(RNS) — As whe evangelil nomatns double down on their opposn to equaly, many younger evangelils, gay and straight, are votg wh their feet.
Contents:
- BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
- THE GAY CHURCH
- ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED
BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
When to gays and lbians, the Gospel valu of love, mercy and passn are the buildg blocks of all church teachg. * gay in the church *
Society and fai always do bt when dividuals follow God’s created tent for rourc this sectn will help you unrstand and articulate God’s sign for human sexualy and rpond to revisnist theologil arguments that have been created to jtify homosexual behavr. While affirmg belief that persons of homosexual orientatn are persons of sacred worth who need the mistry and guidance of the church, the statement add that the church “do not ndone the practice of homosexualy and nsirs this practice patible wh Christian teachg. The agreement about abeyance, though, beme effective immediately among s signers, and many other bishops the Uned Stat have likewise agreed to hold homosexualy-related plats agast clergy abeyance until after a post-separatn Uned Methodist General Conference 2028 term what new polici, if any, will be.
THE GAY CHURCH
While many black pastors nmn homosexualy om the pulp, the choir lofts behd them are often filled wh gay sgers and micians. The fact that gays and lbians often hold learship posn the church is the worst kept secret black Ameri. * gay in the church *
(CNS photo/Pl Harg)Sce Buildg a Bridge, a book on misterg to lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr Catholics, was published, I have been asked—at Catholic parish, retreat centers, lleg and universi and nferenc—a few qutns that recur over and over. Buildg a Bridge tentnally steered clear of issu of sexual moraly, sce I hoped to foster dialogue by focg on areas of possible monaly; and the church hierarchy and the majory of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr Catholics rema far apart on the issu. As an asi, sce the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a pendium of church teachg on var topics, do not addrs bisexual or transgenr persons but rather “homosexual persons, ” I’ll refer here to gay and lbian people to be more teachg at the most basic level is ntaed the Gospels and, even more basilly, the revelatn of the Father’s love J Christ.
In fact, gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr Catholics are probably the most margalized group the church today, and so I believe that Christ lov them wh a special to gays and lbians, then, the Gospel valu of love, mercy and passn are the buildg blocks of all church that end, ’s important to state that the ey of the church simply beg gay or lbian is not a s—ntrary to wispread belief, even among ted Catholics. As any reputable psychologist or psychiatrists will agree, people do not choose to be born wh any particular sexual when most people ask qutns about “church teachg” they are referrg not to this qutn, but to rtrictns on homosexual, or same-sex, activy as well as the prohibn on same-sex marriage. )The Catechism of the Catholic Church also stat that gays and lbians n and should approach “Christian perfectn” through chasty, wh such supports as “the virtu of self-mastery that teach them ner eedom, at tim by the support of disterted iendship, by prayer and sacramental grace.
Perhaps mdful of the specialized philosophil and theologil language, the church teach that “every sign of unjt discrimatn” agast gays and lbians (aga, here “homosexual persons”) mt be avoid, and gays and lbians mt be treated wh the virtu of “rpect, passn and sensivy. That is one reason that ’s important for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people to unrstand the church’s teachg s totaly—the Gospels, the tradn of natural law and s roots Thomistic and Aristotelian reasong, the techism, “Amoris Laetia” and other documents— their sire to bee good Buildg a Bridge mentns, is important for the stutnal church to unrstand the lived experienc of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr Catholics. The heterosexually oriented majory the church has much to ga om a eper grapplg wh this issue: an enriched pacy to love other human begs more fully and wh ls Bible and HomosexualyA brief survey of pertent scriptural passag mt beg wh a word about our terpretive prcipl.
ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED
The Catholic Church is an almost unique stutn — shunng homosexualy but havg so many gay men s ranks, wr Andrew Sullivan. The Vatin’s failure to reckon wh their sexualy has created a crisis for Catholicism. * gay in the church *
And, fourth, our scriptural terpretatn should exhib openns to God's tth that may be revealed through other discipl of human the assumptns md let turn to the Bible, notg first that nowhere do say anythg about homosexualy as a sexual orientatn. Further, the story is not given an explicly and domantly sexual terpretatn until several centuri after was wrten -- the terttamental Book of this general agreement, scholars do differ as to whether homosexual activy actually played any role the story at all. As long as homosexual activy was generally unrstood to exprs such hatred and ntempt -- particularly societi where the digny of the male was held to be of great importance -- any such activy was to be rejected the New Ttament we have no rerd of J sayg anythg about homosexualy, eher as a sexual orientatn or as a practice.
Send, this passage we have a scriptn of homosexual lt ("nsumed wh passn for one another") but not an acunt of terpersonal homosexual, Pl's wordg mak pla that he unrstands homosexual activy as that dulged by heterosexuals, hence that which is ntrary to their own sexual orientatn.