Homosexuals and the Church

Homosexuals and the Church

“As if sexual morality isn’t complicated enough when it involves two adults of different sexes,” quote our Theology book, “same-sex activity requires an even more moral analysis.”

It’s still a mystery whether homosexuality is a genetic, personal or social stigma, but as it stands with the Corinthians and the book of Genesis, homosexual acts are condemned by God and can never be approved by the Church. If homosexuals are born with the condition, then they are called to live a life of Christian purity and chastity for the greater love of Christ. The act of homosexuality is a “sin that cries to heaven for vengeance (Gen 18:20)” Homosexuals are thereby called to chastity so they may obtain self-mastery and approach Christian perfection. In turn, the Church and society help people with homosexual inclinations fulfill their Christian vocation to be loving and life-giving people.

This existence of people who have homosexual inclinations create many a dilemma for not only heterosexuals but homosexuals as well. For example, one of the more controversial subjects of our modern time: should a homosexual couple be allowed to legally marry? Should a couple who have lived a long relationship be allowed the same legal rights as a married couple? Even so, through all the teachings that the Church carries on same sex behavior, they still direct heterosexual people to treat homosexuals in love and just ways.

Another foundation is the teaching that sexual relations are reserved to those who are married and that acting out homosexually is an objectively sinful act. This teaching isn’t based off words of Scripture but on the Church’s teaching of proper use of the gift of sexuality.

All in all: homosexual inclinations and actions are bad, homosexual people, if directed by the church and living in chastity, good.

So, let me stop copying information, definitions and references to take a second and weave in my own personal opinion at this point. What you heard me list off before were the point of views taken from the Church on the topic of sexuality in same sex relationships. Personally, I would like peacefully disagree with the statements taken from my various sources.

I’d really like to start with the teaching that homosexual actions are a sin. Why? I’d like it if that ‘why’ would honestly and thoughtfully implant it’s questioning into your minds for a minute. Really, why is it so condemned by the Church? By the teachings that we are fed? As writers and researchers have founded through tireless examination, there is no clear condemnation of loving homosexual relationships in Scripture. John J. McNeil, writer of The Church and the Homosexual, explains, “Homosexual orientation has no necessary connection with sin, sickness, or failure; rather it is a gift from God to be accepted and lived out with gratitude... Human beings do not choose their sexual orientation; they discover it as something given."

Rather than homosexuality being a menace or a threat to the values of family life, we could possibly consider that homosexuals have special gifts and qualities that have a positive contribution as a part of God’s creative plan towards the development of society. McNeil also states that, “Every human being has a God-given right to sexual love and intimacy." Homosexuals are people, right? Homosexuals, regardless the sex of their lover, are still humans with feelings and as it is, love is love, and should be regarded as such no matter the sex of the persons that are present in the relationship. Love between two homosexuals, assuming that it’s practical human love, is not sinful, it can be a holy love, mediating God's presence in the human community as effectively as heterosexual love.

The other point of disagreement I’d like to make is the controversial matter of same-sex marriages. I believe the reason behind the Church’s disapproval of homosexual marriage is that the Church constitutes it as “wrecking the foundation” of a family life. I would like to ask what a family truly is. To the Church, it means having children, raising them and staying together like the small community that a family is. Why can’t a same-sex couple marry? Is it because they can’t take care of their own children seeing as they are incapable of bearing offspring on their own? What about the thousands of children that are thrown into orphanages by parents who didn’t want them or have lost both their parents to tragedy or money issue? Some of those children came from teen pregnancies that gave up their child for adoption. Can homosexual couples not take care of these children who are parentless and raise a family by creating stable lives for children?

The Church then argues that it would corrupt the thinking or even influence a child’s sexuality to have a same-sex couple as parents. I do not believe this to be so, I believe the love in a same-sex relationship is feelings, not influence given by parents, teachers or other people. Somehow, I doubt you could walk out to, say, the local mall and campaign for everyone to “Get Gay!” If a person feels “homosexual inclinations” then that means that their feelings are for people of the same sex, end of statement. Homosexuals are not a mistake. Same-sex relationships are not a sin. Homosexuality is not an uncommon thing, if it is on this earth, that must mean that God placed it here, doesn’t it? How can it be un natural if it’s in our society, our world, our lives? It’s especially natural to the people that come to realize that their sexuality is that of homosexual nature.

Love is love.

That’s all there is to it.