I think a lot, perhaps too much. I was thinking, when I woke up this morning, about the Church's teaching on homosexuality. I memorised this quote by the then Cardinal Ratzinger by rote: ''although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is, however, a strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil. It must be seen, therefore, as an objective disorder.'' This requires some thought. I do not disagree with the Church's teaching, since it is founded on the authority of God and the order of nature, but the whole thing seems to suggest to me that people of that ''inclination'' are beyond any use or any good, without the possibility either to love or be loved by someone else, which is tragic. Their ''inclination'' is objectively disordered - that's it; they are unclean pieces of flesh, they have to be cut away. Called to chastity and continence etc, etc...
Most homosexual people fill me with revulsion and contempt. It sickens me to see them parade their perversity about, and the very notion of those ''marriages'' is monstrous. But then, for those poor ones with that accursed condition (what else is it?) who try to live chastely according to the teachings of the Church it must be terrible. Terrible in the sense that they belong to neither group really; they do not fit in with the ''gay rights'' people, who wear their perversity with a badge of pride, because quite rightly they see them as more bestial than human; and at the same time, according to the very words of Cardinal Ratzinger, they do not quite fit into the Church either. People do not look at them the same way, they are ''objectively disordered'' in spite of themselves. Are they born that way? Does God make ''mistakes?'' Something is horribly wrong somewhere; perhaps it is some evil fruit of the Fall? Are they evil? It all seems rather tragic; that they are doomed to forever straddle between Church and Secular, in the knowledge that they'll never quite belong to either one.
The above photograph is, of course, of Oscar Wilde. A brilliant man, whose romantic affairs were, how shall I say it, irregular. Wilde was married to Constance Lloyd, a woman he probably really did love, since she was very grave and beautiful. I enjoy his work, as I also enjoyed the works of Plato and Michelangelo...
"they are ''objectively disordered'' in spite of themselves."
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no!!!
It is their inclination which the Church condemns as objectively disordered, not the person.
And they are, therefore, DEFINITELY part of the Church, called to live chastely (as are all single people).
It seems like a small distinction, but it is vital - otherwise you fall into the same error as those homosexual lobby groups which accuse the Church of being anti-gay!
Mac, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, I believe everything the Church teaches though. The point I was trying to convey (with rather clumsy language) is that it must be awful to go through life in the knowledge that something was horribly wrong somewhere, and that there was nothing anyone could do about it - even if you would.
I'd like to know just what you could compare the inclination to - is it like any evil? The perversity, the extreme of something, or the lack? Very complex questions and encompassing all manner of topics, theology, biology, psychology etc. Perhaps it is not answerable under the Sun of this world though.
There are so many factors that contribute to homosexuality. I am not convinced by the whole 'I'm born gay' argument. I don't know if there is any evidence supporting it, but I often find that homosexual men often lack a strong male figure in their lives, often finding it difficult to associate with a father figure; it's not helped in the father is absent in a young males life. Poor sense of body image too can contribute so it becomes a comparison against other men. One must be careful about suggesting 'cures', so take what I say with a pinch of salt. I think there are ways of enabling a better sense of masculinity which MAY have some affect on homosexual feelings for men, I don't know. Masculine identity is a gift from God (both body and manner). So maybe it is something to rediscovered or indeed, just discovered for the first time. What I think is dangerous but inevitable is for young men to identify themselves as gay so early on. All young people begin a quest for self identity, the need to be known or labelled as something. I think if more young men kept an open mind, just maybe along the way they may not convince themselves psychologically they are gay and therefore must live up to a stereotypical image of what it is to be gay. Again I am making sweeping statements, I know for many it is something kept within.
ReplyDeleteA greater sympathy for homosexuals was needed by society, but the glorifying of homosexuality was completely erroneous and has taken us beyond the point of no return, legally at least. It's a really complicated issue which needs to be researched further. I question the DSM's decision to remove it from the list of psychological disorders. Then again I only studied Psychology for a year at university level, but it was enough for me to cast doubts which I never had held before.
Like any other disordered desire, it is something which God intended as a "good" which has become disordered, mostly because our natures have been wounded through Original Sin.
ReplyDeleteThe natural sexual urge (intended for marriage and procreation) is therefore directed towards something else.
It doesn't actually matter what that something is - whether a person of the same sex, an object (like someone with a shoe fetish), or a person of the opposite sex to whom one is not married. THAT is the basic fact ignored by the Gay Rights people when they have a go at the Church.
I'm of the belief that they are in the same general situation as all people. It is after all the teaching of scripture that we are all inclined towards sin. Different people are just inclined towards different sins: some towards homosexuality, some towards alcoholism, some towards eating disorders, etc.
ReplyDeleteRecall what St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, not mincing (!) words:
ReplyDelete"Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers: not the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God." (I Cor. vi, 9b-10)
But this condemnation is not the end of the tale, no - for grace is more powerful far than sin:
"And such some of you were. But you are washed: but you are sanctified: but you are justified: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God." (I Cor. vi, 11)
In other words, being baptised in the Name of the Trinity, with all the unspeakable transformation that implies, means that for adulterers, homosexuals, criminals and all classes of the reprobate there is the sure hope of salvation; and, I would add, in confession there is the medicine for even the worst backsliding into any sin whatsoever.
Recall too that the Apostle teaches that, while marriage is an honourable estate, and it is better to marry than to burn, he would himself counsel those who can to remain single and chaste, the better to devote themselves wholly to the Lord, for the time remaining is short. Recall elsewhere it is said forcibly that in every case of temptation God provides the grace to endure it. So it cannot be argued that any class of person is somehow uniquely cursed.
"For all have sinned and do need the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. iii, 23f)