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Why “disordered” is still a “gay Catholic” hang-up…

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Since the term “intrinsically disordered” was first introduced by the Catholic Church in 1975, so called “gay Catholics” have taken issue with its use to describe both homosexual actions, and later when the term was repeated in a 1986 “Letter” to the Bishops of the Church, which described the inclination itself as an “objective disorder,” and then again in “The Catechism of the Catholic Church;” subsequently, many well-educated, and perhaps some other not so well-formed, Catholics and homosexual advocates have asked for its removal or revision. In the 1970s, Dignity, a Catholic-homosexual outreach that has been suppressed in most American Catholic dioceses, made this part of their official platform:
“We pray and work for that day of reconciliation when the Roman Catholic Church will not consider its GLBT children as ‘intrinsically disordered,’ but will welcome and accept all people as children of God endowed and blessed with unique gifts, talents and orientations that need to be nurtured, celebrated and developed for the praise and glory of God.”
Over the years, little has changed in the larger arena of Catholic “gay” dialogue: recently a member of the “Spiritual Friendship” group, a collaboration of “gay Catholics” who at least support the Church’s stance on no sex outside marriage, had this to say on the same subject:
“More important than either right or left, however, is the bewildered cry of the person in the middle, the person who either is or loves someone who is gay. The use and misuse of the description of homosexual inclinations as ‘objectively disordered’ reads to her or him, not as a moral guideline, but as a negation of someone’s entire personhood, rendering the talk about dignity of human persons devoid of content. It seems to me that these people are the real reason we should exercise caution in the use of this language.”
Another associate of the same group stated: “Many of us emphasize the need to move towards self-acceptance and away from shame. For this reason we often stay away from the language of ‘disorder’ and ‘brokenness’ that often surrounds the issue…” Certainly a toned-down criticism when compared with the one leveled by Dignity, but, nonetheless, it reveals an enduring and serious disconnect, as well as a refusal, to humbly acknowledge our own, oftentimes deep-set, predisposition towards sin. And, when we deny or equivocate our own brokenness: we are hiding; albeit not in the same way as Adam and Eve hid from the Lord behind trees and leaves, but hiding within an orientation – within an identity, in this case – our supposed gayness. For this reason, both Dignity and the “Spiritual Friendship” group encourages “coming out” as it serves, not as any brave moment of truth or some sort of therapeutic role in achieving continence, but, as a mode of concealment – when “coming out” becomes “hiding out” within the impregnability of the gay identity. Therefore, the major stumbling block will always remain their reaction to the term: “disordered;” because, for them, it self-admittedly reveals that they themselves are disordered. But, why would this cause so much consternation? On account of the mere fact that they choose to call themselves “gay Catholics,” meaning that they are trying to work out their sanctity within the framework of a distinct homosexual mind-set or within the gay orientation – which is an impossibility. A recent post to the “Spiritual Friendship” site demonstrates this glaringly bizarre attempt to fuse gay with chaste: “I found myself delighting in certain men in a way that was distinctly gay but also chaste, and my delight presented itself as the kind of supportive, unrestrained love that fosters affinity and trust.” Hiding your clearly “gay” feelings behind the mask of chastity doesn’t make them instantaneously pure – it just makes them all the more problematic because you failed to accurately recognize them for what they are. Only by going beyond homosexuality, and or the gay label, can one find true healing: if you choose to remain stuck, hidden behind your supposed gayness, then that’s where you will stay.




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