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Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown |
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Diocese Supports Paid Pro-Homosexual Psychologist
Dr Brown: “They are the local Catholic Taliban..."
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Diocese Spokesman Supports Dr. Brown
Diocese spokeswoman Sister Mary Parks defends Brown. “When he asks candidates questions, he’s trying to see where they’re coming from. He may ask them from any ideological standpoint, to see what their reaction would be. A pastor must be flexible and open to all people who come to him,” she said.
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Dr. David Brown In His Own Words
Would you want your son or grandson screened for the priesthood by this man?
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"In a telephone interview form his State College office, Brown said he did testify in favor of non-discrimination and non-harassment of homosexuals. “I drew from the Bishop’s Pastoral Letter on the topic, and I expressed the opinion that Jesus would be appalled at such bigotry.”"
Rose is “trying to reconfigure the current sex scandal into an anti-homosexual crusade. It’s like anti-Semitism,” he said. “Part of Rose’s central thesis is that ultra-liberals and gays have taken over the process of becoming a priest, and that I only give liberals or gays a recommendation. That’s false and paranoid,” Brown said. “These people are pathologically homophobic, and the goal of local conservative Catholics is to have the bishop terminate my work. “They are the local Catholic Taliban. They insist on their point of view. They are relentless, mean-spirited and punitive,” he said.
"I am a Roman Catholic Christian, a psychologist, and so forth..."
"I know some people genuinely and honestly believe that the Bible and Christianity says that homosexuality is a sin, but I think that there are also many, many responsible Christian scholars and theologians, good Bible scholars, from all dimensions of Christianity who don't agree with that position, and, I think, would be appalled that this sort of justification is being offered in the name of Christianity.
It's not even, if you ever read St. Thomas Aquinas, and you read book two of the Summa Theologica, it's not even going to be surprising to say that the so-called natural law argument is more and more, I think, being challenged.St. Thomas himself, in the second book of the Summa Theologica, says that homosexuality is natural, not unnatural. And he also says homosexuality among animals is natural, not unnatural. So I think we need to be careful when we invoke such things, especially where we don't understand the original meaning in Greek, in Aramaic, in Hebrew, or Latin or whatever you want to call it, of what some of these people, the fathers of the church, or authors of the Bible said. I think we're on very dangerous ground."
Dr. David J. Brown, a psychologist in State College, cites several problems with the ex-gay movement. Brown says proponents of "conversion" therapy do not produce any scientific evidence to support their claims. In fact, there is a wealth of research that shows it does NOT work. Another problem is that conversion therapists are misleading in their use of the word "change." At best, "change" means abstinence, not true re-orientation. Even if it were possible to change one's sexual identity, Brown explains, there is no reason to do it. Often the desire to change stems from someone or something other than the patient, thereby making the therapy unethical. In these cases, the therapy is not in the best interests of the patient.
Both Brown and McClanahan agree that such people see the world in only black and white. They typically have no tolerance for diversity, because diversity introduces unfamiliarity into their lives. Through unfamiliarity, they experience uncertainty and discomfort. "There will always be a group of people who seek to soothe their own anxiety with dogma and certitude," Brown explains.
The paid advertisement in a recent CDT, "The Catholic Response," is disturbing. It is pretentious to call itself the Catholic response. Most of the statements in the ad are actually those of Joseph Ratzinger -- albeit a prominent administrator of a Vatican bureaucracy (the same that once condemned Galileo), but hardly the univocal articulator of Catholi-cism. The Catholic Church is more comprehensive than Ratzinger (and his local devotees). In its theology, Catholi-cism embraces diversity and is better defined in the majestic language of the Vatican II Council: "The Church is the People of God," not just the so-called magisterium that too often is identified with an individual like Cardinal Ratzinger, as if they are the same.
But most disturbing is the ad's insidious implication that it is good moral theology to justly discriminate against homosexuals -- "Their rights can be legitimately limited ... and if they assert their homosexuality .... neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when ... irrational and violent acts increase." This "theology" of homophobic negativity evokes a frightening reminiscence of another era in this century when it became legitimate to marginalize and sub-human another group of people as a threat to "normal" values.
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