Posted on 02/09/2018 10:28:04 AM PST by ebb tide
The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual acts should be taken in “context” with Biblical times, Jesuit Father James Martin told Georgetown University students recently.
Martin said as well that Catholics who support gay “marriage” should have no problem considering themselves Catholic, despite having chosen to reject Church teaching.
Martin inferred at his January 31 appearance at the Jesuit school that the Bible’s negative pronouncements on homosexual acts – which are grounded in natural law – are like other Biblical declarations on topics such as the practice of charging interest on a loan. These pronouncements being made during a particular epoch renders them applicable in that given historical context, he said.
Catholics should be invited to “understand the Bible,” he said, and to understand the Bible’s tradition of condemning homosexual acts “within the context of history.”
A young woman had asked Martin how, given the repeated negative scriptural treatment of homosexual activity – “the act of, you know, LGBTQ people,” she called it – Catholics who support gay marriage should reconcile that support when “the Church still isn’t there yet.”
“That’s a good question,” Martin told the young woman, “What do you do with your conscience?”
“I think one of the things to remember is that is one teaching of the Church,” Martin replied, “all right? So I don’t think, for example, that you should say, ‘I cannot be Catholic because I don’t follow that.’”
It seems the Jesuit only addressed the Old Testament’s condemnation of homosexuality. It is condemned in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 6:9, which says: “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
One might be able to say they can’t be Catholic if they don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, Martin added, contrasting this with a Catholic who is in support of homosexual “marriage.”
Martin went on to say he thought Catholics and others use scripture out of context, especially regarding homosexual acts.
“People take the Bible often out of context, you know, when they’re talking about different teachings from the Bible,” he said. “And they do that in a way that they do for almost no other group.”
Usury, touted by Martin as a teaching that needs to be taken in “context,” was defined during Old Testament times as the simple charging of interest, and the meaning of which has changed throughout history. The Church’s condemnation of usury today pertains to an unethical or immoral loan that fails to recognize the humanity of the borrower.
“I mean, it’s pretty clear the Bible’s against usury,” Martin told the Georgetown audience. “But we’re okay with that now, because we say, “Well, we have to understand that in context.”
“So I think part of it is inviting Catholics to understand the Bible, uh, and to understand that tradition within the context of history,” he added.
Martin continued his response to the young woman by citing excerpts of an open letter written decades ago to marriage and family counselor and commentator Dr. Laura Schlessinger in answer to Schlessinger having cited Leviticus as condemning homosexuality.
The premise of the letter to Schlessinger – which Martin said he frequently uses – was to poke fun at literal interpretations of the Bible by attempting to equate homosexual acts with things prohibited by old Jewish law that are considered ordinary today. Martin listed things from the letter like working on the Sabbath or wearing garments containing different types of thread, and then read on as it proposes extreme Biblical responses to these now commonplace actions, including stoning or otherwise putting someone to death.
Martin’s presentation of the letter to Schlessinger successfully yielded amusement from his Georgetown audience.
“It’s good to laugh,” Martin stated, “because people use the homosexuality texts in that way, without any historical context.”
“So that’s context,” he continued. “I think we need context.”
Martin's appearance at Georgetown was the subject of a video commentary by Joseph Sciambra, a Catholic who after years of being immersed in the homosexual culture, left, returned to Christ and the Catholic Church, and now ministers to others in the areas of pornography, homosexuality, and the occult.
Sciambra conducts his ministry through writing and social media, and by personally performing regular outreach in the heart of the gay culture. His message to gays is that God loves them, and that they don’t have to remain in the culture.
Sciambra covered Martin’s Georgetown University appearance in a video titled, “James Martin – The Bible is okay with gay sex.”
Martin, well known for his homosexual-affirming LGBT outreach, is the editor-at-large for the Jesuit-run America magazine and a communications consultant to the Vatican.
He has a large social media following, where he frequently communicates his backing for LGBT issues. Critics say his statements in apparent support of normalizing homosexual activity put people with same-sex attraction at risk of losing salvation.
Martin has had a number of speaking engagements rescinded at Catholic venues in recent months over his troubling presentation of LGBT issues.
His presentation last month at Georgetown was titled, “Building a Bridge - Welcoming the LGBT Catholic With Justice.”
The title relates to that of his current book, Building a Bridge, which he has promoted since its release last June.
The book was based upon Martin’s acceptance speech for receiving an award in November 2016 from New Ways Ministry, a pro-gay group that has been condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the U.S. Catholic bishops.
During his Georgetown, talk Martin repeated his contention that the language in the Church’s catechism defining homosexual inclinations as “objectively disordered” and intrinsically disordered should be “updated.”
He cited opposition to the catechism’s language from a mother whose 14-year-old already self-identifies as gay and was worried the language could “destroy” him.
He also cited Cardinal Christophe Schonborn for having praised same-sex unions during the 2015 Ordinary Synod on the Family, and spoke admirably of Schonborn for overruling one his priests who had prohibited a man in a same-sex union from sitting on his parish council.
Martin told his Georgetown audience that LGBT issues are pro-life issues.
“Guess what,” he said. “LGBT issues are life issues, right? They’re life issues that should matter to the Church, because the Church is pro-life.”
And, Martin commended the “flourishing” “Out at St. Paul” LGBT program at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in New York City, which he explained he lives next to, saying the parish “very, very progressive and very welcoming.”
The Out at St. Paul outreach affirms homosexual behavior, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and gay activism.
In his video Sciambra countered Martin’s assertion regarding Biblical condemnation of homosexuality by quoting the 1986 Vatican document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons:
An essential dimension of authentic pastoral care is the identification of causes of confusion regarding the Church's teaching. One is a new exegesis of Sacred Scripture which claims variously that Scripture has nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality, or that it somehow tacitly approves of it, or that all of its moral injunctions are so culture-bound that they are no longer applicable to contemporary life. These views are gravely erroneous …
We’re ok with usuary? My, this priest is interesting.
If we only had someone in power who would just come out and say it.
Until then, we pray for the well-being of the Church and (if necessary) the suppression of the Jesuit order.
Homosexuality is condemned from Genesis through to Revelation. Revelation 22 says (Jesus’ words):
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
(”Dogs” is the Jewish term applied to homosexuals.) See https://www.biblestudytools.com/cjb/revelation/22.html
This priest is an apostate who needs an exorcism.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. (Jude :5-8)
Sodom and Gomorrha are set forth as a example.
This catholic "priest" is one of the filthy dreamers we are warned about.
Heresy. It’s not just for Jesuits anymore.
Sorry, you stupid fag jesuit, but you are wrong.
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgive
Jesus spent a lot time with sinners....so who are we to judge? Then there's this!
1 Peter 4:8-9
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
There's a lot more in the Bible about loving one another. Save the bitterness for those that deserve it, like Pelosi, Schumer, Hollyweirdos and the corrupt members of the media.
It is Father James Martin who is taking the bible out of context on homosexuality. The bible is perfectly clear on homosexuality, even to the part about men not wearing women’s clothes and women not wearing men’s clothes.
He might wish it was not so but it is.
In case you didn’t know, this is a thread about a heretical priest who is trying to introduce gay marriage into the Church. I doubt Jesus would have had much tolerance for this man.
Sodom and Gomorrah had the worst of the worst: homosexual activists were going around actively recruiting strangers in a forceful manner to their deviant (neutral term = away from the norm) lifestyle. I suspect, considering some of those folks were youthful, that some of the recruiters were pederasts as well. I haven’t seen similar destruction on San Fransicko, in spite of their thriving gay community.
And I do apologize: accidentally overlooked the Catholic Caucus label in the title. Sorry.
Do you pay interest on your mortgage or credit cards? Do you receive interest on your savings?
Indeed I do. And I am NOT ok with usuary unless, like everything else, the word has been dumbed down to mean paying interest rates at all.
It's the opposite. The biblical sense of "usuary" is simply charging interest. It has been "dumbed down" to mean unreasonable interest in modern times because a total prohibition against interest is incredibly backwards.
But how did the heretic priest use it?
Stopped right there. Why are the Jesuits so darn liberal ... especially in matters such as this?
You do no favors to anyone if you deceive them about what scripture clearly says.
I don’t gay bash at all, but I have real problems with clergy flat-out lying about what Scripture clearly teaches, including the words of Jesus.
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