190 likes | 785 Views
Homosexuality. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPs-2hn5ZOg. Homosexuality. What is it? How does it express itself? How does the Church respond to this sensitive issue?. Homosexuality. Orientation.
E N D
Homosexuality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPs-2hn5ZOg
Homosexuality • What is it? • How does it express itself? • How does the Church respond to this sensitive issue?
Homosexuality Orientation • Homosexual Orientation is found in those individuals who have a sexual inclination or attraction to members of the same gender • Homosexual Activity is sexual behavior: sexual acts performed with a member of the same gender. Activity
Homosexual Orientation • Just because one has a homosexualorientation, it does not mean that they automatically engage in homosexual activity. There are people with homosexual orientation who choose to not to engage in same-sex relations for various reasons.
Homosexual Orientation • What percentage of the population has a homosexual orientation? • Statistics range from 4 – 8 %of males • 2 – 4 %of females • But it is difficult to discover what percentage of the population leads an openly gay lifestyle.
What are the causes? • Theorists attribute homosexual orientation to genetics (hormonal or prenatal) • Adult hormonal or post natal factors • Psychological origins • A choice • There is no concrete answer.
Homosexual Orientation • We do know that those who have this orientation experience it as an integral aspect of their being: • It is as much a part of who they are as the heterosexual orientation is for those who are “straight.” Moreover, one does not “choose” to be homosexual any more than one chooses to be heterosexual. • The inclination is usually discovered as one matures. Kind of like when a child who reaches puberty discovers their heterosexual orientation.
Catholic Church’s View • The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) ; • Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral care of Homosexual Persons; (1989); Vatican Document • Always our Children (1997) Pastoral Letter; USCCB
Church View’s • “Objectively disordered” for homosexual orientation • “Intrinsically disordered” for homosexual acts.
“Disordered” • This type of wording is not received well by many because of the close connection between sexuality and personhood. Terms like “disordered” are read as an indictment of the homosexual’s personhood. • Every person has “disordered” inclinations. Rash judgment; hypocrisy; cowardice; etc.
Homosexual Activity • Homosexual acts are considered contrary to natural law, in that they go against our understanding of the way men and women were created as sexually differentiated persons. • Men and women were created by God to “complement” each other, as evidence by their ability to procreate with one another.
Homosexual Activity • Homosexual acts are “disordered” in that they are essentially sterile acts, incapable of creating new life. A homosexual act never is.
Homosexual Activity • Homosexual acts are “deficient” in nature. They don’t reach the intended goal of the sexual act which is to procreate.
Church’s View • The inclinations are not sinful only when we act on them do they “theologically” become sinful. • The same as when a heterosexual commits adultery, of engages in pre-marital sex
Church’s View • “The Church refuses to consider the person as a "heterosexual” or a “homosexual” and insists that every person has a fundamental identity: a creature of God and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life.” • The Church does not reduce a person to just their “sexuality.”
Church’s View • To claim the Church is opposed to homosexual behavior is true; • To claim that the Church is unwelcoming of homosexuals is false.
Church’s View • The USCCB asserts that homosexuals “have a right to be welcomed into the community, to hear the Word of God, and to receive pastoral care.” (Always Our Children 1997)
Church’s View • Homosexuals living chaste lives can both serve and hold leadership positions within the worshipping community.
Sexual Activity • All Christians, heterosexual or homosexual, married or single are called to live a life of chastity. • The Church holds that sexual activity is permitted in only one context: marriage.