Posted on 05/22/2006 3:45:46 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
1. Introduction
Homosexuality is evil. It is directly and irreconcilably opposed to God's will for humanity and for the human person. A homosexual orientation is a grave moral disorder within the human person. This disorder is not part of God's plan for the human race; it is a result of the sinfulness of the individual and of groups of individuals. This disorder is not a part of human nature; it is an effect of serious sin on human nature. Anyone who has a homosexual orientation has a severely damaged human nature.
While a homosexual orientation itself is not a sin, it is a result of serious sin, and anyone who acts according to a homosexual orientation sins. Also, a homosexual orientation cannot possibly be present in anyone who has avoided all objective mortal sin in their life. Anyone who has a homosexual orientation has certainly committed sins that have contributed to this effect on their human nature.
Since the human person is often influenced by other individuals, and by society in general, some of the blame for this state can be placed upon other individuals, groups of individuals, and society in general. However, it is never the case that a person with a homosexual orientation is without any personal culpability. And any willful desires, thoughts, and actions taken by such an individual, in response to his or her own homosexual orientation, are certainly personal sins for which that individual is culpable.
The sinful secular society that surrounds us teaches many false teachings, in contradiction to Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium. The true disciples of Christ will listen to the voice of the Church and ignore the voice of strangers. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, teaches that homosexual acts are always gravely immoral and that the homosexual orientation is a serious moral disorder within the human person. The Church has always taught that this disorder is contrary to God's will and to God's plan. Do not be led astray by the pervasive false teachings of modern society.
2. Are some individuals born with a homosexual orientation? Could this orientation be genetic, not chosen?
No one is born a homosexual, nor is there a gene or set of genes that makes someone into a homosexual. This is certain because each human person has free will. Our genetics and other factors with which we are born can never take away or nullify free will. And any act that is freely chosen by a human person is a result of free will, not birth or genetics. Homosexual acts, as well as every other kind of serious sin, are acts of the free will. Thus, these acts are sins for which each is personally responsible. One cannot evade personal responsibility for freely chosen actions by blaming genetics.
Some might argue that the orientation itself, as opposed to willful acts, is not freely chosen. However, the Church teaches that homosexuality is contrary to the will of God; therefore, it cannot be a part of the human nature created by God. Also, no one can end up with a homosexual orientation without freely choosing to commit sins that are objectively and gravely immoral. Therefore, human nature itself, including genetics and whatever else constitutes the human person, cannot be said to be the cause of a homosexual orientation. Rather, it is the sins of the individual, and the influence of other persons and of a sinful society that causes this disorder.
Do genetic factors play any role in forming a homosexual orientation? If a person is raised in the true Christian faith, and if they adhere to that faith, avoiding all objective mortal sin, then, regardless of their genetics, they will not have a homosexual orientation. If a person is raised apart from true faith, in a sinful society filled with false teachings and harmful ideas, and if they commit objective mortal sins, such a person might be influenced, firstly by their own sins, secondly by a sinful society, and lastly by other factors, towards a homosexual orientation. But such a result is not determinate, even for persons who are very sinful, who live in a very sinful society, and who have other such factors.
3. Is homosexual orientation a matter of degree, so that anyone could be said to have this to some degree?
No. Human nature itself is created by God and the homosexual orientation is directly contrary and irreconcilable with the will and plan of God. Therefore, human nature cannot be said to have a natural or inherent homosexual orientation, even to a small degree.
Human nature is damaged by original sin. The damage is that we are not conceived with sanctifying grace present in our souls and that our physical human nature has a tendency towards selfishness called concupiscence. However, original sin by itself does not damage human nature so severely as to result in the grave moral disorder of a homosexual orientation. Such severe damage to human nature cannot occur in any individual without objective mortal sins by that individual, and usually also with the influence of the mortal sins of other persons. Sin damages human nature; numerous mortal sins damage human nature severely. Sometimes the result of this severe damage is a homosexual orientation.
The human soul is created by God. The human race is also God's creation. God did not create human nature such that it would have a sexual orientation that is completely incompatible with God's will. Homosexuality is a grave moral disorder. Our belief that God created us leads us to the inevitable conclusion that homosexuality is not present, even to a small degree, in each and every person, nor in most persons, but only in a few whose human nature has been severely damaged by their own sins and the sins of others.
4. What if someone with a homosexual orientation does not commit homosexual acts and lives chastely?
First, it must be observed that the vast majority of persons with a homosexual orientation do not even try to live a chaste life. Such unrepentant homosexuals are committing objective mortal sins. If some of these call themselves Christian or Catholic, they are also in a state of heresy, because they do not believe the teaching of Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium that homosexuality is a serious moral evil. Anyone who claims that prayer or holiness or faith or true spiritual love is in any way compatible with homosexual acts or with a homosexual orientation is a liar and a heretic. Anathema sit.
Second, any person who has always lived a chaste and prayerful life could not possibly have been so damaged in his or her human nature as to end up with a homosexual orientation. A prayerful chaste life blesses human nature, preventing such severe damage from ever occurring, despite original sin and the sins of society. Anyone who claims to have always lived chastely and prayerfully, and who claims to have a homosexual orientation, is a liar.
Third, given the rare case of someone who has a homosexual orientation, admits his or her own responsibility and sinfulness, and who thereafter lives prayerfully and chastely, such a person would certainly be quickly turned from a homosexual orientation to a heterosexual orientation and towards God. Anyone who claims that they have repented and that they now live prayerfully and chastely, and who also claims to still have a homosexual orientation, is a liar, who has not sincerely and thoroughly repented, and who does not now live prayerfully and chastely.
5. Should we not hate the sin and love the sinner?
Yes, but some have used this expression to justify treating the unrepentant homosexual as if he or she were the same as a faithful member of the Church. We cannot welcome those who are unrepentant from serious sin into the Church and its Sacraments, as if they were the same as the repentant or as those who have not sinned seriously. Jesus Christ ate and drank with sinners, but He did so to teach them the truth and to bring them to repentance. It is not right to use the expression 'love the sinner' in order to justify ignoring a person's serious sins and in order to give them a place in the community of believers that they should not have.
And those who would not repent, Christ rejected, just as He rejected Herod the tetrarch (not saying even a word to him, Lk 23:9), just as He rejected those Pharisees and scribes who did not repent (Mt 23), just as He rejected even one of the Twelve Apostles, Judas Iscariot. Of course, it was the decisions and actions of each of these that caused them to reject Christ themselves. He would have accepted any who repented sincerely and thoroughly, and who gave up their sins to live a chaste and prayerful life.
6. Can homosexuals be admitted to the Sacraments?
Most homosexuals are unrepentant, but a few might be repentant. Unrepentant homosexuals include (a) those who are sexually active with members of the same sex, and, (b) those who, whether or not they are sexually active, believe that homosexuality is not evil and that homosexual acts are not gravely immoral.
Unrepentant homosexuals should not be admitted to the Sacraments, nor given any positions of teaching or leadership in the Church (including Ordination) because they are (a) unrepentant from acts that are objective mortal sin, and/or, (b) they are in a state of heresy by rejecting definitive Biblical and Magisterial teachings that homosexuality and homosexual acts are always gravely and objectively immoral.
Repentant homosexuals are, today, clearly in the minority. However, suppose that a person (a) has repented from homosexual sins and received forgiveness in Confession, AND, (b) that he or she sincerely believes Church teaching that homosexuality is evil and that homosexual acts are always gravely immoral. Such a person should still not receive Communion, nor any of the Sacraments, except Confession. (Last Rites could be administered, if such a person was near death.) Such a person should continue to pray, to remain chaste, and to learn and practice the true faith, going to Confession regularly, but not yet receiving Communion. Only after a long period of chaste and prayerful living, and many sincere Confessions over a long time, should such a person be allowed to receive Communion.
However, it should also be said that most persons who identify themselves as homosexual, are not repentant and do not believe Church teaching against homosexuality. This is largely due to the influence of modern secular society, whose teachings are contrary to Church teaching on this subject. As long as such persons are unrepentant, they are unfit for every Sacrament, including Confession.
7. Can someone with a homosexual orientation receive the Sacrament of Ordination?
No. God required of the Israelites, when they presented a sacrifice to Him, that the lamb be without blemish. And God requires of the Church, when the community of believers present some few of its members to Him as a living sacrifice, that these ones be lambs without blemish. (Exodus 12:5, 29:1; Leviticus 1:3, 10; 3:1, etc.) Those who have a homosexual orientation, even if they have not acted upon it or have repented from such acts, still have a human nature that is severely damaged. As such they are very far from being lambs without blemish. Any Israelite who presented such a lamb to God as a sacrifice would have been severely rebuked by his family and neighbors, and by the Jewish priests and Levites, and rightly so. So then, those who accept homosexuals into seminaries, religious orders, or the clergy are rightly rebuked by God. And those who enter a seminary, or a religious order, or who receive Ordination, while having a homosexual orientation, are rightly condemned by God.
Those who have a homosexual orientation, or an orientation towards pedophilia, or who are strongly attached (or even addicted) to anything that is gravely immoral, are not suitable for the religious life, nor for ordination. Even if they are repentant from, or have never committed, such gravely immoral acts, they are not suitable for the religious life, nor for the Sacrament of Ordination, because of the Biblical teaching that the faithful should offer as a sacrifice to God only lambs without blemish.
The homosexual orientation (and other strong attachments to serious sin of any kind) is a fundamental type of damage to the human person that cannot be overlooked when evaluating someone for ordination, the religious life, or even any leadership or teaching role in the parish or diocese. For much the same reason, such persons are not fitting candidates to be lectors, nor extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, nor altar servers, nor to teach children, nor to teach adults, nor for any other position of leadership or teaching in the Church.
In addition, most persons with a homosexual orientation do not sincerely and fully accept Church teaching that the homosexual orientation is evil and that homosexual acts are always gravely immoral. Anyone who does not accept this teaching of the Church, or who obstinately doubts this teaching, is in a state of heresy. And heretics are automatically excommunicated under Canon Law.
On a personal note, I am straight. I do not have a homosexual orientation, nor have I ever had a homosexual orientation. I have never committed any homosexual sins. But I do not bear hatred or undue prejudice against gays and lesbians. I merely recognize that they have gone astray from the path of truth and righteousness. And I would like to see them sincerely repent of their sins. Until and unless they repent, they cannot be welcomed as full members of the community of believers.
The misunderstood 11th commandment: Thou shall not judge
Has Homosexuality Always Been Incompatible With Military Service?
Did Jesus Bless Homosexuality?
Homosexuality: A public health disaster
The Statistics on Homosexuality and its Effects
Patriarch Alexis II: Homosexuality a "Vicious Deviation From God-Given Human Nature"
This is the Way God Made Me - A Scientific Examination of Homosexuality and the Gay Gene
"Thirdly, by copulation with an undue sex, male with male, or female with female, as the Apostle states (Rm. 1:27): and this is called the "vice of sodomy." --Thomas Aquinas' - Summa Theologica
IBTZ?
Duh, what?
But saying that homosexuality is worse that rape is just plain deplorable.
Deplorable...on what grounds?
As to why I think it is especially false (and indeed, deplorable) to say that homosexuality is "worse" than rape: note that rape also includes a violent transgression against another human being, in addition to being against God's design.
7. Can someone with a homosexual orientation receive the Sacrament of Ordination?
Someone's going to have to explain this one...........
7. Can someone with a homosexual orientation receive the Sacrament of Ordination?
Someone's going to have to explain this one...........
If that is true, then why does God call for their extermination in Leviticus chapter 18?
The article states: "Human nature itself is created by God and the homosexual orientation is directly contrary and irreconcilable with the will and plan of God. Therefore, human nature cannot be said to have a natural or inherent homosexual orientation, even to a small degree."
I am not sure I buy into this concept. Selfishness is a part of human nature. A child is born selfish. He or she cries when hungry and continues to cry until fed or ceases due to fatigue. This is a selfish act on the part of a child. Now I agree a child does not reason. Yet this selfishness is inherent in the child. Did God intend humans to be selfish?
Just asking.
God gave us certain characteristics that through our fallen natures we have distorted.
God makes eating enjoyable because eating is essential for survival, but a distortion of the joy of eating leads to the sin of gluttony.
God makes sex enjoyable because man needs to procreate but a distortion of this joy leads to lust and sexual perversion.
The main objection I have with the homosexual rights movement is that we all have the capacity to sin, but we have the will to resist any sinful actions.
The homosexual rights movement is as absurd as having a murderer's rights movement or a burglary rights movement.
We should pray for all those who's entire existence and identity is defined by sin.
Article:"No one is born a homosexual, nor is there a gene or set of genes that makes someone into a homosexual."
Although I am completely against homosexuality - I must say there are medical conditions where people are born with aspecific sexuality (hermaphrodites). So this alone disproves the above statement. I would contend that it is not unlikely that someone could discover a genetic basis for homosexuality. This is by no means an excuse for homosexuality - just like any genetic inclination to cancer, alzheimers, sickle-cell, etc., a cure should be sought and treatment to curtail this condition given.
We live in a fallen world which effects not just our spiritual and emotional selves, but also our physical and biological aspects. To say that our God-given nature does not allow for corrupted conditions is ridiculous! As earlier posters have already postulated, it would mean that disease and birth defects are impossible. Any reasoned individual knows better than that. It certainly leads me to question the reasoning powers of this author...
Someone's going to have to explain this one...........
Q: Can a homoexual be ordained (a priest)?
A: No.
Thank you for posting this
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