Aug 24 2008
Tradition
Perhaps because ancient cultures believed that only men could fulfill the role of true friends and lovers, some ancient Greeks actually considered homosexuality to be an ideal relationship. When referring to Greek mythology, St. Augustine said, “It was tedious to recount his [Hercules] adulteries of all sorts…. For your gods did not even abstain from males…” (Augustine, Exhortation To the Greeks 2). He also said of conversations about homosexuality,
“ …Conversation about deeds of wickedness is appropriately termed filthy speaking, as talk about adultery and pederasty and the like” (Augustine, The Instructor 6) and lastly on the story of Sodom, “The Sodomities having, through much luxury, fallen into uncleanness, practicing adultery shamelessly, and burning with insane love for boys.” (Ibid, 8). Once again we encounter harsh words-wicked, filthy, unclean, etc. How are people supposed to believe that God has anything but hate for homosexuals when a saint is using such negative words?
Another interesting quote says that homosexuals are “ contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affection”. (Catechism of the Catholic Church). While I cannot disagree that homosexuals are unable to procreate I do disagree about the second part because who is the Pope to say that two committed men or two committed women do not have the same capacity to love each other as a straight married couple.
Even worse is the insinuation that homosexuals do not have lasting power just because they are homosexuals; “ According to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality”(Declaration persona humane)
The Magisterium says, “ … We must go back to the beginning, i.e., to God’s creative act: this is what Jesus Christ did with regard to the indissolubility of marriage.” (Second Vatican Council) I find a problem with this because in the beginning (creation) there is no mention of homosexuality, as good or bad. Non the less apparently, they feel that we must look to the Old Testament for a reason to condemn homosexual activity.
Another quote by the Magisterium says that homosexuals are just as much God’s children as heterosexuals.
“The human person made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth… a ‘heterosexual’ or a ‘homosexual’… has a fundamental identity: the creature of god and, by his grace, his child and heir to eternal life.” (Letters of the Congregation - October 1986)
Now that is the way I was taught, everyone loved by God for the way he created them, with a Soul, intellect, and freedom, rather than being condemned for it.
