Why is homosexuality sinful?

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What are the documents, resources and bible passages which show homosexual actions to be sinful? What simple references can we show and/or quote to people when we are discussing this to back up the Catholic position?

It is so absoultely difficult to talk to people today - I mean, everyone knows someone or even has a family member who is gay. So many people feel that God simply made them that way. How can we tell them that they should never have sex for the rest of their lives? How can we tell them that God made them “disordered”? How do we explain that a good God would even do that?

I honestly do agree with Church teaching on this matter, but it is so hard to even discuss with people that I know and love and care about. They deserve happiness and love too, and I feel like I have no business launching into a debate about how awful and sinful they are 😦

So are there any loving references that can be used to discuss this?
 
I don’t have a bible on me right now, and I cannot remember exactly where I read it, but there are several passages in the bible that state that man shall not lie with man etc… I think Lamentations is one of them, where one shall not uncover the nakedness of a man, children, brother, sister etc…

I agree that dealing with homosexuality IS hard. My brother is gay, I have friends who are gay. I don’t know why they have to carry such a big cross. I personally believe it is not a disorder, but God does call them to be celibate. Just like priest are celibate. Just like single people who are not married are called to be celibate.

There are lots of threads discussing homosexuality on this forum, check them all out.
 
lizzielou said:
What are the documents, resources and bible passages which show homosexual actions to be sinful? What simple references can we show and/or quote to people when we are discussing this to back up the Catholic position?
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1st Corinthians, Ch. 6.
9 Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, 10 Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.
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No one should be having sex outside of marriage. Those with SSA are called to the same chastity as all sinle people.

God Bless
 
You can ask a few simple questions:

Q: Why can’t two homosexual men/women have sex?
A: Because no life can come out of it.

Q: Why can’t two hetrosexuals have oral sex?
A: Because no life can come out of it.

Q: Why can’t you use contraception?
A: Because no life can come out of it.

Q: Why can’t you masturbate?
A: Because no life can come out of it.

From the Catechism:

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.

Here is a link with some good readings Click Here
 
I think the OP wants a reference for where in the bible, homosexuals cannot marry then. I would like to believe that homosexuals should be treated the same as heterosexuals ( not sex before marriage ) but the church will not marry. It is contrary to the natural law, isn’t it? The sex may be unitive ( but the bible forbids it ) but it is not procreative. Not all sex is procreative though and only one of those conditions need to be met…

So what I think we are looking for is a biblical reference that sex between man and man or woman and woman is forbidden. I know there are several passages that state that it is forbidden.
 
I’m sure someone will quote the relevant Scriptural and Catechetical references; I’d do it myself, but I have to walk out the door in a few minutes so I don’t have time to look them up. 🙂
lizzielou said:
It is so absoultely difficult to talk to people today - I mean, everyone knows someone or even has a family member who is gay. So many people feel that God simply made them that way. How can we tell them that they should never have sex for the rest of their lives? How can we tell them that God made them “disordered”? How do we explain that a good God would even do that?
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You have to get away from that PC indoctrination that says “You must accept everyone just as they are”, and start realizing that homosexuality is a disorder. It is abnormal. It is a defect. It is a result of Original Sin, just like everything else that’s wrong with this fallen world.

Homosexuality is a psychic handicap, which makes it impossible for the victim to enjoy normal sexual relations, the same way that somebody born with one leg four inches shorter than the other has a physical handicap, which makes it impossible for the victim to ever run in the Boston Marathon.

How do we tell them that God made them “disordered”? Hell, how do you tell me that God didn’t want me to be rich—but He lets guys like the head of Enron have anything he wants? Is that right? Is it fair?

We live in a fallen world. Sad, but true. I’m sorry that homosexuals have to be denied “sexual fulfillment”, but it’s really no different than millions of kids starving in the Horn of Africa or hurricanes in Louisiana, or earthquakes in Armenia, or anything else we experience in this world that isn’t perfect.

(shrug) People have defects and handicaps. It’s just the way it is. God loves them anyway, in spite of it, but He doesn’t stop asking them to try to overcome their sinful behavior.
 
Sina said:
I think the OP wants a reference for where in the bible, homosexuals cannot marry then. I would like to believe that homosexuals should be treated the same as heterosexuals ( not sex before marriage ) but the church will not marry. It is contrary to the natural law, isn’t it? The sex may be unitive ( but the bible forbids it ) but it is not procreative. Not all sex is procreative though and only one of those conditions need to be met…

So what I think we are looking for is a biblical reference that sex between man and man or woman and woman is forbidden. I know there are several passages that state that it is forbidden.
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How about this:

Romans 1:26-28
**Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, **
**and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. ***And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. *

Sodom was destroyed because of this grievous sin:
Genesis 19:5-7
**They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them." **
**Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him, he said, "I beg you, my brothers, not to do this wicked thing. **
 
Homosexuality

Every human being is called to receive a gift of divine sonship, to become a child of God by grace. However, to receive this gift, we must reject sin, including homosexual behavior—that is, acts intended to arouse or stimulate a sexual response regarding a person of the same sex. The Catholic Church teaches that such acts are always violations of divine and natural law.

Homosexual desires, however, are not in themselves sinful. People are subject to a wide variety of sinful desires over which they have little direct control, but these do not become sinful until a person acts upon them, either by acting out the desire or by encouraging the desire and deliberately engaging in fantasies about acting it out. People tempted by homosexual desires, like people tempted by improper heterosexual desires, are not sinning until they act upon those desires in some manner.

more…
 
Ahimsa said:
Well, the first step is to realize that all of us are disordered.🙂
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I would say the first step is to say that God made man perfectly. However, it was with free will that mankind chose sin, which brought about death, disorder, chaos, or whatever you may call it. Then it is to say that all of us are flawed because of a free choice made by mankind…not because God creates faulty beings.

I would say that after this…even though mankind freely chose to rebel against God and sin, God still sent His only begotten son (our Lord Jesus Christ) into the world to die on the cross and rise again for the redemption of mankind. This is how loving God is. The loving God did not create us flawed, but nonetheless we rejected Him. Furthermore the loving God sent us our savior and allows us to freely choose Christ and holiness, so that no matter our flaws we may be made perfect in Jesus the Christ.
 
Sina said:
I think the OP wants a reference for where in the bible, homosexuals cannot marry then. I would like to believe that homosexuals should be treated the same as heterosexuals ( not sex before marriage ) but the church will not marry. It is contrary to the natural law, isn’t it? The sex may be unitive ( but the bible forbids it ) but it is not procreative. Not all sex is procreative though and only one of those conditions need to be met…

So what I think we are looking for is a biblical reference that sex between man and man or woman and woman is forbidden. I know there are several passages that state that it is forbidden.
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Romans Chapter I verse 18 and following.
 
Wolseley said:
We live in a fallen world. Sad, but true. I’m sorry that homosexuals have to be denied “sexual fulfillment”, but it’s really no different than millions of kids starving in the Horn of Africa or hurricanes in Louisiana, or earthquakes in Armenia, or anything else we experience in this world that isn’t perfect.
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Playing devils advocate here…homosexuality IS different than these other scenarios (or someone being born with a physical/mental handicap) because all it would take is the Church “accepting” them and they could live freely. It is not something that HAS to bind them or ruin their lives, if only others wouldn’t label them as sinful. So the argument goes, anyway.

Thank you so much everyone for all these thoughtful replies, all of it really is very helpful.
 
Leviticus 18:22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

God made sex to be between husband and wife to produce children. We are told that the future husband and future wife leave their parents to become one flesh.

Homosexuality is simply contray to God’s plan in marriage.

God calls homosexuality an abomination.

We all have a sin nature ( Gal 5 ) and we all struggle with sins of the flesh. Because a person is “born” with a desire say for children, does not mean that is God’s will for that person to sleep with children. Homosexuality, Guttonly, Pedophila, Gossip, are all sins that people feel drawn to. God expects us to kill our sin nature Daily ( Romans 12 ). So, if a Christian struggles with homosexuality, then he or she are expected to kill that sin natures urge and are expected to walk in the Spirit.
 
I can tell you the history of this if you would like.

Homosexual sex was a pagan practice that they took part in quite a bit. The jewish people resented the pagans and noted any pagan practice as cultic and immoral. So the jewish people felt that homosexuality was sinful because the pagans indulged in homosexual sex. The jews also wanted to be distinguished and stand out as “Gods people” this also contributed to it. Catholicism and all Christian religions are largely based on Jewish ethics since they sort of decend from Judaism (Jesus the Christian messiah is even jewish) So Catholics have adopted this same homophobia.
 
lizzielou said:
Playing devils advocate here…homosexuality IS different than these other scenarios (or someone being born with a physical/mental handicap) because all it would take is the Church “accepting” them and they could live freely. It is not something that HAS to bind them or ruin their lives, if only others wouldn’t label them as sinful. So the argument goes, anyway.
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The Church is not going to encourage anyone to engage in behavior that is harmful to them. This is why the Church opposes drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling, etc.

Active homosexual behavior is physically harmful: catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ho0075.html
 
shadow_fire said:
If you use a condom and go at a good (not insane) pace its safe. Take it from me.
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No matter what the physical consequences, or lack of consequences may suggest, homosexual intercourse is deadly for ones’ soul. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not true. Both the Old and the New Testament make clear that homosexual intercourse is a mortal sin, and this should make the act so heinous in our minds, that we would never dream of commiting this, or any other, mortal sin…no matter what. Unfortunately due to our sinful nature, this distaste for sin is not always acquired. None the less, the pure evil of sin remains true.
 
lizzielou said:
Playing devils advocate here…homosexuality IS different than these other scenarios (or someone being born with a physical/mental handicap) because all it would take is the Church “accepting” them and they could live freely. It is not something that HAS to bind them or ruin their lives, if only others wouldn’t label them as sinful. So the argument goes, anyway.

Thank you so much everyone for all these thoughtful replies, all of it really is very helpful.
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The Church also does not permit marriage for a man who is impotent. That kind of fits into the non-acceptance department, doesn’t it? There are certain things required to make a marriage. Being able to consummate the marriage act as a “natural human act of intercourse” is one of the ingredients. Two men or two women cannot do that. An impotent man cannot do that.
 
Kevin42 said:
No matter what the physical consequences, or lack of consequences may suggest, homosexual intercourse is deadly for ones’ soul. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not true. Both the Old and the New Testament make clear that homosexual intercourse is a mortal sin, and this should make the act so heinous in our minds, that we would never dream of commiting this, or any other, mortal sin…no matter what. Unfortunately due to our sinful nature, this distaste for sin is not always acquired. None the less, the pure evil of sin remains true.
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Well ya from a Catholic aspect your 100% correct. I was obviously talking physically however.
 
Homosexual sex was a pagan practice that they took part in quite a bit. The jewish people resented the pagans and noted any pagan practice as cultic and immoral. So the jewish people felt that homosexuality was sinful because the pagans indulged in homosexual sex. The jews also wanted to be distinguished and stand out as “Gods people” this also contributed to it. Catholicism and all Christian religions are largely based on Jewish ethics since they sort of decend from Judaism (Jesus the Christian messiah is even jewish) So Catholics have adopted this same homophobia.
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This is one of the most inaccurate posts I have seen in a long long time, I would ask you what history book this comes from but I think I have found it " Revisionary History Volume 101"
 
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