One thing that has astonished me is that I haven’t seen anyone point out that what I called the common mode of expression of “gay” love (i.e. sodomy) is gratuitous violence.Interesting.
But Dante places sodomy in the bottom-most ring of the seventh circle, below homicide and suicide, suggesting that this sin is an even worse form of violence. The implication here is that sodomy involves an even more thoroughgoing hostility to Nature than defying the laws of self-preservation or love of neighbor; that it is a culmination of violence in being destructive to neighbor, violating self-love, and at the same time undermining family and community.
The Inferno guy (Divine Comedy, comedy in the old sense as a story that ends satisfyingly, not in the new sense of frivolous entertainment aimed at getting laughs).
Well he certainly gave hell a lot of thought!
That’s tough to do without falling into its charms (as all of us have some sin) but he did it pretty well (as did the later Milton in Paradise Lost).
I come as this as a small-c catholic Christian. Not having a denominational background has helped me stay out of denominational biases. I gladly affirm truths of faith wherever Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox note them, and even more I strive to put them into practice because I have discovered, or been discovered by, a God who is well worth the loving.
And it’s perceptive to note all the outer effects of it. We can certainly see those most visibly. It’s the inner effect that gives it its immediate pungency, I would think. But the devil has the wider view and it’s hateful all right.
Anyhow it would need a miracle for Google to see it, but maybe they would. Why hasn’t Google saluted, say, Mother Teresa or Billy Graham?