Should Christianity reach out to the LGBT community?

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Robert_Sock said:
If so, how? They are certainly going through great trials and are in need of spiritual and religious guidance. I believe that church leaders of all denominations should openly state that members of the LGBT community are to be welcomed with genuine love without actually condoning the behavior. Even if members of the LGBT community do not choose to accept the invitation, at least they will know that we are here to help them and that we are not prejudiced against them.
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I guess by “members of the LGBT community”, you refer to persons who see the living out of LGBT inclinations as a good and proper. With that in mind, one needs to think through what kinds of “reaching out” could do good. While a Church might hang a “LGBTs Welome Here” sign - thought needs to be given to what that sign is understood to mean.

I think there are a great many charitable and social programs in which the Church can engage. But LGBT persons committed to same sex partners, SSM and so on are simply not going to be interested in calling the Catholic Church their Church. They are going to seek out options such as the ELCA which (at least in some locations) performs SSM. Perhaps dialoguing with the ELCA (noting it has a spread of positions on homosexuality, some very Catholic-like) would be a useful form of “reaching out”.
 
Tim_D said:
…Being “transgendered” is a psychological issue. Abetting a person in a mental delusion is not helpful.
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I believe it is a delusion to believe one is Napoleon Bonaparte. It does not follow that to suffer a dysphoria is properly termed a delusion. Something is a miss for sure - we don’t know what. The serious cases are extremely distressing for the sufferer.
 
1neophyte said:
Yeah, that’s what I figured. Most people prefer to leave out the first half.
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I’m not sure why. It’s positive affirmation that there is forgiveness (NB: not acceptance) of sin available. And the second part (“Go and sin no more”) reminds us of the conditions to be forgiven - a commitment to be better.
 
SAVINGRACE said:
Is a gay Catholic who sleeps around a worse sinner than a married heterosexual Catholic who sleeps around? What about a celibate gay Catholic as opposed to a celibate heterosexual Catholic, is one a worse sinner than the other?

Everyone sins. Gays and lesbians are no worse sinners than you or I. If individuals approach your parish they should be treated with respect and dignity.

Not sold on a specific LGBT outreach because they can be hostile to religious people, many have had bad experiences with religious people. It gets too confrontational.
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Right. But what if the question had been asked “Should Christianity **reach out **to fornicators and adulterers”? Noone’s soul is checked at the door.
 
Rau said:
Right. But what if the question had been asked “Should Christianity **reach out **to fornicators and adulterers”? Noone’s soul is checked at the door.
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If one thought that fornication and adultery were just as sinful as LGBTQ behaviour then yes, it would seem rather hypocritical to ignore one and not the other. 👍

But there still seems to be the question of whether adulterers and fornicators are
“born that way”. If they are, perhaps they don’t feel they need ‘outreach’ because they don’t think they are doing anything ‘wrong’.
 
Lion_IRC said:
If one thought that fornication and adultery were just as sinful as LGBTQ behaviour then yes, it would seem rather hypocritical to ignore one and not the other. 👍

But there still seems to be the question of whether adulterers and fornicators are
“born that way”. If they are, perhaps they don’t feel they need ‘outreach’ because they don’t think they are doing anything ‘wrong’.
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I don’t follow what point you are seeking to make.
 
members of the LGBT community are to be welcomed with genuine love without actually condoning the behavior.
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All left-handed are welcome! Just don’t “show” you are a left-handed man\woman in any way. 😃

Seriously though, I’m just curious what do u want to propose them? An unnatural state of forced celibacy and just a shadow of a life without realizing their rights and freedoms defined in the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, without pursuit for happiness and all? :confused:

It doesn’t sound good tbh.
 
Otar_Mendes said:
All left-handed are welcome! Just don’t “show” you are a left-handed man\woman in any way. 😃

Seriously though, I’m just curious what do u want to propose them? An unnatural state of forced celibacy and just a shadow of a life without realizing their rights and freedoms defined in the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, without pursuit for happiness and all? :confused:

It doesn’t sound good tbh.
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You’re concerned with what you term an “unnatural state of forced celibacy” while at the same time acting as if two men having “intercourse” is natural?

I think you have your terms mixed up.
 
Rau said:
I don’t follow what point you are seeking to make.
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OK let me try again.

You wrote:
Rau said:
Right. But what if the question had been asked “Should Christianity **reach out **to fornicators and adulterers”? Noone’s soul is checked at the door.
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Do you put LGBT people in the same (outreach) category as fornicators and adulterers?
Should the outreach be no different for one rather than the other?
 
Lion_IRC said:
…Do you put LGBT people in the same (outreach) category as fornicators and adulterers?
Should the outreach be no different for one rather than the other?
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You’ve just restated my question then. I thought you were answering it.
 
The Catholic Church has an excellent ministry called Courage (couragerc.org) that treats those with same-sex attractions with truth AND compassion, helping them to live a virtuous life without encouraging them in sin.

The Catholic Church does not “affirm” the LGBT lifestyle unlike some Protestant groups. But she DOES reach out and does not shun. She will always welcome, as she welcomes all kinds of sinners.

It is the Church who is shunned by activist LGBTQIAXYZ123±* lobbyists.
 
Christians should reach out to everyone and not exclude anyone. But there are different ways and callings of doing that.

But they also have to be prepared.

If one is going to talk to a radical, be prepared for a radical response.
 
Rau said:
It was my question.
Perhaps you could offer some thoughts?

Different groups have different needs and will warrant differences in approach,
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I agreed with you. And your point was well-made.
It would be outreach hypocrisy to treat LGBT folks differently than “fornicators and adulterers”
 
…but as I said, not all people think they need outreach and many take offence at the notion that their behaviour can be equated with sin. Especially since they, in many/most cases, claim to be born that way. (Naturalistic fallacy)
 
I don’t know about LGBT in general, but I definitely think the Church should get more involved with Catholics living with disordered attractions. If they are already a strong believer, they can find that information themselves. However, there are many of these people wavering in their faith because of the difficulty of living with this problem. Those people need the support of the Church. At the local level a start would be education and support programs in parishes for Catholics with same-sex attraction. Because of the low number of these people, it might require several parishes to work together.

The content of the programs would be a combination of education in how gay Catholics should be living and support for this difficult life. Because of the potential difficulty of loneliness and chastity in single life, part of the this would involve fellow Catholics providing encouragement for the effort made and congratulations for successful change. This would also require Catholic volunteers to help in these programs. Because of past history in the Church, parishes would probably have a hard time getting volunteers. Right now, there is almost no ministry to these people, so it wouldn’t take much to make a difference.
 
Lion_IRC said:
I agreed with you. And your point was well-made.
It would be outreach hypocrisy to treat LGBT folks differently than “fornicators and adulterers”
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That was not my assertion; not the point I was making. I was asking what form this outreach might take? And how might it look in the case if “fornicators and adulterers”.
 
Robert_Sock said:
If so, how? They are certainly going through great trials and are in need of spiritual and religious guidance. I believe that church leaders of all denominations should openly state that members of the LGBT community are to be welcomed with genuine love without actually condoning the behavior. Even if members of the LGBT community do not choose to accept the invitation, at least they will know that we are here to help them and that we are not prejudiced against them.
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Why do Church leaders need to single out this particular group? There are many other groups of people struggling with various sins. Seems to me no special appeal is necessary. The church is for all sinners, period. But the church must continue to teach that unrepentant sin is death, too.
 
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