In the movie “I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” there is a
scene where the LGBT community is having a costume party. Gathered outside is a
group of religious zealots who are protesting the event. They shout, “Gay is not
the way” and “Homosexuality is an abomination”. You see how badly these words
hurt the party goers and you can empathize with their struggle.
Art often imitates life and this is no exception. Religious
groups all over the world constantly protest and scream hatred towards these
people because spewing hate is the easiest way to convert someone. The Westboro
Baptist Church has captured headlines in recent years by protesting at the
funerals of service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in war because of
the government’s inclusion of people with same sex attraction in our military.
This seems like such a long way from Jesus’ command to love our enemies. And
therein lays the problem. The LGBT community is viewed as the enemy instead of
people of God who are struggling with a disordered attraction.
A friend, a fallen away Catholic whose son has same sex
attraction, recently asked me why the Catholic Church hates homosexuals. He
left the Church because his son was not accepted there. He was open to listen
and so we had a chat.
God created all things and all things were created good. All
things were created by Love, through love, for love, and to love. God’s design
is perfect. Through the envy of the devil sin came into the world and with it
disorder. The second law of thermodynamics states that the state of entropy will
always increase over time. In other words order always tends towards disorder.
The natural course, if left unchecked, will always move towards chaos.
God created a perfect order, the way things are supposed to
work. Anything that is contrary to this order is a disorder. God’s order for
the family is one man, one woman, married for life, producing children.
Anything that is contrary to that is a disorder. Same sex attraction is a
disorder. At the same time so are fruitless-by-choice marriages, divorce, cohabitation,
and casual sex. In God’s eyes these disorders are the same, disorders. There
are those who think they speak for God who believe some disorders are worse
than others. With all things being equal, a disorder is not a sin. Sin comes into
play in the way we respond to a disorder.
It has been said that the Catholic Church hates the sin but
loves the sinner. The problem comes in when we, who profess to be Catholic,
mistake a disorder for a sin. We hate the disorder. But the truth of the matter
is that we are all sinners therefore we all suffer from some type of disorder. The
non-hypocritical thing then would be to all hate each other. That’s exactly
what the devil wants us to do and exactly why Jesus commanded us to love one
another has he loves us.
The Catholic Church does not hate those who suffer from same
sex attraction. She does not view that disorder as being fundamentally worse
than any other disorder. People who suffer with this disorder have the same
dignity that every other child of God has and they demand the same respect due
to this dignity. The Church is a safe haven for those who suffer with this or
any other disorder. It is the only place one can find forgiveness and healing
for responding to a disorder in the wrong way, a sinful way. As members of
the body of Christ we should be standing on the steps of the Church welcoming
every person with open arms. Instead, we are viewed as being locked arm in arm
chanting “Gay is not the way. Repent or burn in Hell!”
This does not mean that the Church can or will accept a LGBT
lifestyle as an acceptable lifestyle. At the same time friends with benefits,
premarital sex, divorce and remarriage, or just casual sex is just as
unacceptable. We don’t shun parishioners who are shacking up playing married
and we shouldn’t be shunning people who are suffering with same sex attraction.
Love one another as I have loved you. Imagine what a world
would look like if more of us could do just that.
