I find it inconsistent and therefore indefensible that the Church claims that the THOUGHT of committing a sinful act is acceptable, yet committing the act itself is NOT acceptable.
Perhaps you’re doing so unintentionally, but you’re mischaracterizing the Church’s teachings here. You’re correct in pointing out that it can be sinful to plan to sin (after all, Christ Himself even said so!), but that’s not the same as saying “thought-crime”, at least in the context of “if the thought even so much as just
crosses your mind, then you’ve sinned”…! More to the point, in the context you’ve brought up, the notion of
sinful inclination is not the same as having sinned in thought.
From a Calvinist perspective, IIRC, even an inclination is a sin. The Church does not teach this. Let’s be honest:
each and every one of us has sinful inclinations – if we didn’t, then we wouldn’t sin! The Church doesn’t “make an exception for homosexuality”; it recognizes that, just like any other inclination, the inclination toward homosexual acts isn’t itself a sin.
LateCatholic:
When I was growing up (as seen in my post), even THINKING about being gay was wrong.
You’re getting fast and loose with your terminology again. What does “thinking about being gay” mean? If you think hard about what you’re trying to say, then what you’re talking about here is the conscious deliberation about whether or not to commit sin. That
would seem to cross the line. However, it’s not the “
being gay” that makes is sinful – it’s the thoughts of
wanting to commit sinful actions that’s in play here.
LateCatholic:
The fact remains that gays love each other. They do.
That’s not a sin. What might be the occasion of sin is what they do to express that love.
LateCatholic:
And if the Church wants to say such love is actually EVIL because of what components a person has between their legs
That’s such an inflammatory, inaccurate, vicious mischaracterization that it doesn’t even deserve a response.
LateCatholic:
You are saying my feelings of lust for my wife were a sin the 30 seconds before I said my vows but were not the 30 seconds after I said them?
You might be surprised to learn that John Paul II used to teach that
lust – as opposed simply to ‘sexual desire’ –
even remains a sin when inside the context of a marriage. So, the answer to your question is ‘no’ – your lusts remain sinful, whether or not you’re married, and regardless toward whom they’re aimed.
30 years ago, the inclination was a sin, the act was a sin. Now, the inclination is NOT a sin, but the act still is.
OK. Let’s see the proof, then, please.
If the inclination is NOT a sin, why try to ‘cure’ it?
By that standard, AA is a misguided approach. You fight the inclination in order to be able to resist instances of committing sin. (Are you seriously arguing against that proposition?)
