*However, the Church also acknowledges that "[homosexuality’s] psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. . . . 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 that they may encounter from their condition. *
Thanks, Challam, for not having an agenda. I’m pretty much in your shoes, except that for me the jury is out on the marriage issue, and I have both relatives and friends who are gay. My experience with them is that–as a discernible group in my circles of friends–they are neater, cleaner, better educated, and without question more creative than the other namable groups in my life. They are certainly more open minded and able to rationally discuss things than, say, those of my friends who are dogmatic in their approach to life and depend more on a faith structure for their thinking patterns than on experience and reasoning. It still baffles me that people abdicate their God given abilitiies and use “believe” and “know” interchangeably, as if they had something to do with each other. My sampling may be skewed in that I’m self educated and above average, as far as I can tell from usual criteria, in several ways.
So while I don’t participate in a gay lifestyle, whatever that might be, as there are sociologically different sub-groups of that sub culture, I do have a limited contact with some gay individuals whose company I enjoy. They are also folks who have added significantly to the quality of my life in terms of everything from socializing, creative endeavors, and definitely in spirituality. That last is because there are some whom I know that range from a candidate for the Jesuit priesthood who decided at the last moment to not answer that calling, to a rather accomplished and well known metaphysician.
Having said all that, I also look at the statement you quote above and ask how it can be said that homosexuality is “objectively disordered” while it’s “psychological genesis is largely unexplained?” So there is a calling on the part of the Church to have compassion for a group of people it considers disordered without knowing why they say so on objective grounds. I say that because while some people accept the Bible and popular interpretations from it regarding homosexuality, there is argument from other disciplines than the multitudinously divergent religious assertions that, as an orientation, it is only part of a normal scale of behaviors which at some point blends into what average folks think of as normal or abnormal in other ways. Homosexuality is by no means the only identifiable sexual behavior that might have a smaller than average group of practitioners. Another such group might be those who are celibate, or allegedly so, and we have the commensurate divergences in that group as well. In some cases we might even look at married folks who by most social standards have some unusual sexual paradigms, even Catholic couples.
So if we are considering the uncharitable remarks on here about “homosexual lifestyle” I’m guessing, being new on here save for some brief scans, and having experienced criticisms of gays in other venues, that there are at least two sources for the uncompassionate behavior you reference. The first is the confusion many have with homosexuality and other things, especially pedophilia. The other source is far more common, and I’m not so sure how to name that, except for it has to do with the nature of intimate relations, especially between gay men and not so much gay women. I think that for most heterosexuals that in particular freaks them out. Sodomy is literally a dirty word for these folks.
Now I am quite aware of the possible medical consequences of the intimate homosexual relations. The news has much of that and the various courses on health I’ve taken are quite explicit about a long litany of those. But they are also explicit about a much longer litany of things the ordinary person of any orientation is prone to, all of them having to do with sanitation. I will bring to your attention here the state of many bathrooms and kitchens regardless of the appearance of cleanliness. Let’s put it this way: if you flush with the lid up your tooth brush has fecal matter on it. Sponges especially and towels have astounding numbers of things that ought make anyone reverently grateful for having an immune system. And nearly everything in public has been touched by some guy who didn’t wash his hands after peeing. Sorry, that’s just how it is.
So mostly what we are dealing with here is a form of xenophobia. It is akin to racial or cultural prejudice, or food prejudice, or taste in music and it’s ability to change body chemistry. So, if you don’t like it, don’t do it. It’s like your TV. You can change the channel. But if you go out and campaign against it, gar-on-teeed you are supporting what you claim you are against. It is like the RC pastor in CT* who sued the nude bar across the street because its patrons were parking on church property. Well, that was in the news even in Arizona and California. Business at the nude bar quadrupled. I almost suggested to the bar owner to pay a tithe to the pastor as a gratitude for the huge increase in business. Maybe you all can do the gays the same favor by being against them so they will have a reason to unite and get laws passed you don’t like.
*Saint Matthew Church, 216 Scribner Ave, Norwalk, CT, circa 1994. I think it was in the Norwalk Citizen.
