G
GayCatholic
Guest
I am a gay man, and I am Catholic, and YES a person can be BOTH and still find favor in God’s eyes. I am OPEN about my sexual orientation (God created me this way, I did not CHOOSE to be gay) and I am VERY ACTIVE in my church and I am part of the paid staff. There are many things I want to say on this topic. First off, God is LOVE and whenever 2 people enter into a loving relationship, God is present with them. I do not belive God intends for me to go through my life ALONE without the love and support of a spouse. And for me, my spouse would be another gay man. We have the same exact love any man and woman share, and love is never wrong. Love is a beautiful HUMAN expereince and it should not be denied to anyone.
I constantly have the same Bible versers quoted to me over and over… namely the story of Soddom and Gomorrah and a few other quotes. It always strikes me that when it comes to homosexuality, it seems it’s ok to take things out of context and to attach extraordinary moral value to a few lines of Biblical text. This is not done for any other issue except for homosexuality. The Bible is full of laws and moral teachings on sex, dietary laws, agriculture, and marriage. What about the teaching that if a woman becomes a widow, she is to marry her husband’s brother. Why don’t we uphold that teaching from the Bible? In some of my religious education classes in high school and college, I remember teachers saying how many of the laws (like planting two different crops in the same field) were part of an older system of moral teaching that is no longer applicable to God’s people today. We no longer put adulterous women to death, for example. But, we cling to the quotes about homosexuality in the Bible and say they still apply. Why is that? And why is that fair?
The Catholic Church is not perfect. Over the last 2000 years mistakes were made, laws were changed, new interpertations of the Bible came to light. I believe it’s only a matter of time before the Catholic Church wakes up and changes it’s stand on homosexuality and same sex marriage. For right now, the gay community isn’t fighting for sacramental rights. We know the difference between equality and protection under the law and equality at the altar. We want LEGAL recognition of our life-long commitments as two people, fully in love, who want to share their lives completely with each other. We want the same legal rights and priviledges a man and woman get when they marry: things like filing joint taxes, inclusion in the family medical leave act, insurance coverage, and the hundreds of other rights and privieldges that comes with marriage. That is a start. Once we become equal under the law, we’ll deal with making same sex marriage an equal sacrament in the Church. It will happen someday. I believe it is God’s will. It might take a while for the Church to recognize it as such, but it will happen. Afterall, the Church finally figured out the earth isn’t flat and that it actually revolves around the sun. People died for believing such things before the Church figured out where it went wrong. Ooops! Like I said, the Catholic Church is not perfect.
And neither is marriage. If marriage is such a sacred institution, a sacramental covenant between God, a woman and a man, why is the divorce rate so high? Why are so many couples unfaithful to each other? Why is there so much domestic violence? Is this what you are protecting? Is this the sacred bliss you want to deny to same sex couples? I heard one comedian on tv say, “I’m for gay marriage, I think they should be just as miserable as the rest of us!” And then there are the Britney Spears and the Liza Menelli’s, the Liz Taylors and the Jennifer Lopez’s of the world who treat marriage like a joke. Why doesn’t the Catholic Church speak out about these things?
The Catholic Church has lost it’s hold on the bedroom. Many Catholics disregard Church teachings about contraception, sex outside of marriage, adulty and divorce. Yet there is no outcry about these issues either. The outcry only comes when two men or women who love each other want to share thier lives together and be treated equally with the same rights and priviledges as everyone else.
It’s enough to make me ashamed to be Catholic or even a Christian. And people ask me why don’t I just leave the Catholic Church and join one that is more accepting. Well, my honest answer is this: God has made it clear to me that He wants me to stay in the Catholic Church, to speak out and to help correct what is wrong, and I say to Him “Thy will be done…”
I still hear the saying “What would Jesus do?” I know, when I get married to the the MAN that I love, and when we make our vows before God, Jesus will be with us, celebrating with us just as He did at the wedding in Cana. Because God is love, and love is never wrong.
I constantly have the same Bible versers quoted to me over and over… namely the story of Soddom and Gomorrah and a few other quotes. It always strikes me that when it comes to homosexuality, it seems it’s ok to take things out of context and to attach extraordinary moral value to a few lines of Biblical text. This is not done for any other issue except for homosexuality. The Bible is full of laws and moral teachings on sex, dietary laws, agriculture, and marriage. What about the teaching that if a woman becomes a widow, she is to marry her husband’s brother. Why don’t we uphold that teaching from the Bible? In some of my religious education classes in high school and college, I remember teachers saying how many of the laws (like planting two different crops in the same field) were part of an older system of moral teaching that is no longer applicable to God’s people today. We no longer put adulterous women to death, for example. But, we cling to the quotes about homosexuality in the Bible and say they still apply. Why is that? And why is that fair?
The Catholic Church is not perfect. Over the last 2000 years mistakes were made, laws were changed, new interpertations of the Bible came to light. I believe it’s only a matter of time before the Catholic Church wakes up and changes it’s stand on homosexuality and same sex marriage. For right now, the gay community isn’t fighting for sacramental rights. We know the difference between equality and protection under the law and equality at the altar. We want LEGAL recognition of our life-long commitments as two people, fully in love, who want to share their lives completely with each other. We want the same legal rights and priviledges a man and woman get when they marry: things like filing joint taxes, inclusion in the family medical leave act, insurance coverage, and the hundreds of other rights and privieldges that comes with marriage. That is a start. Once we become equal under the law, we’ll deal with making same sex marriage an equal sacrament in the Church. It will happen someday. I believe it is God’s will. It might take a while for the Church to recognize it as such, but it will happen. Afterall, the Church finally figured out the earth isn’t flat and that it actually revolves around the sun. People died for believing such things before the Church figured out where it went wrong. Ooops! Like I said, the Catholic Church is not perfect.
And neither is marriage. If marriage is such a sacred institution, a sacramental covenant between God, a woman and a man, why is the divorce rate so high? Why are so many couples unfaithful to each other? Why is there so much domestic violence? Is this what you are protecting? Is this the sacred bliss you want to deny to same sex couples? I heard one comedian on tv say, “I’m for gay marriage, I think they should be just as miserable as the rest of us!” And then there are the Britney Spears and the Liza Menelli’s, the Liz Taylors and the Jennifer Lopez’s of the world who treat marriage like a joke. Why doesn’t the Catholic Church speak out about these things?
The Catholic Church has lost it’s hold on the bedroom. Many Catholics disregard Church teachings about contraception, sex outside of marriage, adulty and divorce. Yet there is no outcry about these issues either. The outcry only comes when two men or women who love each other want to share thier lives together and be treated equally with the same rights and priviledges as everyone else.
It’s enough to make me ashamed to be Catholic or even a Christian. And people ask me why don’t I just leave the Catholic Church and join one that is more accepting. Well, my honest answer is this: God has made it clear to me that He wants me to stay in the Catholic Church, to speak out and to help correct what is wrong, and I say to Him “Thy will be done…”
I still hear the saying “What would Jesus do?” I know, when I get married to the the MAN that I love, and when we make our vows before God, Jesus will be with us, celebrating with us just as He did at the wedding in Cana. Because God is love, and love is never wrong.
