Following up on his first piece, a friend now has a second article in First Things, this time dealing with the question of identity. His first piece has gone quite viral, and some of the comments below as well as other pieces in response...have been quite crazy and homophobic. Ironically, many of the responses are the very sorts of things he has been trying to address in these pieces, and in that sense sort of prove his points. It's like the people didn't even read the articles and let them go right over their heads. This sort of bigotry is a huge problem for the Church however; as long as Catholic teaching is seen as targeting people, or a type of person, or a community, or an identity, or relationships, or "lifestyles" (whatever that means), rather than just types or discrete incidents of acts...the more problematic it will be for people to accept it.
7 hours ago
2 comments:
Hey! This article was retweeted by Phillip Blond today. Crazy times.
Your friend's article is very thoughtful, but as I commented at the bottom, I think that it is problematic to equate identifying as gay with coming into the bright white light of Gospel truth. Our society and culture in America may think that it is a necessity does not make it theologically necessary. Furthermore, there is something to be said about transitory gays and the Nazi-like conformism imposed on them by others who think that it is their divine duty to label someone as gay or force them to "come out". I think that it might actually do more harm to that person to make them think that they simply HAVE come out and say "I will never have a straight relationship" in order to be acknowledged in society or saved. NO ONE has a right to tell someone that married life in a straight relationship is not for them. In my opinion marriage is a divine good intended for all men and women, even if they might still have some transitory attraction to the same sex or some other lustful rather than loving fantasy. Pseudo-psychological hype and pressure is the work of the devil. Oh yeah, and the mere fact that I am writing this must obviously insecure about my own sexuality. I'm actually attracted to pigeon crap.
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