On Homosexuality
CHRIST & NEIGHBOR
The day seldom passes when you don’t read or hear that another Christian has expressed the opinion that sexual relations between members of the same sex is not a sin. This is usually followed by the opinion that the more traditional churches — and the Roman Catholic Church in particular — had better wise up, get with it, and change their sexual morality.
Ultimately, the reasoning comes down to the assertion that it is not fair to deprive homosexuals of the pleasure of sexual fulfillment. A secondary argument is that if sex occurs between consenting adults, no harm is done to third parties or society at large, so why not?
The argument from unfairness does seem to have some validity. God has permitted people to be born with little or no attraction to the opposite sex. They may not have a calling to the celibate religious life, so why should they be condemned if they claim a share of sexual satisfaction?
The question is similar to the question addressed in our last column, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Many homosexuals and lesbians certainly seem to be good people, judged by any other standard, but in our Judeo-Christian society, to be born with a homosexual orientation is still widely considered to be something of a bad thing.
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