Jesus would still do all that he did and die on the cross for you. Jesus loves you that much. No mere mortal can do that for you. God is the one who gives you your next heartbeat and your next breath, and God is the one who is offering you eternal life in Heaven. The truth is God, and God is love itself. Because he is God and has infinitely greater intellect and understanding than we have we can’t expect to grasp the wisdom of everything he does. But what we don’t understand in this world has been revealed to the saints in Heaven who behold God’s face in the beatific vision. But Hell, by definition, means being away from God for eternity. What is there without God? Satan, demons, child molesters, rapists, murderers, thieves, etc. For me, the choice is easy.
 
I do not know the intentions of the original poster but the post seems like more propaganda to conform to liberal ideas. Too many people are trying to change the Church from within to be lax on serious moral issues of the day. I always think and am not 100% sure, but do the freemasons play a part in this? If I am wrong I appologize. Homosexual acts are one of the four sins that ‘cry out to heaven.’ People with same sex attraction are welcome but they have to want to be chaste and do Gods will. If people are repentant as all of us have the opportunity the Church is welcoming with open arms. The problem is those that have bad intentions and come into the Church to lobby it with their own agenda and not Gods agenda. Also being a bad judge is one who judges evil to be good and good to be evil. I believe that is in the book of James.
 
Jessie5000 said:
If the pope does not judge gays, who am I to judge. I figure Christ would welcome them into our church, it is the right and loving thing to do. It saddens me to read the judging comments and hatefilled self-righteous comments following your post. I guess it is easy to forget that none are without sin and all need a savior. What makes people think they are better than homosexuals… it seems overly self-righteous to me.
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Nobody is vilifying homosexuals on this thread, and nobody is saying that they are netter than homosexuals.

The Church welcomes homosexuals, as it does all people. We are all called to repent our sins. However the Church cannot (and should not) change its position on the sinfulness of homosexual acts, just like it cannot change its position on heterosexual sexual acts outside marriage. Homosexuals are welcome, but like other sinners is a state of grave sin are not permitted to receive Holy Communion while in this state. A repentant, chaste homosexual is of course allowed to receive Holy Communion (as is a repentant, chaste, unmarried heterosexual).

As to welcoming the ‘gay community’, the Church welcomes people as individuals who wish to come to Christ. The ‘gay community’ is made up of a large and varied section of many individuals, all of whom are different. How can this community collectively be seeking their salvation? How can this community be collectively seeking to come to Christ? Some individuals will and some individuals will not. Therefore the Church can only welcome the individual sinner, not an entire community, many of whom have no interest at all in seeking salvation.

The Church’s position is very clear, individual homosexuals are most definitely welcome in our Church.

CCC 2358: The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial.** They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.** Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
 
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