Jim Blackburn - 20 Answers- Homosexuality (20 Answers Series from Catholic Answers Book 24)

20 Answers

Homosexuality

Jim Blackburn

20 Answers: Homosexuality

Jim Blackburn

2017 Catholic Answers

All rights reserved. Except for quotations, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading to the internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Published by Catholic Answers, Inc.

2020 Gillespie Way

El Cajon, California 92020

1-888-291-8000 orders

619-387-0042 fax

catholic.com

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-68357-033-2

978-1-68357-034-9 Kindle

978-1-68357-035-6 ePub

Table of Contents

Introduction

Homosexuality is a controversial topic that has relatively recently raced to the forefront of cultural and political concerns worldwide. Catholics and other Christians have been forced into the spotlight on these issues with charges of being on the wrong side of history. Our witness in this regard must be firm and articulate yet respectful, compassionate, and sensitive.

In this booklet we will explore precisely what the Catholic Church teaches about same-sex attraction and homosexuality. We will look at what the Bible says about these matters and refute modern activists self-serving reinterpretations of Scripture. These include such claims as the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah being mere inhospitality, Jesus apparent silence about homosexuality being tacit approval of it, and St. Pauls clear condemnations amounting to misogynistic bigotry. We will also examine why Catholics sometimes are accused of cherry-picking from the Old Testament laws.

Several answers in the following pages concern direct challenges Catholics face from homosexuality-supporting activists and the people who learn from them. It is common today for such people to attack Catholic teaching and to shame us over to their side of the argument. These include accusations that we are equivalent to racist bigots, that we are judgmental and intolerant, and that we are hateful people who do not follow Christs true message of love.

Additionally, we will examine the modern inventions of so-called gay marriage and other forms of same-sex unions, as well as consider the prospect of whether or not to attend a gay wedding, a challenge Catholics increasingly face today.

Finally, we will look at ways to help people who have loved ones who experience same-sex attractions as well as ways to help people who themselves experience same-sex attractions.

1. What is homosexuality?

To understand homosexuality, it helps to first understand sexuality in general.

Sexuality is part of our natural makeup to desire sexual gratification. Mankind was created with sexual desires, and it is consistent with Gods plan for us to engage in sexual relations open to procreation within marriage.

Jesus said,

Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (Matt. 19:46).

For most people, the drive to fulfill sexual desire is inclined toward the opposite sex. So long as one morally confines it to within his own marriage, sexual activity is ordered toward good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states, Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage, the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament (CCC 2360).

Therefore, sexuality properly ordered is a beautiful gift from God that impacts our entire lives: Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others (CCC 2332).

Tragically, for reasons not fully understood, some people experience a disordered sexual desire inclined toward the same sex. These desires themselves are not sinful, but they are a temptation to sin. The Catechism calls such temptation concupiscence (CCC 405). Concupiscence inclines us to commit sin, but with Gods help, we can resist it. On the other hand, sexual activity between persons of the same sex is immoral, and thus, when freely and knowingly chosen, it is sinful.

The Church recognizes that this is no small issue: The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible (CCC 2358). In recent decades, the topic of homosexuality has become prominent not only within the Church, but in secular society as well. The Church has devoted substantial time and effort to teaching the world what God wants us to know about sexuality, marriage, and homosexuality.

2. What does the Church teach about homosexuality?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches,

Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved (CCC 2357; Persona Humana 8).

First, homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. This means that such acts are never ordered toward a moral purpose. Sexual activity, to be morally ordered, must always take place only in the context of a conjugal act between a husband and his wife.

Next, homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law. The natural law is the body of knowledge humanity can grasp by the aid of reason alone. It is the basis for much of our moral understanding. For example, we know almost intuitively that lying, stealing, and murdering are seriously immoral actions. Similarly, we know that our bodies are designed naturally to fit together male with female, not in an unnatural homosexual way.

Homosexual acts close the sexual act to the gift of life. In other words, such acts are not ordered toward their natural end: procreation. Indeed, homosexual acts, by their nature, can never fulfill this basic function so necessary to the survival of humanity.

Homosexual acts do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Men and women are different, and this can be seen both in how we relate to one another and in how we engage in sexual activity together. Human bodies are made male and female in a complementary design necessary for the propagation of our species. To engage in sexual activity with any type of partner other than a member of the opposite sexbe it a person of the same sex, an animal, or an inanimate objectis contrary to the complementarity of physical design. (For more on this, see Answers 1417.)

Because of all this, homosexual activity can never be approved. To do so is gravely contrary to Gods plan for us. It is sinful. We are all called to be Gods children, and in order to be so, we must reject sin.

Homosexual desires, inasmuch as they are passions , which we do not choose, are not in themselves sinful. We all have attraction to sindesires to do things we are not supposed to do. Such is the condition of our fallen human nature, corrupted by original sin.

The Church does not claim to know the scientific or biological reasons behind homosexuality (CCC 2357; see also Answer 9), but knowledge of such information is irrelevant in light of the fact that Scripture and the natural law tell us that homosexual activitybehavior that is chosen, even if the desire for it is notis always immoral. People tempted by same-sex attractionslike people tempted by any other sinful desiredo not sin unless they act on them: whether in sexual activity or in willfully entertaining lustful thoughts. Such temptations must be resisted. The Church teaches this while recognizing that a substantial number of people suffer from same-sex attractions and that we need to treat them like anyone else who is attracted to sin. Thus, the Catechism states:

Next page