The Catholic Church and Homosexuality. Thursday, May 10. 2012.

Yesterday history was made.
I guess, technically, history is made every day
but it is a matter of what is remembered and what is forgotten.
On Sunday Pujols hit his first home run with the Angels.
Southern California was elated.
History was made but my guess is that,
unless you are a diehard Pujols or Angels fan,
the home run will be forgotten within a matter of a couple of weeks.

Yesterday however is something that will be remembered among most all people
and probably for a long time.
Our president, Barack Obama,
is the first American president to come out and publicly support gay marriage.

Well.
There is a lot to this.
It is a well known fact that the Catholic Church does not support homosexual marriage.
The Church is not trying to separate or exclude anyone,
the Church is holding fast to its religious roots, to Scripture, and to God's truth.

Starting off in Genesis,

God created mankind in his image;
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
[Genesis 1:27]
God blessed them and God said to them:
Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.
[Genesis 1:28]

God created male and female.
He essentially told the male and female to have sex and have children.
He, as Creator, gave men and women their sexuality.
Sex and sexuality are not bad things.
They are good things granted that sex is performed within the bonds of marriage
and that sexuality is seen as God desired it.

In Leviticus it bluntly states,

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, they have committed an abomination.
[Leviticus 20:13]

And, simply the physical
God created Adam and Eve that they would be fruitful and multiply.
He created their bodies to fit together and become one.
A man and a man and likewise a women and a women cannot become one
in the same physical aspect that a man and a women can.
God created Adam and Eve so that the two of them could bring life into the world.
The Church supports marriage between a man and a woman so that they may bring life into the world; the same thing that Adam and Eve were created for.

However, the Church is based on Love Himself and for this reason, the Church as a whole and in parts is called to love. This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about homosexuals:


God created man as male and female and destined them for each other in a bodily way as well. The Church accepts without reservation those who experience homosexual feelings. They should not be discriminated against because of that. At the same time, the Church declares that all homosexual relations in any form are contrary to the order of creation. [CCC 2358-2359]

The Church as a whole and as parts has a duty.
Its duty is to first and foremost follow the laws of creation,
its next duty is to love.
Homosexuals should not be treated as some outcast by the Church
because of the way that they feel towards the same sex.

This is where lines get blurred sometimes.
Just because the Church should treat everyone with love, including homosexuals,
does not mean that the Church should accept and be okay with homosexuality.
Christ did treat everyone with love; sinner, saint, and leper alike.
However, He did not condone and support sin.
The idea is to love the sinner, not the sin.
Love the homosexual not the idea of homosexuality.
The traditional definition of love is challenged by both St. Thomas Aquinas and the philosopher, Aristotle who both agree that the definition of love is "to will the good of another".
Willing the good of another does not coincide with accepting and allowing others to sin.

Now the whole idea of separation between Church and state.
I understand, in some ways, why people bring that up as a concept
but I cannot help but think about our country's roots.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights
were put together and written by the fathers of our country.
Whether you want to call them religious or not, they undoubtedly had a strong set of morals.
People are not just born with morals and values, those things are instilled in us.
Morals and values ultimately come from the idea that there is a higher power,
otherwise they would not be necessary because there would be no one or nothing of seniority to answer to.

The Pledge of Allegiance firmly states that we are,
One nation under God

and our coins, they preach,
In God We Trust

The idea that there is a higher power seems to be in decline.
The practices of morals and values seems to be going down the toilet.
If you are not politically correct, you are wrong.

I personally think that, as a whole, we are making the wrong choices as a country.
I think that we need to learn to love
but we need to not lower our standards and morals and values.

I believe in a God who expects much, but who will, in turn, give us much.
I believe in a God who challenges us.
I believe in a God who expects us to love and to hold ourselves to a standard.

With all of this, there is no point in me pounding my views onto another person.
It is my duty to pray for our country and pray for our president.
It is my hope and prayer that you accept this duty as well.
The power of prayer is unimaginable.
God is in control.
He always was.
He always will be.

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
-Ronald Reagan