What About Those Sinners?

Least anyone misunderstand what the truth of the matter is, let me clarify something concerning my last post: God and His Church Do Not Hate or Exclude Homosexuals

Sex, to be good and holy, must be compatable with the ideal which God intended it to be.

Go here for direct teaching of the Church's position on the sexuality dignity of man and woman.

I would not be so righteous or assumptive to try to explain (much less teach) in a short blog post the beautiful teachings of Christ's Church about sex and the sanctity of this act within marriage. I encourage anyone wanting to learn wisely to read Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and escape to the Theology of the Body website if you want to delve into it more thoroughly. Not to demean anyone but there is a middle school version for those of us, like myself, who are light-weights when it comes to theological thoughts and teachings, in general. ;-)

Regarding homosexual acts; they are wrong, as are sexual acts outside of marriage, sex crimes against children and perverted acts including animals. 

Why? people ask, and immediately hate the explanation before it is even given (much less understood) and despise those of us who try to explain the why.

The simple Why, as I understand it, is because homosexual acts, as well as sex crimes against children, are not life-giving and cannot be life-giving and they also attack a person's dignity. These acts are wrong because they are perverted forms which do nothing in bringing us closer to God, go against the natural order, and tear at the dignity of man and woman. These acts exclude God from the natural order. They slander the relationship between God and His creation. They turn their back on the opportunity to unite with God in the wonder of co-creation. These acts do not give life, they take life...selfishly so.

Sex, to be holy and part of God's plan, must be life-giving; it must allow us to embrace our role in the sovereignity of creation and the privilege (yes, the incredible privilege) to CO-create with our Creator. Through the sexual act God reaches out, takes us by the hand (in the actual joining of hands in holy matrimony) and invites us to receive His gift of life.

Isn't that awesome? Isn't that impressive? Isn't that empowering?

So many people think not.

They blame the Church for being out-dated, hardened, secretive, bonding and restrictive.

Bonding, yes indeed.
Restrictive, no indeed.

The Church bonds us into the ideal Body of Christ. She doesn't restrict us; she raises the bar, she challenges, she lifts us above ourselves.

So that is how we deal with the sin. What about the sinner?

We must pray that they become the saint that they (that we) are all called to be and quit interfering with God's plan.

I will not get into the whole homosexual debate of it being choice vs. born-that-way. I knew people who seemed "that way" back in school. Some guys were more feminine than I thought they should have been; some girls were rougher around the edges than I thought they should have been; but God didn't ask my opinion when He created them, much less when He created me. That's the only conference call I will have with Him when I enter into eternity. I have my own ideals of the origin of sexual identity but for the life of me I can't understand why people focus on this type of navel gazing. I do not navel gaze at what people do behind bedroom walls. I just don't. Those people I grew up knowing who were more feminine or rougher around the edges were some of the nicest, most helpful people I encountered. Even now when I drive up to a local hamburger joint and am met by a crew-cut hairdo with pierced eyebrows and a woman's voice, all I can think of is how politely and cheerfully I am met every. single. time. With a smile. And she always gets my order right. :-)

For us to exclude and judge people by what they do in the bedroom insults our intelligence as Christians. We overlook a host of good qualities because we're so very busy waging our tongues about how evil they are. Who says? As Mark Shea says, "It's really none of our business!"

God sees all. Why are we forever playing the role of Peeping Tom and eyeballing through that bedroom keyhole? That is a perverted sin within itself and we are the ones doing it.

I personally think sex needs to go back into the bedroom where it belongs.  It does not need to be on our streets, in our schools, on the Internet, on our library shelves, etc. I say this because I am personally so tired of everything being defined by sex. Everything! How we act, how we dress, how we play ball, how (and what) we draw, how we mentor, how we eat. It's exhausting. Don't we have anything better to do than to worry about what people do behind closed doors?

People will justify this to extremes, I know. They will proclaim that we must speak the truth and...I agree. We need the prophets and the voice of God to intervene. Christ left us that voice in the Holy See. We must gently and lovingly guide people to the entrance into that Jerusalem on earth and welcome them in...then get out of the way! We must remember that the person we are speaking "the truth" to may have already heard "the truth" proclaimed by fifty different people in fifty different way and they are sick and tired (and defeated) by it. Those good people, in their fevered pitch don't shut up long enough to let the lost sheep hear the voice of God calling them. They hear the cries of the wolves and the bleating of the other sheep and cannot hear the Master's call above the noise.

Man and woman, He created them. We are blessed to have been created differently, yet in perfect union with our Creator and able to co-create in His creation.

Still, we are imperfect and live in an imperfect world. I remind myself daily we live in a fallen world. I am under no illusions. The streets that Christ walked were also full of prostitutes and adultresses and murderers and cheats.
And what did He do?

Christ stood between the stone-faced crowd and the adultress woman. He acknowledged the demons in the man rather than disown the man His Father created. He forgave the friend who denied him and made him our first Pope. He forgave, not one, but a Calvary-side of murderers.

I believe that, as humans, we all process thoughts in the lifespan of a day and some are dark, foreboding thoughts which we quickly dash upon the rocks of our memories and leave dead and hidden. There are thoughts we don't dare dwell on much less act upon. We know they are not good, holy thoughts. They are not worthy of God. At one time acting upon homosexual thoughts was considered a desecration of the human body, today is it accepted as an expression of love. But it is not life-giving.

This leads Christians to question the possibility that things which are unacceptable today may become acceptable tomorrow, such as homosexuality has become. Sex was once strictly understood to be for marriage and within the sanctity of marriage. Today it has exploded into a bomb of self-corruption and self-distain which is quickly destroying our families, our homes, our society, our culture and our self-worth.

Pope Paul VI famously predicted this corrupting series of events in his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. Again, I would be foolish to try to expand upon the wisdom of this document within this short blog space.

But in handling the line of events to where we are today...

Can homosexuals be Christian? Yes indeed. Can they be life-giving in caring for family members and the sick in hospitals, in foster care, as the parent of an abandoned child? Yes indeed. Can they worship side by side with you and me? Yes indeed.  As one commenter shared: they also have gifts, talents, and loving hearts the same as you and me. If they have grown hardened and harsh it is because they are tired of defending the person that God made them to be. {Disclaimer: I am not speaking here of the new wave of young people who are choosing this lifestyle without fully knowing it's implications or the wisdom of the Church. This is where the wisdom of the Church and the instruction of elders need to tell adolescents what a false god this is and pray they are open to the message over false sirens in the distance.}

These people carry a heavy cross. Do we help them to carry it?

So many of us don't help. We judge and we hinder. We don't offer them something more attractive, we tattle and condemn. We spend more time with our eyes glued to bedroom keyholes than upon the Eucharist within our churches. We spend time judging them, questioning them, debating our rights and their wrongs...

...when all Christ said was "Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more."

{There are so many loose ends to this rambling. So many misunderstood equations. So many mysteries within God's creation. I beg you to know that I know I am illiterate in trying to explain all this. Go and read the writings of the Church and Church Fathers regarding these issues. The Church is sensitive to these issues. Anyone who has made you feel that the Church is inconsiderate and insensitive are individuals who, like myself, lacked the best way to explain it and messed it up in the effort.}