What's the deal with the Church's teaching on homosexuality?

Below are two reponses on the topic of homosexuality. At the end of the second response is a list of resources—check those out, if you read nothing else.

Dear Heather,

Does the Church hate homosexuals? Why do they keep saying homosexual marriage is wrong? Do you all not care if gay people are happy?

Dear Friend,

The answer is NO to your first and last question – we both love and care. First of all, I have several friends who consider themselves to be homosexual. I love them as much as I as love my other friends. I would go out of my way to be there for them and do whatever is best for them. Unfortunately, some individuals (of any religion or lack-of) hate such people, but I want to be clear that our Church does not. Our Church accepts and loves all people, no matter our lifestyle. A distinction must be made, however, between loving people and loving sin. I don’t approve of the sin in my life or in the people I love. Sin entraps, enslaves and leads each of us to death – spiritually, emotionally and eventually physically. Our culture, mostly on sexuality issues such as this, wants us to accept everything anyone wants to do. But, I won’t fall for that. Consider that mentality on issue of excessive alcohol use. If I were an alcoholic, I’d want someone to tell me that what I’m doing is wrong and that there’s more to life. It wouldn’t be loving for friends to let me wallow in sin as it slowly ruins my life. We’re meant to treat all sins (which is code for harmful) as sins, even sexual sins like adultery, fornication (pre-marital sex), lust and homosexual acts. And, as Christians, we believe true joy and fulfillment (what many call happiness), comes from a lack of sin. None of us are perfect, but as Christians, the less we wallow in sin, the more capable we are to giving and receiving pure love. Jesus came for us to experience freedom from sin – freedom to love. In saying we do not accept sin, we are saying that each of us deserve the fullness of life and love.

Considering that this is a loaded and complex issue, I won’t even start to answer your second question. I’m long-winded and would probably fill three newsletters with nothing but text in my response to you. Therefore, I’m going to refer you to one of my favorite chastity advocates and speakers – Jason Evert. He and his wife recently helped to launch an incredible new website which thoroughly answers numerous questions on homosexuality (as well as many other chastity questions). Please do check out the PURE LOVE CLUB.

Dear Heather, What’s the deal with the Church’s teaching on homosexuality? Obviously people haven’t thought through the old-fashion teachings, or else they would have been changed years ago.

Dear Friend,

Thanks for asking about a clearly challenging topic in the Church.

Whenever it comes to difficult issues such as these, where the Church has made a stand, I always ask myself, “Have I prayed, researched, and discussed this issue as much as the Church has?” I know that in the past and currently not every person in the Church is perfectly trustworthy, but, no one on the planet is so, including myself. I make mistakes. However, I know that the overall intent of the Church is to guide those willing to listen toward love – both the love of God and love for others. It is not out simply to keep its old agenda. If that was the case, the Rosary would have never changed, but we received an entirely new set of mysteries a couple years ago. This is revolutionary, and if something is loving, good and right, I’ve found that the Church will, and has on numerous occasions, change.

In college, I questioned everything, attending an excellent liberal-arts college that taught me the depths of critical thinking. Even when I became a high school history teacher, the first thing I taught my students was critical thinking skills – how to look deeper, how to challenge. Here’s the trick in this process, however – where are we looking deeper? Do we look deeper only to prove that we’re correct or do we really open our minds to all sources?

I write all this just to let you know that, first of all, I’m extremely long-winded in responding just to your request – explaining why I could not respond to it all. And, secondly, although I don’t know you or what you precisely believe, I know the beauty of questioning and challenging. I respect it very much. And, my admiration grows for those who look in the face of their objections and open-heartedly seek truth. In college, my roommate was Presbyterian and we had many discussions about faith and I found myself being more defensive than open. One project I was given included studying a religion or denomination. I could have found many books that criticized Presbyterianism, but decided to read books by faithful Presbyterians. I didn’t perfectly agree with all they said, but it was so refreshing to open-heartedly hear their perspective and understand better their faith.

I turned my critical analysis to the Catholic faith and the many stances I did not understand that came from the faith. However, the deeper I plunged into the writings and teachings of the most faithful Catholics throughout history, the more I found wisdom and depth far beyond my college professors and intellectual friends. Not only did wisdom abound, but also compassion, mercy and courage. You can find these virtues scattered all over the world, but I was surprised by how much more I was inspired and challenged intellectually through these documents. I kept thinking to myself, “Wow, this is actually true.�? I still question, I still challenge, but I now also look to a source I have found to be trust-worthy.

All that being said, I encourage you (as I encourage myself to do the same for other issues) to continue to look deeper. So, thank you again for writing. And, to most eloquently, logically and thoroughly answer your questions, I want to refer you to sources that have been helpful for me, especially on this topic. When I was in college, one of my close friends declared himself to be homosexual and asked me what the Christian faith and the Catholic Church thought about it. I worked many hours, weeks researching for him, as I was curious at that time as well. I copied many articles and websites and put together a good packet for him. He told me a year later that he never opened it. I ask you to not do the same.

Resources

Articles and Documents

Books

May God bless you as you dig deeper on this very important issue. You will be in my prayers.

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