16/11: Christianity and Same-Sex Sex
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
From the Washington Post, this article on three groups and same-sex sex.
(1) The Roman Catholic bishops continue to affirm that homosexuality is a disordered condition since it goes against the natural purpose of sex. And they affirm that Roman Catholic leaders are not free to ignore this teaching. (2) The North Carolina Baptist Convention (the Southern Baptist Convention congregations are organized in state conventions) moves to ensure that no congregations affirming same-sex sex as good can remain within the Convention. (3) The Presbyterian Church (USA), the mainline Presbyterians, are conducting a trial of a minister who performed a same sex wedding.
The action by the bishops is significant given the history of American Roman Catholicism: there has been a tendency in our country on the part of some to ignore official teaching. The NC Baptist action is no surprise. The Post is behind in reporting on the events on the Presbyterian case: charges have been dismissed because a filing deadline was missed. Article here from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
(1) The Roman Catholic bishops continue to affirm that homosexuality is a disordered condition since it goes against the natural purpose of sex. And they affirm that Roman Catholic leaders are not free to ignore this teaching. (2) The North Carolina Baptist Convention (the Southern Baptist Convention congregations are organized in state conventions) moves to ensure that no congregations affirming same-sex sex as good can remain within the Convention. (3) The Presbyterian Church (USA), the mainline Presbyterians, are conducting a trial of a minister who performed a same sex wedding.
The action by the bishops is significant given the history of American Roman Catholicism: there has been a tendency in our country on the part of some to ignore official teaching. The NC Baptist action is no surprise. The Post is behind in reporting on the events on the Presbyterian case: charges have been dismissed because a filing deadline was missed. Article here from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Tocqueville wrote:
"Catholicism teaches -- as virtually all Christian churches did, until virtually yesterday -- that the only rightly ordered expression of sexuality is between men and women, within marriage. This is true for everyone. When I became a Catholic, I was a young unmarried adult. I believed I had to live chastely, until I married. It was really difficult to live this out, especially because I had no way of knowing if I would ever marry. Two friends of mine walking this same path were gay Catholics; all of us were converts, and all of us accepted that the Church was a divine institution, and our role was to conform our own lives around her authoritative teachings because they were true. It was really, really difficult to do in the area of sexuality, especially because we live in a culture that not only defines one's sexual orientation as intrinsic to, even determinative of, one's core identity. To deny yourself the exercise of sexual expression is, to our culture, to deny your identity. But that's what it means to take up your cross."