I'm Gay, but I'm Not Switching to a Church That Supports Gay Marriage

The Atlantic ^ | May 30, 2013 | Eve Tushnet

[Mrs. Don-o]

When I became Catholic in 1998, as a college sophomore, I didn't know any other gay Christians. I'd been raised in a kind of pointillist Reform Judaism...

This sheltered upbringing may help explain my sunny undergraduate confidence that even though I knew of literally nobody else who had ever tried to be both unashamedly gay and obediently Catholic, I was totally going to do it. No problem, guys, I got this.

[snip]

[M]any Christian churches are beginning to integrate gay marriage into their theology... With so many more options for gay Christians, why [not] just de-pope myself?

It's that I fell in love with the Catholic Church....I didn't switch from atheistic post-Judaism to "belief in God," but to Catholicism: the Incarnation and the Crucifixion...her insistence that seemingly irreconcilable needs could both be met in God's overwhelming love: justice and mercy, reason and mystery, a savior who is fully God and also fully human. I didn't expect to understand every element of the faith. It is a lot bigger than I am.

[snip]

At the time of my baptism...I figured, everybody has to sacrifice something. God doesn't promise that He'll only ask you for the sacrifices you agree with and understand.

[snip]

Right now, the Biblical witness seems pretty clear. Both opposite-sex and same-sex love are used, in the Bible, as images of God's love. The opposite-sex love is found in marriage—sexually exclusive marriage, an image which recurs not only in the Song of Songs but in the prophets and in the New Testament—and the same-sex love is friendship. Both of these forms of love are considered real and beautiful; neither is better than the other. But they're not interchangeable.

Moreover, Genesis names sexual difference as the only difference which was present in Eden...

(Much more at link)

[CA Conservative]

You aren't giving the whole quote.

Right after she said "I knew of literally nobody else who had ever tried to be both unashamedly gay and obediently Catholic" and expressed her belief in her ability to do so, in the very next paragraph she says, "Things look different now."

She admits that she could not do the thing she expressed so confidently that she could do, that is, be both unashamedly gay and obediently Catholic. One had to give way, and for her, being an obedient Catholic won out over being "unashamedly gay".

[CA Conservative]

”Go and sin no more.”

Based on what she wrote, that is the choice she made.

[Talisker]

Jesus wasn’t afraid to offend. He spoke the truth and then said go and sin no more. He didn’t chase anyone. Jesus came to divide. There is no middle ground.

Actually, what He said was "NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU, go and soon no more" - and that was after He showed up all of those who were condemning her to be HYPOCRITES.

Did you FORGET that part?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I do wonder whether they cut her article-length, as editors sometimes do. I too, noticed that she was promising "more on this" but didn't expand on that.

She doesn't expound on it, she merely touches on it, here

" If I believed that Catholicism condemned gay people to a barren, loveless life, I would not be Catholic, full stop."

Then she goes on to expound just a tiny bit on purity/chaste friendship.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

How can you give your all to the church if you are eyeing all of the pretty women or worse (puke ) another man?

Oh for Pete's sake. That's the last time I attempt to make a point on FR regarding human nature and my own experience. Someone's bound to come along and go Full Retard on you.

[CA Conservative]

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

I'm not sure what you meant to prove in quoting this verse. It seems that this whole article is about this young woman learning she had to flee from sexual immorality in order to be a good Catholic. As a result, she became chaste and abstinent. She may still have the temptations, but she does not act on them.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't know what to make of your remarks. You don't seem to notice several things:

• That she is single, abstinent, and chaste
• that she "disagrees, sometimes sharply" with other friends/acquaintances about this
• that she notices that so-called "gay friendly Christians'" "preexisting theology—not only on marriage but on creation, embodiment, and Scriptural interpretation—has begun to shift to match the new unisex or gender-neutral model of marriage"---- which means they are upending their entre so-called "belief system" to accommodate this shift on "gay": Tushnet does not approve.

And this article is, precisely, speaking the truth to them.

[piusv]

I’m not sure what the point is of most of the posts that are against this woman.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't know what to make of your remarks. You don't seem to notice several things:

• That she is single, abstinent, and chaste
• that she "disagrees, sometimes sharply" with other friends/acquaintances about this
• that she notices that so-called "gay friendly Christians'" "preexisting theology—not only on marriage but on creation, embodiment, and Scriptural interpretation—has begun to shift to match the new unisex or gender-neutral model of marriage"---- which means they are upending their entire so-called "belief system" to accommodate this shift on "gay": Tushnet, describing this, does not approve.

And this article is, precisely, speaking the truth to them.

Well done, too.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm probably not understanding who you're referring to. Who, in this case, is calling light darkness and darkness light?

Thanks.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for noticing that, CA Conservative!

[al_c]

The point is she's not seeking God, being unappolongeticly homosexual.

Exactly where in her article did she say such a thing?

[Mrs. Don-o]

My friend Eve (how vulgar you are, to call her a dumb insulting name) is single, abstinent and chaste, i.e. "a Christian battling lustful, sinful thoughts and deeds."

Why do you have a problem with that?

[al_c]

Read it again ... she was talking about the love of friends, not homosexual intercourse. The bible does indeed speak of that kind of love.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Who’s using the Lord’s Name in vain?

[al_c]

Gay Christian? Is that not an oxymoronic use of words?

Only if you believe "sinning Christian" is an oxymoron as well.

But yes, there are indeed many hypocritical "Christians" that openly practice homosexual activities and are proud of it. This gal appears to be one that is earnestly seeking God and truth.

[Amendment10]

"Your Bible reference seems off...typo? Romans 1:25-17?"

Mea culpa. I glad that at least one person caught that error, not that I can fix it.

Romans 1:25-27

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you for your comment. I think it would be well to pray for her and for each other.

[roamer_1]

She's not asking to be applauded for being gay. She's asking to be understood that she's chosen chastity, for Christ's sake.

LOL! Now, keep the cussin to a minimum, please ; )

[piusv]

Not a problem. Thank you for that Bible reference.