So your same sex partnered friends told you they converted from sexual to non-sexual or chaste relations? How many same sex couples do you personally know and of that, how many do you believe made such conversion?
There are a great number of sinful people - period. I am one. I doubt that you are not one. I think that what is sinful is well established and will not change. How the sinner is treated can change and maybe should change. I honestly don’t know, but I would like to think that the Catholic Church could improve - could be more meaningful to more people. And I’m pretty sure that God does not want us condemning each other.
I’m sure He wants us to condemn evil when we see it. I don’t hear the Church saying that we should focus on the good of detraction or masturbation or lying even though many people sin in this way. More people sin in this way, I would say, than the 3% of people that have homosexual desires or the people living in adulterous “marriages”. But if the Church says there is good in all sins, then what is so bad about sins if there is so much good in it? This is how people will perceive it; they already are perceiving it this way.
We rewrite the Bible all the time. Or perhaps I should rephrase that and say that we gloss over the parts that we have decided culturally, politically, or even morally do not apply any more.
My mother converted to Catholicism when she married my father. I have a whole wing of my family, primarily in Texas, that are Baptists. They like to say, “Hate the sin; love the sinner.”
I believe that the Pope preached on that just this morning!
First of all, who is “we”? You or Synods of Church fathers? You also forgot to bring in the shellfish prohibition. One thing those like you ignore is a hierarchy of values. God made them male and female goes through the WHOLE of the Bible with who begat whom. This is the basis of history, but also tracing the lineage of David.
The ‘we’ of Biblical interpretation continues throughout history. There has never been a static exegesis. We interpret and re-imagine how Scripture is understood and prayed and applied in our lives to this day. That’s why we are a living community of faith.
Sorry, the Pope preached on this topic on Friday, not Sunday. Here is the link to his homily:
Says you, but not the Bible and Christian morality as much as some people want to water it down. Culture doesn’t make the rules, in particular, perverse politically correct culture. Children do not have two daddies or two mommies. You can dilute the definition of marriage until it is meaningless but that is not going to change the way children are brought into the world, barring the Frankenstinian manipulations of nature.
I understand what you are saying, and we respectfully disagree. Families come in all forms these days - as they have for millennia - but even more so now. We must recognize that and honor each situation for what it is. Some families have one parent, or a grandparent, or a foster parent. Some families have two mothers or two fathers. The thing that we must value above all else is stability and love and how children are taken care of and nurtured. And that is done when there is love between partners first. I believe that is what the Cardinal was exemplifying.
The Cardinal is misrepresenting Church teaching. This is not the first time some clergy think they are better. In all cases, the teaching trumps the person. There may be some people play acting family with same sex parents but they do not fit the time honored definition of marriage that they are dragging into the mud.
Exactly
It may be that a relative has to pinch hit for the loss or one or two parents but this does not negate the fact that children even when adopted are vitally interested in knowing their biological parents. If their dad comes from a pool of DNA samples and a mother is just a paid baby incubator, then this situation is appalling.
Perhaps just a little off-topic, but the notion of ‘spiritual friends’ as pertaining to same sex attracted persons has been under some discussion of late. Here is a recent article by Rachel Lu in response to the matter.
I agree. But then I’m not comfortable with human beings not being open to changes in how Scripture and God are understood. And I agree about the many Scripture passages not followed by Christians today. And in regard to families, I agree as well. I had 1 parent for most all of my life and honestly never missed not having 2 of opposite genders. Maybe that is testimony to the great job my one parent did. But I never really gave not having one father and one mother even a thought.
If you love the sinner, you won’t let them stay in sin.
Honestly, more than my neighbors’ failings, I am concerned with my own lack of virtue - specifically my own lack of charity towards others and the difficulty that I have being truly humble.
Then ask God for more strength in those areas. It helps.
