I had a brief encounter recently with a man I knew sometime ago, subsequently he had left his wife and children and moved in with a young man a few years older than one of his sons. He had discovered his homosexuality! Say a prayer.
It seems quite unacceptable nowadays to speak of men who had previously had a homosexual life style to then discover their heterosexuality, even more so for Christian groups to help homosexual men make the transition. There is a definite bias towards homosexual orientation. I was amused to read on The Bones about a couple in Brighton who were asked to leave a "gay" club.
As Brighton advertises as the the "gay capital of Britain", it is not surprising I recently had a conversation with a young journalist who was quite convinced "the Catholic Church hates gays". Certainly we have a very serious problem with the hedonism of "gay culture" but the Catholic Church doesn't divide people up according to sexual attractions, people are people, we have attractions and repulsions we are called to control these. Chastity and self control are at the heart of the Church's understanding of human sexuality.
However I think it is important to say the Church is not against:
It seems quite unacceptable nowadays to speak of men who had previously had a homosexual life style to then discover their heterosexuality, even more so for Christian groups to help homosexual men make the transition. There is a definite bias towards homosexual orientation. I was amused to read on The Bones about a couple in Brighton who were asked to leave a "gay" club.
As Brighton advertises as the the "gay capital of Britain", it is not surprising I recently had a conversation with a young journalist who was quite convinced "the Catholic Church hates gays". Certainly we have a very serious problem with the hedonism of "gay culture" but the Catholic Church doesn't divide people up according to sexual attractions, people are people, we have attractions and repulsions we are called to control these. Chastity and self control are at the heart of the Church's understanding of human sexuality.
However I think it is important to say the Church is not against:
- Having a deep love for someone of the same sex, we call that friendship
- Living with someone of the same sex is not a problem as brother or sister
- Showing affection to someone of the same sex within the normal boundaries of chastity
What the Church does have problems with is:
- Equating a same sex relationship with marriage
- Sexual acts between members of the same sex (or for that matter any sexual act outside of marriage)
7 comments:
The Bishop of Durham writes in The Times today about the threat of schism facing the Anlglican church. He says......"Our supposedly selfish genes crave a variety of sexual possibilities. But Jewish, Christian and Muslim teachers have always insisted that life-long marriage is the proper context for sexual intercourse. This is not...an arbitrary rule, dualistic in overtone and killjoy in intention. It is a deep structural reflection of the belief in a creator God who has entered into covenant both with his creation and with his people(who carry forward his purposes for that creation.).....The appeal to justice as a way of cutting the ethical knot in favour of including active homosexuals in Christian ministry simply begs the question. Nobody has a right to be ordained: it is always a gift of sheer unmerited grace.....Justice has never meant treating everybody the same way, but treating people appropriately which involves making distinctions betweeen different people and situations. Justice has never meant "the right to give active expression to any and every sexual desire.".....We all have all kinds of deep-rooted incllinations and desires. The question is what shall we do with them?"
This is a very tricky topic,whatever one says generates apoplexy somewhere.
What makes Brighton "the Gay capital" of this country are the preponderance of Hangers-On or to put it another way the Renters .It is just another way of earning a living without actually working.
These same people are the "HOMOPHOBES"which make such a lot of noise and use Blackmail as a favourite weapon.
Surely the Catholic Church teats everyone the same, unless you are married it is sinful to enter into sexually active relationships.
If you are afflicted with the homosexual condition and you are striving to lead an orthodox and a chaste life according to the teaching of the Church, then good luck to you I say! It must be terribly difficult, what with the many temptations nowadays, and what with promiscuity actively promoted by the Government...
If a man and a women enter into marriage with the intention of using only artifical means of contraception, is their marriage valid?
How would the church see this sexual relationship?
In some countries were up to 80 percent of married Catholics practice artifical contraception, the Church seems to look the other way.
Why is it that critics of adultery are not regarded as bigots or as subject to some sort of phobia?
This is the first of two postings on matters to do with sex, sexuality and human reproduction.
They cause me to reflect that Roman Catholics often speak about these subjects, but seldom engage in apologetics about them. That is to say, they seldom engage constructively with the arguments against Roman Catholic teaching on these matters. They just ignore the arguments. To take just one example, I have never seen any recognition of the fact that modern knowledge about the possible genetic and developmental causes of homosexuality may require a re-examination (whichdoes not necessarily mean a change) in the existingteaching
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