When people say that their god accepts so-called "same-sex marriage" aren't they worshipping a different god?

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livingwordunity

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The Holy Bible condemns homosexual behavior in both Old and New Testaments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

Chastity and homosexuality

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 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 they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
 
It’s hard to draw a line between “wrong understanding of God” and “different god.”

I’ll be lurking. 🍿
 
laircy said:
It’s hard to draw a line between “wrong understanding of God” and “different god.”

I’ll be lurking. 🍿
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I know what you mean. But if this can be called a “wrong understanding of God” then it seems the same can be said of any belief under the sun.
 
AFAIK, the Vatican makes the distinction between worshiping an entirely different God when it goes into the realm of either polytheism, or into pantheism (God and creation are not wholly distinct). If it is monotheistic, but not orthodox, then it falls under worshiping God but having an imperfect understanding of his divine nature.
 
It’s not that they’re worshiping a different God, but that they don’t know Him, as Jesus said.
 
livingwordunity said:
I know what you mean. But if this can be called a “wrong understanding of God” then it seems the same can be said of any belief under the sun.
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Not really, since there aren’t a lot of monotheistic religions.

If one claims to have a faith where there is only one eternal and everlasting God, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, existing outside of space and time, then there can only be that one. It is a difference in understanding, or believing an outright lie about God.

This is part of the reason why the Catholic Church acknowledges that Jews and Muslims worship the same God.

It’s like having a friend named Jim. Let’s say Jim has hair that has a mix of blond, brown, and red. There may be other people who refer to him as Jimmy or Jimbo. Some may say he has dark blond hair and tell their friends this as fact, even though it is wrong. And even when talking with someone who knows the same Jim, the fact that one says he has dark blond hair and the other says that he has a mix, they could come to the conclusion that they know different Jims. They are, however, referring to the same guy, just one has a wrong understanding, or incorrect knowledge, of him. Say Jim got into drugs. Some of Jim’s friends might not believe he could ever do drugs because he’s such a nice guy and they could tell the cops that he doesn’t do drugs; they’d be wrong, but still referring to the same Jim.

So it is with God. People may grow to hold beliefs about God that aren’t true, about what He likes or doesn’t like, etc. But they’d be wrong. That doesn’t change the fact that they are still referring to and worshiping the same God.
 
I think it’s mostly a misunderstanding of God.

Perhaps I’m inferring too much from the word “their” in the title. Someone might say, “Yeah, well, my god accepts ‘same-sex marriage.’” If they profess to be Christian, they are presumably trying to imply that God would accept homosexuality or that Christians aren’t required to hold that it’s wrong.

Although, I think any misunderstanding of God kind of implies that you are worshiping a different god (which, of course, does not exist). Edward Feser has a bit to say on the topic.
 
bzkoss236 said:
Not really, since there aren’t a lot of monotheistic religions.

If one claims to have a faith where there is only one eternal and everlasting God, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, existing outside of space and time, then there can only be that one. It is a difference in understanding, or believing an outright lie about God.

This is part of the reason why the Catholic Church acknowledges that Jews and Muslims worship the same God.
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It doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-powerful or they would be afraid to go against what he taught about marriage and homosexuality. And it doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-knowing or they wouldn’t think that he got it wrong in these things. That is how this is very different from ancient Judaism and traditional Islam.
 
I don’t think they are worshipping a different god. I think they desperately want to believe that God will accept their lifestyle.
 
livingwordunity said:
It doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-powerful or they would be afraid to go against what he taught about marriage and homosexuality. And it doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-knowing or they wouldn’t think that he got it wrong in these things.
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I think they would say that it was the people the got it wrong, not God. And maybe they would say that God is all-powerful, but take His mercy for granted. Making the issues the product of the person’s misunderstanding of God.

One shouldn’t make assumptions about what something appears to be. Just like the Protestants that assume that we worship Saints because our praying to them “appears” to be like we are worshiping them. Appearances can be deceiving.
 
foundmyfaith said:
I don’t think they are worshipping a different god. I think they desperately want to believe that God will accept their lifestyle.
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This necessarily implies that they believe in an inferior god that can be in error since they believe they know better.
 
I would say that they are worshipping the same God, but that they have a misconception about God.
 
foundmyfaith said:
I don’t think they are worshipping a different god. I think they desperately want to believe that God will accept their lifestyle.
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This, because some Protestant churches accept same-sex marriage as does Reform Judaism, iirc. They worship the same God as we do, and in the case of Protestants, same Jesus.
 
DaddyGirl said:
If you are to say that people of different religions or Christian denominations that have different beliefs than Catholicism are worshiping a different God, then you are saying there is more than one God, yes?
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No, just that they believe in a false god, one that doesn’t actually exist.
 
Not necessarily, but if they claim to be Christian, they certainly do not understand what the Bible teaches with regard to marriage and same sex relationships.
 
livingwordunity said:
It doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-powerful or they would be afraid to go against what he taught about marriage and homosexuality. And it doesn’t appear that they believe in a god that is all-knowing or they wouldn’t think that he got it wrong in these things. That is how this is very different from ancient Judaism and traditional Islam.
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You say “what he taught” and “he got it wrong.” Perhaps others believe it is “what they taught” and “they got it wrong,” meaning the prophets and church fathers, as humans influenced by their culture. It is easy for me to see how someone could believe that, and at the same time believe they worship the same God as you.
 
VanSensei said:
This, because some Protestant churches accept same-sex marriage as does Reform Judaism, iirc. They worship the same God as we do, and in the case of Protestants, same Jesus.
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So someone can believe whatever they want, and as long as they name their belief “Jesus” it’s the same one? How about the Gnostics who believed that Jesus was only divine but not human and the Arians who believed the opposite that Jesus was only human but not divine? Could this be the same Jesus? Could the same Jesus be only human but not God and at the same time be only God but not human?
 
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