Same-sex controversies

Teaching of the Church

Scripture

Genesis 19	Sodom and Gomorrah.
Leviticus 18:22	"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."
Leviticus 20:13	If a man lies with a male as with a female, both of them have committed an abomination.
Romans 1:18-32	18 The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickednessp of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.r As a result, they have no excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.u 24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. 29 They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips 30 and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents. 31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
1 Corinthians 6:9.	Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:8-11	8 We know that the law is good, provided that one uses it as law, 9 with the understanding that law is meant not for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, 10 the unchaste, sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

Catechism

CCC 2357-2359

2357

Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. 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.

2358

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359

Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

Genetic argument

Twin studies refute the concept that there is a "gay gene." There is only an 11% correlation when identical twins are separated at birth, but both become gay. If there were a gay gene, the rate would be closer to 100%, as it is with other genetic attributes such as eye color (98% correlation).

Same sex "marriage"

Telling the difference

Science informs us that sex is related to procreation: the action achieved by natural sexual relations is the transmission of genetic material from the male to the female, which is the natural means by which men and women come into being. The male reaches the summit of pleasure in transmitting the material; the woman's body is perfectly designed to receive the genetic material, conceive a child, gestate for nine months, then nurture the baby after birth. People who separate the pleasure of sexuality from the power of procreation are turning a blind eye to the basic biology of sex.

The unitive power of sexual pleasure is necessarily related to the power of a man and woman to conceive a child. This is a natural association. This is the intrinsic structure of the act of love. Although it is possible to enjoy union without giving life, the pleasure comes from engaging in the act by which sons and daughters are naturally generated.

The man has the power to give; the female has the power to receive. What is given and received is what is necessary to begin a new life within the woman's body.

The natural law favors monogamy. Nature requires precisely and only one man and one woman to create a new life. The child has a right to be parented by a united couple for the whole of its life.

To deny that sex is naturally oriented toward procreation is to deny the truths of biology. The motivation for the denial is easy to see: pleasure feels good, while becoming a parent entails a lifetime of service to the child. The body can be fooled into thinking that it is engaged in the procreative act when, in fact, it is not.

From the standpoint of the Church's teaching on natural law, same sex unions are "pseudogamy"--counterfeits of marriage. Same-sex couples may take on all of the outward appearances of a husband and wife, but they lack the one thing necessary: the power to give life through a natural act of love. The fact that doctors can artificially arrange for a child to be born of one member of the couple through in vitro fertilization (IVF) does not change this basic fact that the children so created are not the fruit of a natural act of love but are, lamentably, products of scientific technology.

Piero A. Tozzi, J.D., "My Lewinsky Moment":

The State, for its part, has no legitimate interest whatsoever in licensing same-sex relationships, be they based on friendship or misdirected eros. The State’s interest in marriage originates in a simple biological fact: when men and women congress, children inevitably result. The State thus has an interest in regulating and promoting stable unions among men and women--and for that matter, discouraging unstable ones--such as by privileging marital unions through the tax code and the allocation of benefits, as it is parents who uniquely provide for the common good by ensuring the continued existence of civilization into the future. [emphasis added]

Clarifying terms

In the natural law, there is only one relationship that fulfills the evident design of the body: union between one man and one woman using their procreative organs. The Church does not specify a time, location, or position for the completion of the act of love, but it does teach that the couple use the proper organs properly, so that the union of the two is open to the creation of new life.

With that as the norm, every other use of our sexual powers, alone or with others, appears as abnormal and unnatural.

Evolutionary biologists teach that the animal goal of union is to become the origin of a multitude of descendants, all sharing the parents' genetic heritage. If that is the natural purpose of animal union, then same-sex union is clearly unnatural. No genes can be transmitted to the next generation by means of same-sex relationships.

From Privacy to Publicity

Same-sex activists and hedonists both demanded a right to privacy. "What happens in the bedroom between consenting adults is of no concern to anyone else."

Now that has morphed very rapidly into a demand to place abnormal relationships on par with the norm. "We want everyone to know what we are doing in the privacy of our own home."

Consequences of calling same-sex relations "marriage

The Church has long accepted the decriminalization of sexual sins.

The drive to place same-sex relations on par with natural marriage goes beyond keeping private acts between consenting adults private; those who advocate the establishment of same-sex "marriage" have a much broader agenda:

• Changing school curricula.
• Forcing churches to perform same-sex weddings.
• Gaining access to banquet halls.
• Adopting children.
• Compelling the Church to change her teachings on sexuality. It may become a "hate crime" to read from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the future.

If there is no God ...

... then the hatred of the Church and the desire to force her to change her teachings makes perfect sense.

If there is no God, then religion is just arbitrary and capricious. All religions are equally respectable and equally meaningless. No real harm can be done to any religious group by setting aside their arbitrary beliefs and imposing new beliefs selected by the government.

Self-sterilizing couples ally with same-sex advocates

Couples who sterilize themselves temporarily or permanently are natural allies of the same-sex lobby. Both groups believe that it is good to separate the pleasure of sexual union from the power of procreation. As a consequence, both think of marriage in terms of the benefits to partners rather than in terms of duties to children.

Both groups assert that marriage is primarily for the benefit of the couple rather than for the benefit of children.

USCCB

USCCB, "Between Man and Woman," 2003

Marriage, as instituted by God, is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate community of life and love. They commit themselves completely to each other and to the wondrous responsibility of bringing children into the world and caring for them.

Marriage is both a natural institution and a sacred union because it is rooted in the divine plan for creation. In addition, the Church teaches that the valid marriage of baptized Christians is a sacrament—a saving reality. Jesus Christ made marriage a symbol of his love for his Church (see Eph 5:25-33). This means that a sacramental marriage lets the world see, in human terms, something of the faithful, creative, abundant, and self-emptying love of Christ. A true marriage in the Lord with his grace will bring the spouses to holiness. Their love, manifested in fidelity, passion, fertility, generosity, sacrifice, forgiveness, and healing, makes known God's love in their family, communities, and society. This Christian meaning confirms and strengthens the human value of a marital union (see CCC, nos. 1612-1617; 1641-1642).

Links

• The Ruth Institute, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.
• Courage, a Catholic support group for Catholics who wish to live a chaste life in spite of their same-sex attractions.
• Boston Archdiocese Releases Non-Discrimination Policy for Catholic Schools.
• "Natural Law and Homosexuality"--an argumentative flow chart.
• "Was Jesus Really Silent on Same Sex Marriage?"
• "Why California’s Three-Parent Law Was Inevitable," by Jennifer Roback Morse: "The essential public purpose of marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to each other and to their children."