The Conservative Catholic's Scriptural Stance Against the Cultural Advance of Gay Men and the Validity of Those Arguments

I am an avid follower of the Catholic Online. While most people close to me know that I am not a devout Catholic, I do like knowing what is going on in the Catholic Church and the positions it holds on certain political issues. Further, the vast majority of my education has taken place in Catholic institutions and I did have a modestly religious upbringing in my parents' household. Thus, Catholic thought has a great deal of influence on my thinking and my views.

Having followed the Catholic Online articles for over a year now, I have been exposed to many different opinions from Catholics, ranging from devoutly conservative to progressive. Catholic Online, from what I have seen, tends to attract the more devout Catholic. I often will see, in the member comments below the articles, phrases like "Praise be God" or people praising the words of anti-gay opinions. What tends to bother me the most with these types of comments is that they are shamefully unsupported with any kind of authority. If I've learned anything in law school, it's that an opinion or argument is bogus without any support. Worse, these people are creating a gap between Catholic homosexuals and the Church that they revere and adore. Indeed, many of these men and women, like me, have grown up in the Catholic Church and have grown to love its guidance. Now we have people telling us that our sin is so great that we are doomed. This creates a great tension that I feel ultimately drives homosexuals from the Catholic Church. I ask those people, by what authority do you suggest my sin to be so much greater than yours? 

I think most homosexual Catholics have felt the tension with the Church regarding issues of gay marriage and the questionable, if not utterly incomprehensible, arguments asserted against gay marriage. For gay men like myself who grew up in the Catholic faith going to mass, going through the rites of passage in the Church (i.e. baptism, first communion, first reconciliation and confirmation) and also participating in the mass as cantors and choir singers, alter servers, gift bearers and other functions lay people serve as members of the Catholic Church, the realization that one is gay brings about a great deal of concern and doom for one's faith. What makes it even worse is that a large part of the Catholic Church is not concerned with making their homosexual members comfortable with being gay and being Catholic. Actually, the leaders of the Catholic Church make statements condemning and damning the homosexual; basically, if you are gay, you cannot be a Catholic. 

We all know where this comes from and it is common and stable in Catholic minds. The bible proscribes homosexual conduct. I realize there are a lot of people, good people, who use semantics to try and override those biblical passages they claim only allegedly condemn homosexual behavior. I personally believe the does-the-bible-really-demand-heterosexuality argument useless and unconvincing. I personally believe, for purposes of scriptural analysis, that arguments of human bias and outdated mentalities are more convincing in the debate. However, this is not what this entry is really about. For many devout Catholics the bible says what it says and the meaning behind its words is timeless. Thus, when the bible says men shouldn't lie with other men as they do with women, it's basically saying acting on homosexual sexual urges is against God's command.

I do not dispute that. For Catholics, the words of the Lord are law. When we break those commands we sin. This includes men lying with men the way a man lies with a woman. However, the words of Jesus condemn a great deal of behavior besides acting on homosexual urges. The bible states that we are all born sinners and Jesus died so that our sins may be forgiven. Even though we sin, it is not a sentence to hell. This is something that devout Catholics conveniently forget when raising their scriptural arguments against gay marriage and homosexual conduct. 

Inherent in the scriptural arguments against homosexuality is this idea that sexual conduct between members of the same sex is some kind of super-sin, that it is way worse than any other sin. It is this idea with which I take issue. I will admit that I am not a biblical scholar or a theologian. I am not an expert on canonical law. However, in my many, many years of Catholic education and in my many years of being a "good Catholic boy" I have never come across this hierarchy that Catholics always seem to depend on when urging scriptural proscriptions of homosexuality. Devout Catholics seem to think that the practicing homosexual, who has led a good Catholic life despite acting on his or her homosexuality, is way worse off than the heterosexual who has led a moderately Catholic life. I just cannot fathom where this logic comes from. We are all sinners, we all are born with it, and we all commit it. No one is pure in the eyes of God. Although Catholics like to shout out that any amount of sin will lead to our eternity with the Devil, those people conveniently forget that they themselves sin too. Nowhere in the bible have I ever seen or heard a passage referenced that says if a man or woman lies with another person of the same gender they are doomed to hell.  Where does it say that active homosexuality is a deal breaker? Where does it say that the liar, the cheater, or the violent are safe as long as they don't sleep with a person of the same gender? Although I am not one hundred percent sure, I do not think it says anything of the sort. We all live with sin, committing it often, if not daily. For anyone to go around saying that another person's sins are greater than their own is truly not acting under proper authority. Indeed, in the story of Mary Magdalene, Jesus said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Even the most non-religious people, with the poorest of religious backgrounds and upbringings have heard that passage referenced many times. If someone can point out to me some passage in the bible that says the good homosexual person is damned to hell because homosexuality is the kind of sin that is just utterly unforgivable and worse than the everyday sins we all commit, then I would be more inclined to believe scriptural arguments. I do not think I will ever come across the person that can find it. 

I do wonder if the Pope himself, described as God's human presence on earth, could change the Catholic views to support such an idea. I think he could. He probably could make some kind of papal decree that would support the sin hierarchy. However, he would have to admit that such a statement would ultimately be scripturally unsupported. If anything, the bible delineates a loose hierarchy to a certain extent. Catholics, and other Christians, are taught the Ten Great Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins (these are never explicitly mentioned in the bible in one single place, but rather compounded by scholars). Not one of those Great Commandments is "Guys should not nail other guys." Not one of the Seven Deadly Sins is "sex between two men." I suppose some could argue that the sin of "Lust" might encompass homosexuality. I do not know enough about it though to make an argument. However, I cannot say I have ever come across such an argument. 

Even if the Pope decided to make such a decree, it would most likely not come without difficulty. For sure, there would be tremendous scriptural debate, probably a debate as to whether the Pope can change scripture (unless higher authority states he is able to do so), and most likely a backlash against the Church by progressive members. At any rate, it would be foolish for the Church to ostracize members based on particular sins.