http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-to.html

Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

Second, Jesus offers abundant life now and after death, a life so
abundant that the sacrifice or cross of life-long abstinence is
reasonable and worthwhile.

http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-to.html


Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?



Liberal clerics and laity in liberal Protestant denominations and even
in Catholicism explicitly or implicitly argue that approval of the gay
lifestyle of sexually active same-sex relationships is the only humane
response to someone with a homosexual orientation. The underlying
reasoning is that to expect someone to abstain from sexual activity for
his entire life is to seriously harm that person. Married heterosexuals
who reject the morality of gay behavior are then accused of hypocrisy
for expecting from gays what heterosexuals don't expect of themselves.
Heterosexuals who are delighted to have the sexual outlet of
traditional marriage may wonder what response can be made to this
charge.

The wider question that must first be addressed is the witness of
Scripture and Tradition. There is no doubt whatsoever that the
Judeo-Christian tradition has always and everywhere condemned sexual
activity between persons of the same gender. That teaching is part of
the divine revelation made in Scripture. So, even if a person should
decide that same-gender sex is now moral, there is no basis for that
person to say that such a view is in any way Christian.
snip lies

http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-to.html


Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-to.html

Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

Liberal clerics and laity in liberal Protestant denominations and even
in Catholicism explicitly or implicitly argue that approval of the gay
lifestyle

Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

Is It Unfair to Ask Heterosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-to.html
Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?

http://catholicanalysis.blogspot.com/2004/01/is-it-unfair-to-ask-homosexuals-t
o.html


Is It Unfair to Ask Homosexuals to Refrain from Sexual Activity?



Liberal clerics and laity in liberal Protestant denominations and even
in Catholicism explicitly or implicitly argue that approval of the gay
lifestyle of sexually active same-sex relationships is the only humane
response to someone with a homosexual orientation. The underlying
reasoning is that to expect someone to abstain from sexual activity for
his entire life is to seriously harm that person. Married heterosexuals
who reject the morality of gay behavior are then accused of hypocrisy
for expecting from gays what heterosexuals don't expect of themselves.
Heterosexuals who are delighted to have the sexual outlet of
traditional marriage may wonder what response can be made to this
charge.

The wider question that must first be addressed is the witness of
Scripture and Tradition. There is no doubt whatsoever that the
Judeo-Christian tradition has always and everywhere condemned sexual
activity between persons of the same gender. That teaching is part of
the divine revelation made in Scripture. So, even if a person should
decide that same-gender sex is now moral, there is no basis for that
person to say that such a view is in any way Christian. Any honest
advocate for such a position must admit that it contradicts Christian
revelation. So, for Christians who seek to contradict divine revelation
on this issue, the judgment of intellectual honesty is clear: you have
abandoned Christianity and are in the process of creating a new
non-Christian sect using Christian terms and labels, much as the
Mormons use Christian terminology as an overlay over their polytheism.
That is why the new pro-gay Episcopal Church USA should now be viewed
as being in the same category of pseudo-Christian sects such as the
Mormons who embrace polytheism or the Jehovah's Witnesses who deny the
divinity of Christ.

Having clarified that the embrace of the gay lifestyle is not a
Christian option in any meaningful sense, we can now consider the
question from the perspective of a non-Christian making the charge of
why we ask for life-long abstinence from homosexuals but not from
heterosexuals who have the option of marriage. We come back to the
point that in our culture sexual abstinence is viewed as gravely
harmful to a person, emotionally and psychologically. Some even argue
that total sexual abstinence is even harmful physically or at least
denies a person significant health benefits.

No post in a web log can hope to answer these issues fully. But there
are some points worthy of consideration. The view that life-long sexual
abstinence is harmful is particularly appealing in a culture of
personal isolation. In highly individualistic Western cultures, the
extended family, the village, the neighborhood, and the social penumbra
of the local church have dramatically withered.
Contrast the typical American suburban lifestyle with that of a
Catholic living in an ethnic neighborhood in prior generations. In
those neighborhoods, the church steeple or tower dominated, not just
physically but also socially. The parish community was the center not
just of religious practice but of social life. I submit that as our
families and church communities dwindle in social significance, we
experience a greater emphasis on sexual activity as a way to "connect"
with other people. You can see this phenomenon in the explosion of
pornography and heterosexual fornication. There is no longer a social
path of courtship for young people to find suitable marriage partners.
All that is left in the current anarchic situation for many young
heterosexuals is ad hoc fornication as a way of seeking intimacy or of
finding a marriage partner. So, the first point to consider is that we
have an exaggerated view of the importance of sexual gratification
because we lack the experience of social community that prior
generations had. Sexual gratification, whether through pornography or
with a live person, becomes the drug for isolated and lonely rugged
individualists.

The next factor worth considering is loss of faith. If Jesus is indeed
God and offers us eternal life as the answer to the inevitable
encounter with death, then clearly following Jesus is worth the
sacrifice of sexual gratification. But the truth is that for many who
claim to be Christian and certainly for those who have no religious
allegiance, there is no genuine belief in an afterlife. Given that
perspective, it is not surprising that hedonism becomes the explicit or
implicit religion of many. The mania for consumerism confirms this
hedonistic mindset. And yet Jesus offers more than an afterlife, he
offers abundant life now in this life. Yet, if we lack the faith to
experience that abundant life, that priceless treasure, then it
certainly makes no sense to sacrifice our strong urges, urges which are
increasingly the only way for isolated people to remedy their
loneliness.

So to a complex question--is it unfair to deny a sexual outlet to
homosexuals?--we can answer with at least two preliminary points.
First, Western culture puts a dysfunctional emphasis on individual
sexual gratification because Western culture is so impoverished in
terms of family and community. Second, Jesus offers abundant life now
and after death, a life so abundant that the sacrifice or cross of
life-long abstinence is reasonable and worthwhile. Now these two points
will seem incomprehensible to many in the West for whom sexual
gratification has become one of the few ways we can relate to others in
our social isolation and for whom the offer of abundant life made by
Jesus Christ is regarded as superstition. But if we accept and
experience the offer of abundant life from Christ and thereby grow
beyond isolated individualism, then it is neither unfair nor
unreasonable to ask for life-long abstinence from homosexuals or, for
that matter, from unmarried heterosexuals. The problem is that in
today's nihilistic culture of despair and loneliness sexual
gratification has become a compulsion and an addiction in a long list
of other compulsions and addictions. And the addict will always come up
with an excuse or equivocation. For heterosexual Christians, there is
then an obligation to welcome homosexuals in our churches and parishes:
we must offer the community that makes the challenge of chastity a
realistic option.

The underlying
reasoning is that to expect someone to abstain from sexual activity for
his entire life is to seriously harm that person.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the
Judeo-Christian tradition has always and everywhere condemned sexual
activity between persons of the same gender.

Any honest
advocate for such a position must admit that it contradicts Christian
revelation. So, for Christians who seek to contradict divine revelation
on this issue, the judgment of intellectual honesty is clear: you have
abandoned Christianity and are in the process of creating a new
non-Christian sect using Christian terms and labels, much as the
Mormons use Christian terminology as an overlay over their polytheism.

Having clarified that the embrace of the gay lifestyle is not a
Christian option in any meaningful sense...

No post in a web log can hope to answer these issues fully. But there
are some points worthy of consideration. The view that life-long sexual
abstinence is harmful is particularly appealing in a culture of
personal isolation. In highly individualistic Western cultures, the
extended family, the village, the neighborhood, and the social penumbra
of the local church have dramatically withered.

The next factor worth considering is loss of faith. If Jesus is indeed
God

Second, Jesus offers abundant life now
and after death, a life so abundant that the sacrifice or cross of
life-long abstinence is reasonable and worthwhile.