Contradicting Yourself

The Catholic church is going to rule that homosexuals cannot enter seminary... even if they have never had gay sex. That's a very important point to notice... "never had gay sex." Why? Because it clearly states the Catholic church's position on "what gay is", and it is not what it should be if you are not a fan of gay people and gay marriage.

You see, the real question is: Is "gay" something you do, or something you are? Most Christian denominations say emphatically that it is something you do... something you are not born with... something learned, desired, and then acted upon. The Catholic Church seems to be saying that being gay is what you are... acting upon it notwithstanding... going directly against most mainline conservative protestant denominations. According to the Catholic Church, there is no such thing as "becoming ex-gay", or "stopping onself from being gay" or "recovering from gayness." Either you are or you aren't... for life.

My my my. That's not too good. Why? It can lose the war... the big pink winner-gets-to-pick-the-window-dressing war.

You see, if gay is what you are instead of what you do, then it stops being a "lifestyle" and starts becoming "genetic". If it becomes "genetic", then the ability to single out gay people for discrimination (in housing, in work, in marriage) becomes oh-so-much-harder... because, well, gay people can't help it, can they? Why should they be stopped from doing what is natural to them... of course, that is if it is "genetic" and not a "lifestyle"... like the Pope says.

As always with the anti-gay crowd: One step forward, two steps back.

Now per usual, I turn to Andrew Sullivan, from several various posts, for the best quotes:

Strangely, this policy not only demeans gay and lesbian persons, it also diminishes God. This new policy suggests that the efficacy of Jesus' death and resurrection, sufficient to cover all sins and to regenerate the most reprobate of souls, simply cannot reach gay and lesbian persons.

As a barely literate Irish-Catholic immigrant in Britain in the 1930s, my grandmother knew what prejudice was. And she knew her faith opposed it. Today, the hierarchy that represents that faith is actually practising it - proudly and in daylight.

A man who commits an act of cold blooded murder can repent, do penance, be forgiven for his sins, and then become a priest. A gay man who has remained celibate all his life cannot.

Notice that in 1986, the Church officially rebutted the idea that gay men, let alone gay priests, cannot be expected to be celibate, let alone molest children. The notion that all gay men are sexually compulsive was, in the words of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, an "unfounded and demeaning assumption."

Well, with gay rights, it's always two steps forward, one step back. (Massachusetts upheld gay marriage yesterday, and the House of Representatives passed a bill that creates federal hate crime laws for gays and lesbians.)

p.s. Just for the record... I don't believe in or support hate crime laws.