Guest Opinion: The Phenomenon of Homosexuality in Today's Society

By Paul Kokoski
2/9/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Neither Church nor state invented marriage, and neither can change its nature

The sexual union of a man and woman is called the marital act because the two become physically one in a way that is impossible between two men or two women. Whatever a homosexual union might be or represent, it is not physically marital. Gender is inextricably bound up with physical sexual identity; and "gender-free marriage" is a contradiction in terms, like a square circle. To redefine marriage to include same-sex couples is to strip marriage of an essential component, namely the ability and obligation to procreate. This would render marriage meaningless and open it up to endless revision and redefinition.

As the basic expression of man's social nature, marriage exists solely between a man and a woman who through their personal gift of self to each other, perfect one another into a communion of persons.

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HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA (Catholic Online) - As yet another testament to the West's rapid slide into decadence, the House of Commons recently voted to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron described homosexual marriage as "an important step forward" and is hoping to have the bill enacted this summer.

Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon. Due to benign interpretations of the homosexual condition itself, it is increasingly being viewed as something neutral or even good. In the words of Cardinal George of Chicago, the gay liberation movement has begun to "morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan". They have thus far succeeded in inverting the West's rule of law into the law of the jungle.

Men and women with homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Nonetheless homosexual acts must be considered wrong and 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 should they be approved.

In the West the legalization of homosexuality has already lead to the destruction of the family unit. Children who have no knowledge of sex are being brainwashed in schools to accept the perversion of homosexual acts as being normal and praiseworthy. At special risk now is religious freedom. In Canada, Christians are being harassed, threatened, and hauled into court for their biblical and scientifically supported conviction that homosexuality is not normal and that marriage is between one man and one woman.

To choose someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. This does not mean that homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves; but when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent.

There is a lot of misinformation and a distortion of facts disseminated by the press today about homosexuality. The Western media often portrays the homosexual lifestyle and relationships as happy, healthy, and stable. On the contrary there are very high rates of sexual promiscuity among the homosexual population with short duration of even "committed" relationships. Homosexuals also have very high rates of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

Further, many studies show much higher rates of psychiatric illness, such as depression, suicide attempts and drug abuse among homosexuals than among the general population. And statistics - which compare homosexuals with ethnic minorities exposed to racism - indicate this is not due to homophobia. The homosexual lifestyle is also associated with a shortened life expectancy of up to 20 years.

Homosexual behavior is abnormal, immoral and anti-life. It closes the act of sex to the gift of life and is not innate as some believe. The so-called "gay gene" has never been found. The Bible clearly and unequivocally also condemns homosexual acts (Gen 1:27-28; Gen 2:24; Matt 19: 4-6; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10 etc.).

Dr. Francis Collins, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work sequencing the human genetic code, has in fact proven that homosexuality is not genetically "hardwired." If genetics were determinative," he said, "then identical twins should virtually always show the same pattern of same-sex attraction. However, a study of the Australian Twin Registry showed that only 11% of identical twins with same-sex attraction had a twin brother who also experienced it.

In 1973 Homosexual activists succeeded in pressuring the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from their official list of mental disorders. This about face, according to a 2005 scientific study by Dr. Jeffery B. Satinover, Director of the Durckheim-Gladstone International Center for Quantitative Analysis in Washington, was due to certain bias, false claims, lack of scientific expertise, lack of clinical experience and fabrication of evidence.

Essentially, the APA's decision was influenced by the arguments of Evelyn Hooker and Alfred Kinsey whose data was fraudulently skewered by blatant population sampling bias and the badgering, and even bribing, of its imprisoned and largely otherwise institutionalized subjects. Hooker's study, which contained no details of the scientific procedure involved, failed the most basic tenets of the scientific method. The inadequacy of her research was even acknowledged by the journal that published it. ...

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1 - 10 of 22 Comments

David Rutledge
1 month ago
A Catholic, I love Christ and I love the Church. But the commentary displayed here makes me feel ashamed and saddened. Persons more eager to condemn, than to follow Christ's demand that we "love one another as I have loved you." If you have not walked in the shoes of a gay person growing up in fear and confusion because of culturally sanctioned intolerance which is only now abating, do not dare to presume to proclaim what you know not. The pain and suffering of other people will be something you will answer for when Christ asks you about "the stranger that you did not invite in." Are your words leading to greater love and care for the gay person, or to your feeling of righteousness and self-satisfaction. It is obvious to any intelligent person that sexual orientation is so complex and little understood that we have no business making moral pronouncements; we can but govern our own behaviour in fear and trepidation based on prayer and seeking after the Christ we love.
Lisa
2 months ago
Hanna -

I agree with you about accepting sinners into the Church, that is core to our teaching. But accepting them to come to church doesn't mean to validate. We can love, encourage and pray for alcoholics, pedophiles, murderers, etc. but we don't have to validate/encourage their choices/lifestyles. If you believe that homosexuality is a sin as outlined in Romans, than, you certainly love and can pray for homosexuals (as you would any of the sinners listed above) and certainly encourage them to come to church. This line of thinking is not popular with the homosexual community because they are not interested in our compassion and prayers for transformation -- they want our validation of their continued sinning in living as homosexuals. I know this as I have debated the issue with many. We simply cannot abandon our teachings to accommodate a choice to continue sinning.

The homosexual community depicts anyone who disagrees with their agenda of full validation as intolerant. Well, it seems to me that the definition of tolerance is to live among those you know to be in active disagreement with you. It shouldn't mean that you have to convert to them to your way of thinking -- that would be intolerant. The truth is most of us who believe that homosexuality is a sin have friends and family that we love who are homosexual. We love them and they come to our weddings, baptisms, parties and maybe even accompany us to church. Life is just not that simple to depict everyone who disagrees with you as the villain.
lisa
2 months ago
Rob -

If only the world had enough NRP, we would all see the light...
This has *nothing* to do with soaring divorce rates in the heterosexual world, it has everything to do with a well-funded and well-organized machine bent on dismantling traditional marriage. The agenda is really, really simple...if we validate the homosexual lifestyle, we equate it to everything that we hold dear. You see, it's not enough to have civil ceremonies with all the rights (financial and otherwise) of marriage for same-sex unions, we have to call it marriage. Only that way can the larger public truly embrace homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. The scary thing is that fair-minded Christians may not see that the church is under attack and the long-term vision is to remove Christ and his teachings from the Church.
Rob
2 months ago
Maybe, just maybe, if we have focused on all the problems confronting those who are heterosexual, perhaps we would have some sort of credibility when it comes to discussing the implications of homosexual unions. I dare say the scourge of pornography is doing more to harm marriage and the person than two homosexuals getting together. Our 50% divorce rate is harming marriage more than a homosexual union will.

Maybe I'm flat out wrong. But I suspect that if we had cleaned up our own house, we wouldn't be here right now. Kinda hard to preach about these things when we have yet another big abuse scandal to deal with. We aren't exactly putting forth the best face on things sexual. But please, let's keep putting our heads in the sand and pointing at the gays. They are the cause of all these problems. Geez.
OSAGIE JESUOGHAE
3 months ago
THERE IS NOTHING NATURAL ABOUT IT. THESE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THIS ACTS ARE SICK AND NEEDS TO BE COUNSELLED, JUST LIKE DRUGS ADDICT AND HIV SUFFERERS.
Robert Burford
3 months ago
Good and informative. However, let my comment focus on unions. The young people of today do not marry. They live together and have prodigy. They have children sometimes with multiple partners. I agree with the article that the institution of marriage has been attacked successfully by our society. We do need to fix this and the only answer is prayer.Families need to encourage holy matrimony and honor it as it should be honored. Thousands of dollars spent on a dress and reception are not as important as encouraging a young couple and honoring the fact that they seek holy matrimony. We cannot turn a blind eye to this because the very fabric of our faith is at stake. If we do not speak out we are guilty of sin also.
Crystal Kearney
3 months ago
Becoming a heretic is as easy as condoning sin or making room for it.
Homosexuality is a sin. We can't sit by and lovingly watch someone commit suicide and truly say we care but we also can't MAKE them do what we want. We SHOULD love everyone, including gay and lesbians but never say that the way they live is good and right. It is NOT okay and we shouldn't accept it. It may feel natural and right to the person but that doesn't mean it's so...the bible says that we should test all spirits and I earnestly believe that some people think that because they "feel" it it's okay. Something wicked is happening in our world, and it'll continue to be more and more corrupt and awful until they day our lord returns. Hold close to your bibles, read it and meditate on it's word.
Ashley
3 months ago
ProdglArchitect your insight on Sodom and Gamorrah should not be used to say homosexuality is ok. It clearly states in the New Testament it is not. That may have not been your intention, but I can see how people reading your comment are going to think that as long as you don't act like an animal in a homosexual relationship that it is ok and that is never the case.
Ashley
3 months ago
Hanna, You can tell someone they are sinning and doing something wrong, and that is not having a lack of compassion or being judgmental. Ultimately it is God who judges whether a person is going to heaven or hell. We are not judging the person we are judging their actions. Your statement is dangerously on the side of moral relativism. For example, it seems you are saying that you as a Catholic believe homosexuality is wrong but who are you to tell anyone else it is wrong. In other words I believe it is wrong, but if you don't I'm just going to love you and never try to help to turn from your sins. That in and of itself is not being compassionate.
DLL
3 months ago
I personally think that homosexuality is an early misunderstanding of the beauty of the heterosexual relationship. It is also related to the failure of heterosexual relationships as divorce became socially acceptable,where in the past it simply was not acceptable,as divorce was the sign of weak character. At one time a divorced person was considered risky as an employee because they could not hold their marriage together. Lesbian relations I always felt was because of sexual abuse usually because of incestual relations between family members such as cousins or uncles,even ones own Father or brother. Sexual relations without love is the major factor for becoming confused sexually wether it be heterosexual or homosexual relations that are engaged in. Intimacy is what is the ultimate sense of a relationship. Intimacy is destroyed when sex is disregarded as a relationship that is meant to be intense,intimate and an expression of a life long love,meant to be a procreative process where the innocence and love for the children of such relations is commitment to love nurture children until maturity. Men,women and children are not objects of sexual gratification. If they are than the nature of the sexual relationship is distorted and ugly even considered dirty. Normal sexual intimacy and love is never distorted as it is always when two commit to on another for life to raise a family in a Holy and beautiful unselfish loving manner. Poor sexual practice is simply bad manners. Abused people sexually look to alternate life styles in hope of intimacy simply because they have lost faith in normal heterosexual relationships because of a lack of sincerity that they have perceived in such relations. For the alternate lifestyle person it seems intimacy is acceptable in any sort of a sexual encounter if one feels some sense of a love or bond that way to ensure a sense of some sort of social acceptance that buffers the pain of a rejection by ones own family or church or society in general. All people seek love and that is inherent in human nature because that is the way God created each and every one of us. Commercialized sex has been the curse of society because it has reduced sex to its lowest common denominator because intimacy has been reduced to technique. When that happens there is no love simply abusive and selfish desire to use one another for sexual gratification so that sex is simply disordered and non productive. The consequences of disordered heterosexual sex is aborted fetuses. The church must consider that gay people who seek to adopt an unwanted baby are thinking with heart as they may hate abortion as much as the Catholic Church does. What has not been proven is the stability of gay marriage. Gay marriage is a product of sexual liberation philosophy. Sexual liberation, homo or heterosexual,etc. that is selfish or abusive,really equals sexual abuse and the loss of intimacy and love. The distortion of family is a distortion of society and a fault in the society of these times because a family is a constant as mother,father,child and that is the formula that is hard to beat or to replace with some lessor or uncertain version as is prescribed by sexual liberation society folks or those that consider themselves to be politically correct.

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