Posted on 03/18/2014 1:50:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Gene Robinson, recognized as the first openly gay bishop in a major Protestant denomination, has called on Pope Francis to change the Roman Catholic Church's official doctrine that defines homosexuality as a disorder, arguing that such a teaching is "the basis for discrimination, rejection and violence the world over."
The Vatican has repeatedly said that Pope Francis is not seeking to make doctrine changes, however.
"If Pope Francis is to be believed in all the kindly pronouncements of his first year (and I do), his good tone should be followed by the tough work of changing the systems of belief, doctrine and religious practice which perpetuate the victimization of those he seeks to serve," Robinson, who was installed as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in 2004 and retired in 2013, wrote in an article for The Daily Beast on Sunday.
The retired bishop shared that he loves the new pope and that he prays for him every day, describing his commitment to the poor as "exemplary and legendary."
He also praised Francis for the change in tone he has brought to the Catholic Church in its attitude toward gay people, most famously with his remark to reporters last year: "If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?"
Robinson wrote, however, that the Vatican officially brands gay people as "intrinsically disordered." He argued that such judgment is "the basis for discrimination, rejection and violence the world over."
Adding that he realizes that such a big change in doctrine will not happen overnight, Robinson suggested that under Francis' leadership, the church body "may have the best chance at giving it a serious try."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states about homosexual attraction:
"This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. "
Pope Francis and Vatican officials have repeatedly affirmed traditional marriage, even in talk that the church body might look into certain cases of civil unions.
"Matrimony is between a man and a woman," the pope said in a recent interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, while adding that "diverse situations of cohabitation [are] driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care."
Media reports on Pope Francis' stance on LGBT issues have sometimes been criticized, and what is often not quoted is his explanation after the "Who am I to judge?" line:
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says one must not marginalize these persons, they must be integrated into society. The problem isn't this (homosexual) orientation – we must be like brothers and sisters. The problem is something else, the problem is lobbying either for this orientation or a political lobby or a Masonic lobby," the Vatican leader said.
Posters are often contentious but they must not “make it personal” either by mind reading, attributing motive or focusing on another Freeper, personally (ad hominems.)
...then please indulge me, Mr Moderator, and explain to me how a forum that disallows ‘contending’ against ‘the contentious’is expected to have any true philosophical or metaphysical value at all...?
.this approach appears to be coddling those who take wildly uninformed potshots at particular religious thought, at the expense of those who make the attempt to directly address the snipers and their blatherings...after all, is not ridicule a valuable tool against the ridiculous...?
You will find many well educated, articulate, reasoning posters on the RF. You will also find a few who throw spitwads because they have no ammunition. Engage the former, ignore the latter.
‘
Muddying the water...
Like wild drivel??
Engaging might require thinking.
Oh i have seen some nasty comments there.
Yes, if i was a politician that mighty be attractive, but some have also suggested the Lord would have more followers if He had refrained from reproving error also. He even reproves me for coming short, including in not reproving error. I think that is a better example than "how to win friends and influence people." See some of my latest today on this thread attacking Prots.
Oh, this polemical assertion again. Then why won't you answer forthrightly even the first question that this assertion requires to be answered, which i asked you before a short time ago? And before that. And again after that. And again after that. Still waiting. Either give up the polemic or actually answer the question and face the consequences.
Hey, Elsie...
Have you found anything yet?
Me either.
Maybe the Catholics should list the *good* popes.
After all, they're the ones who claim they exist.
If they can't or won't we can presume they don't exist except in the figment of some Catholic's imagination.
Mormons must be smarter than Catholics.
They, at least, know to quit when they’re licked!
This 40 year pentacostal pastor wanted to know the God that “set him free” In his words he wanted to know “truth”. Guess where he found it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHz45YjBpI0
So what?
Pentecostals, as a whole, are not really well grounded in the Word. they tend to function by and large by emotionalism and experience.
It makes them ripe for deception.
“Catholic truth appeals to the intellect; one of the spiritual faculties, the other being the Will.
Protestant teachings appeal to the emotion, by-passing the intellect” ~ Michael Voris
If I posted conversion stories from a 1,000 different protestant faiths you would say the exact same thing you said about Deacon Alex Jones. They must be all ignorant because they converted to the Catholic Church.
1 Corinthians 1:17-25 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Man's intellectual prowess is meaningless in God's economy.
No; they must be all ignorant because they HAVEN'T converted to the Catholic Church.
Timothy predicted Martin Luther and the Reformation.
“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
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