The church’s stance on homosexuality is self-evident throughout history Steve.
And while the church no longer explicitly recommends torturing and stoning homosexuals to death, it still manages to equate a consumated homosexual lifestyle as intrinsically evil, despite admitting that the root of their dis-order is an unresolved mystery, the church continues to attribute that mystery to evil in no uncertain terms, as if they definitively know the mind of God, despite being flawed sinners themselves.
To boil matters down to their base essentials, the church has proven itself as flawed as any other institution of man over the centuries, yet still claims to possess an infallable knowledgs of God’s will here on earth, despite proving they don’t by their prior doctrines of torturing and executing homosexuals in the past.
To the degree the church was wrong then, closely matches the degree that they’re still wrong now in denouncing homosexuals as evil.
There is an admitted mystery here, acknowledged by the church concerning homosexuality’s roots, yet the church still denounces them as evil, despite their helplessly flawed inability to quantify or resolve that Godly mystery.
The church’s track record on dealing with homosexuals in a Christ-like manner speaks for itself, both then and now, in my humble opinion.
jomoco
Well, apparently my method of establishing some common ground with you is failing miserably. You certainly have many bones to pick it seems. Unfortunately, your anger toward the Church has seemingly allowed you to subscribe to much falsehood about Church history as well as some painfully transparent misinformation about the fundamental workings of The Church. What is most clear is that you do not understand what infallibility actually is. It’s a common misunderstanding, though. I won’t go into too much detail, but…
Infallibility has NOTHING to do with sin, Jomoco. Indeed, sinful men were used to be our Lord’s apostles and lay the foundations of His Church. Paul himself persecuted many Christians before becoming one of the most influential Christians in all of salvation history. No one is denying that individual men inside the Church have grievously sinned in every generation. But this does not affect infallibility, which is divinely protected truthfulness regarding doctrinal decrees of faith and morals. Notice, I didn’t say divinely protected obedience here. The people that lead the Church and transmit the divinely protected truths about morality are themselves not divinely protected from violating those morals.
By the way, the alleged torturing and murder of homosexuals has never been a doctrine, as you suggested. The Church has never taught that doing so is moral or proper in any regard. So, I’m not sure where you think you’re getting reliable information that you are attempting to claim here.
At any rate, what HAS always been infallibly decreed as intrinsically sinful is homosexuality…not the attraction, but the willing submittal to, and acting on that attraction. Hence, homosexuals are not themselves inherently labeled as sinful. Indeed we consider those with SSA who commit to a life of chastity quite heroic and role models of the faith.
What I’m trying to understand is if you will concede that homosexual acts are intrinsically and gravely sinful, without resorting to a diatribe of the fact that priests inside the Church are guilty of this sin. We already know this, and it has no bearing on the teaching that it is sinful for everyone. So, can you answer the question please? Again, do you concede they are sinful acts, that we are called to avoid this sin (and all sins), and that we are also called to help shape society in such a way as to remove the normalization of sinful behavior?
Thanks!
You do believe in the Trinity correct?