Why and how is homosexuality is considered a sin?

[LaGatoTobey]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

 

[cjmclark]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

Well, first, this probably belongs in the Social Justice or Moral Theology subforum.

Second, I see you self-identify as a Buddhist. Are you aware of the Dalai Lama’s teaching on homosexuality? From a 1997 press conference, the Dalai Lama discusses Buddhist scripture on sexuality:

“We have to make a distinction between believers and unbelievers,” the exiled Tibetan leader said at a press conference yesterday in San Francisco. "From a Buddhist point of view, men-to-men and women-to-women is generally considered sexual misconduct.

“From society’s viewpoint, mutually agreeable homosexual relations can be of mutual benefit, enjoyable and harmless.”

His comments were an effort to clarify statements in a book – “Beyond Dogma,” published last year by North Atlantic Books in Berkeley – that upset some gay Buddhists.

The Dalai Lama said the same Buddhist scripture that advises against gay and lesbian sex also urges heterosexuals to refrain from oral sex, anal sex and masturbation. “Even with your own wife, using one’s mouth or the other hole is sexual misconduct,” he said. “Using one’s hand, that is sexual misconduct.”

It’s also important to note the distinction between hating homosexual people and considering homosexual acts to be sinful. If we hated everyone who engaged in sinful acts, there’d be no love in the world. Catholic teaching on homosexuality can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church here:

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.

You can see from the bolded portion that we are not called to hate persons with homosexual tendencies (the same tendencies considered disordered by Buddhist scripture), but rather to show them love and compassion and to try to aid them with the cross they must bear to try to live a chaste life.

There are unfortunately people who are perfectly willing to use religion to justify their hatred for homosexuals. But that’s not what Catholics, at least, are supposed to do.

 

[thomasf]

Homosexuality is a sin because God has told us so. The acts themselves are disordered sexual conduct. Sex is meant to be between a man and a woman, within the bonds of marriage. Thus homosexual acts are sinful because it is not within marriage and not between a man and woman.

Catholics should not hate the sinner, but the sin. If we love one another as Jesus says, we should discourage our fellow man from sinning, and homosexual acts are definitely sin. If we love our fellow man, we should discourage them from homosexual acts as they are sinful and lead people to death and damnation. Out of love, not hate.

 

[Bartolome_Casas]

Have you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church? It is online, and contains explanations about the sexual morality teachings of the Church.

 

[fastenatingguy]

Homosexuality is a sin because God has told us so. The acts themselves are disordered sexual conduct. Sex is meant to be between a man and a woman, within the bonds of marriage. Thus homosexual acts are sinful because it is not within marriage and not between a man and woman.

Catholics should not hate the sinner, but the sin. If we love one another as Jesus says, we should discourage our fellow man from sinning, and homosexual acts are definitely sin. If we love our fellow man, we should discourage them from homosexual acts as they are sinful and lead people to death and damnation. Out of love, not hate.

---

Truthful

 

[epan]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

Your observation is correct. There is a disconnect between the Catholic Church and society. That is obvious. Perhaps some Catholics would like to comment as to how they see the future of the Catholic Church. Will it engage, or will it continue to disengage from the people?

 

[Polycarp1]

Homosexuality is not a sin any more than being dyslexic is a sin. Its an affliction that a person is called upon to manage without resorting to sinful sexual behavior. The Lord says pick up your cross and follow me. Homosexuality is a big cross to bear when the world is telling you that life is all about self gratification but those that do it sucessfully will have a greater reward for doing so.

 

[Polycarp1]

Your observation is correct. There is a disconnect between the Catholic Church and society. That is obvious. Perhaps some Catholics would like to comment as to how they see the future of the Catholic Church. Will it engage, or will it continue to disengage from the people?

I hope it will always stick to Truth and never bend to the whims and fancies of popular public opinion.

 

[Dale_M]

LaGatoTobey,

I see this is your first post here at Catholic Answers Forums. Welcome!

I have found this is a good place to be mellow. Some of the folks are pretty excitable and some are difficult to converse with in a polite manner. But I tend to just let those persons slide past me. I hope you will be able to find a similar way of coping with difficult comments. We do require that discussions be conducted with charity, which is to say, love. So abusive comments are dealt with promptly by the moderators.

This is a big place, with a wide range of diversity in its members. (although we tend to be predominately American, Catholic, and politiicallly/culturally conservative.) I have learned so, so much in the time I have been here. I hope you will profit in the same way, even if your views do not change.

Again, welcome!

From one cat to another,

Dale

 

[mini_me640]

I hope it will always stick to Truth and never bend to the whims and fancies of popular public opinion.

 

[epan]

I hope it will always stick to Truth and never bend to the whims and fancies of popular public opinion.

Do you believe that this characterizes history, or will this be a new direction to go in?

 

[mark_a]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

From the Catholic perspective, God designed sex to be the union of one man and one woman, to be both uniative and procreative.

Homosexuality acts cannot be procreative. Most of the noise about the sinfulness of homosexual sex comes from contracepting heterosexuals. It’s the pot calling the kettle black.

Just because contracepting heteros are hypocrites doesn’t make homosexual acts any less sinful.

 

[ThinkTwice]

I think the term sin needs to be understood as just a broken principle.
My interpretation of Scripture is defined by finding principles to remove sin.

For me that even includes oversleeping or over eating.,(which at times I still do)

So it is homosexuality.

So God’s people are telling you the truth when they say it’s a broken principle(sin).
And it is love and loving to tell a person the honest truth.

Also homosexuality is coming out of the bedroom and trying to convince us it’s natural and normal acts.
Which it is not.

 

[CatholicTrekkie]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

Welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay here.

What type of “hate” exactly do you see coming from these people? Do they go to gay pride parades and protest? Or do they simply pronounce the belief that homosexual acts are sinful? There is a big difference between the two actions.

As others have said, homosexuality is considered a sin because it is not the way that God intended sexuality to be. He intended it to be between one man and one woman, in the bonds of marriage.

In relation to that, and in addition to what everyone else has said, I will add that in Catholicism, homosexual acts are no more sinful than heterosexual acts outside of marriage. That is, a heterosexual person who has sex outside of marriage commits just as great a sin as a homosexual person having homosexual “sex”. In fact, the Church asks nothing more of homosexuals than heterosexuals: both must remain chaste outside of marriage.

I hope you find CAF a great place. It’s pretty respectful and calm most of the time, so I think you should fit right in!

 

[threejohn1]

We don’t hate, its their sexual actions that are condemned by God:

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.” Lv 18:22

“Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, because by them the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves. And so the land has become defiled, and I have punished it for its wickedness, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants. You, however, must keep my statutes and decrees, avoiding all these abominations, both the natives and the aliens resident among you—because the previous inhabitants did all these abominations and the land became defiled; otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you. For whoever does any of these abominations shall be cut off from the people. Heed my charge, then, not to observe the abominable customs that have been observed before your time, and thus become impure by them.r I, the LORD, am your God.” Lv 18:24-30

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Your observation is correct. There is a disconnect between the Catholic Church and society. That is obvious. Perhaps some Catholics would like to comment as to how they see the future of the Catholic Church. Will it engage, or will it continue to disengage from the people?

Will the Church disengage from “the people”?

If you mean will the Church conduct a scientific popularity poll to determine its new doctrines based on what Hollywood, the news media, and academics have dictated are to be the new social mores, then no, probably not. Thank God.

Christianity is not based on demographics, it’s based on divine revelation as collected in the Bible and the Deposit of Faith.

If the vast majority of bloggers, twitterers, Cher, prime-time comedy stars, Democrat congressmen, Lady Gaga, reality show celebrities, your Aunt Ida, and all the people who go to the “inclusive and diverse” mega-church down the street insist the Church is wrong, it still ain’t.

If 99.99999999999999999999999999% of Catholics feel the Church is wrong and should change its doctrine, guess what? It still ain’t wrong.

Put all the chattering classes on earth on one side and Benedict 16 on the other, and guess who will be right?

The Church has been right for 2 millennia. If we started out small and end small, maybe that’s for the best.

 

[surritter]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

One need not be religious to see that homosexual acts are wrong, or what we call “disordered.”
The biological nature of sexual activity is “ordered” toward procreation. It also has the added benefit of being pleasurable and allowing two people to express intense love for each other. Anyone should agree with this assessment.
Now, the problem is that a homosexual act divorces these aspects of sex, and distorts the very nature of intercourse. That is why it is wrong (sinful, if you prefer).

Consider the analogy of bulimia. Food also has two aspects: the biological aspect of nutrition, and the aspect of pleasure/taste. Just about everyone understands that it is wrong for a person to partake of the pleasure, and then reject the nutritional aspect by barfing up the meal.
Now apply that same idea to the biological aspect of sex. That is the basis for what Catholics would call the “natural law” argument to explain why homosexual acts as wrong.

 

[Robertanthony]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

I s Gato an acronym (girl against tradition’s oppression) or are you simply fond of cats? Do you think the Catholic Church is so powerful that it calling homosexuality disordered and gay sex sinful can account for all the suicides among gay people? I know I like a choir to sing in tune, it bothers me to hear a dissenting voice, I’m speaking metaphorically here. In our society, there are many voices that say homosexuality is all fine, you were born this way, it’s totally natural etc., why do you zero in on one voice among a myriad of other gay-friendly voices? The mission of the Church is to be God’s spokesperson on Earth. Let’s say for argument’s sake that the Catholic Church’s message on homosexuality does come straight from God Almighty, what do you say then? If we’re to believe the Bible is God-inspired writ, homosexual sex is an abomination to God, in other words that’s gravely opposed to God’s will, don’t you think that the Catholic Church, **out of love **and concern for the homosexual people’s souls, has a duty to let them know their lifestyle may jeopardize their souls? I’ve said that ad nauseam, but as someone who was given a tough hand in life, I’m no stranger to sorrow, rejection, feeling of inadequacy and the aftermath of these, loneliness and despair, I know how some of the homosexual people feel, and I sympathize with them. Read any Church document, and try to find hatred, contempt, scorn, it can’t be done because all you’ll find is love and genuine concern.

 

[lerapt78]

Over the past couple of years of my life here in my small town, I have yet to find that many people consider homosexuality a sin. Mainly I see this type of hate coming from people of ‘God’. It’s irritating to see this. As a young woman, I truly hate this! We need to love another and not let our beliefs get to our queer people. Not only adults but for the youth too. The suicide rate for gay youth is so high. We can change that if we stop spreading the hate by using your God’s name in vain.
Hugs over punches.
Kisses over abuse.
Love over hate.
-G.A.T.O <3

Hi LaGato,

I’m in agreement with you that hatred should not be spread in the name of God. I am happy to say that you are preaching to the choir here, as I’ve never witnessed any members on this forum professing hatred. It’s nice to start off on common ground.

Your observation is correct. There is a disconnect between the Catholic Church and society. That is obvious. Perhaps some Catholics would like to comment as to how they see the future of the Catholic Church. Will it engage, or will it continue to disengage from the people?

I personally would like to see the Catholic Church remain true to its teachings. I see this refusal to bow to society’s push of countercultural ideas as truly indicative of the “Rock” it professes itself to be. There is some comfort in knowing that I can trust in my Church’s unwavering moral stance. A church that would bow to outside pressure with the sole intention of not losing members is one that I wouldn’t admire because I would feel their convictions lie not in truth, but rather on the shaky whim of what passes as popular opinion. Therefore, if there is no absolute conviction, to whom can I turn for answers when I find myself in a moral quandry?

This makes me think of the phrase some people use to defend certain unpopular opinions - not because they want to hurt anyone, but because they believe in the veracity of them: "I would rather be hated for who I am, than to be loved for who I am not." The first part of the sentence refers to the value one places on honesty, whereas the second part of the sentence implies that one would employ a false, deceitful pretense to gain approval or favor from others.

If the CC (despite its extensive and fair deliberation on the subject of homosexuality) decided to profess a teaching only in order to align itself with current opinion and thereby attract more people, it could be argued that its motives were less than honorable.

If nothing else can be said about the Church, one can at least trust in its sincerity.

 

[lerapt78]

Consider the analogy of bulimia. Food also has two aspects: the biological aspect of nutrition, and the aspect of pleasure/taste. Just about everyone understands that it is wrong for a person to partake of the pleasure, and then reject the nutritional aspect by barfing up the meal.

A good analogy. I would also like to add that nobody would hesitate to tell the bulimic that he or she should get counseling. If you (even as lovingly and non-judgmentally as possible) told someone with SSA that they could possibly benefit from therapy to reverse or control this attraction, you would more likely than not be harshly berated for the suggestion . Why is one person considered to have a disorder that requires help, whereas the other is not?