On homosexuality...
I saw this in the community "Catholicism" today. I haven't visited that community in over a year. I was actually taking myself OUT of that community--to make a long story short, UJournal, where my personal journal is stored, blew up...and rather than taking more chances with their servers, I'm converting my "butnotyet" account into my private journal. But to make it truly private, I'm leaving all the communities first.
This entry, on the Catholicism community caught my attention:
JASONMICH:
I was just wondering what all of you open-minded, loving Christians feel about homosexuality and gay people in general. Do you support the work of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and support the discrimination that they endorse/espouse? Do you support the hate group GodHatesFags.com and gay-bashing?
Just curious what loving Christians think...
*****
My response (I'm # 43 or something...there's a lot of dialogue before me):
BUTNOTYET:
I'm writing this from an odd position: A Notre Dame student, good friends with a vehemently anti-gay priest-in-training, myself a questioning Christian (note: leaving the denominational open), and the former roomate of a girl who came out as being bi during our semester together.
I think I can fairly accurately say that I understand both perspectives.
First off, from what I've seen BOTH in the psychological field, and from personal experience...being gay/bi is most definitely not a choice.
I watched my roomate struggle with denial all semester long. I think I knew within the first few days that she isn't straight (and I have, as my friends tell me...no "gaydar"...the men I fell for are inevitably gay, though I never know it at the time). She was deeply in denial about her own sexuality, though she's been a champaign of gay rights (in a very anti-gay community) for years.
I've seen the way others discriminate against her. I've seen the way her parents treated her, when she came out. I've see how she struggles with her own spirituality. No one--absolutely NO ONE would take on that burden, that suffering out of "choice." In her case, she fell for a girl...and just couldn't change how she felt. We talked about this through the course of the semester...she's had feelings for other girls since she was young--about the same time that hetersexuals, like myself, were starting to discover similiar feelings of the opposite sex. And she was confused and scared...and kept those feelings to herself, kept dismissing them as mere friendship, though she realized as she grew older that it was something much more than that.
It's biological--and as difficult (and perhaps unnatural? I leave that question open) to fight as any other part of biology.
As for marriage between strictly between a man and a woman...I believed that, until I grew to know her better. I don't think I can deny her a life of happiness with the person of her choice, just because that person happens to be of the same gender.
On the other hand, my boyfriend (a Catholic, but an open-minded one) raised a good opposition to the open-marriage argument: If you permit 2 people of the same sex to enter a marriage, than what is there to prevent 3 people from wanting to get married? Where do we draw the line? Once we take away legal restrictions, the floodgates are potentially open.
Personally, I'd prefer to take my chances with the floodgates. I feel that we deny too many individuals something that is inheriently meaningful, necessarily, and personal.
It's a thorny issue, no matter how you look at it. I've been put-off by radicals on both sides--the hateful speech, thinly veiled as Christian preachings of Godhatefags.com on the one hand, and fanatically anti-Catholic grassroots leaders of some gayright movements on the other hand. It reminds me of racisism in the 60's--both the KKK and the Black Panther movements seemed too radicial, too narrow-minded in their opposite extremes. I hope we can find some compromise down the middle...
Anyway, if anyone is interested in that discussion, it can be found here:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/catholicism/770579.html?view=7722003#t7722003
This entry, on the Catholicism community caught my attention:
JASONMICH:
I was just wondering what all of you open-minded, loving Christians feel about homosexuality and gay people in general. Do you support the work of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and support the discrimination that they endorse/espouse? Do you support the hate group GodHatesFags.com and gay-bashing?
Just curious what loving Christians think...
*****
My response (I'm # 43 or something...there's a lot of dialogue before me):
BUTNOTYET:
I'm writing this from an odd position: A Notre Dame student, good friends with a vehemently anti-gay priest-in-training, myself a questioning Christian (note: leaving the denominational open), and the former roomate of a girl who came out as being bi during our semester together.
I think I can fairly accurately say that I understand both perspectives.
First off, from what I've seen BOTH in the psychological field, and from personal experience...being gay/bi is most definitely not a choice.
I watched my roomate struggle with denial all semester long. I think I knew within the first few days that she isn't straight (and I have, as my friends tell me...no "gaydar"...the men I fell for are inevitably gay, though I never know it at the time). She was deeply in denial about her own sexuality, though she's been a champaign of gay rights (in a very anti-gay community) for years.
I've seen the way others discriminate against her. I've seen the way her parents treated her, when she came out. I've see how she struggles with her own spirituality. No one--absolutely NO ONE would take on that burden, that suffering out of "choice." In her case, she fell for a girl...and just couldn't change how she felt. We talked about this through the course of the semester...she's had feelings for other girls since she was young--about the same time that hetersexuals, like myself, were starting to discover similiar feelings of the opposite sex. And she was confused and scared...and kept those feelings to herself, kept dismissing them as mere friendship, though she realized as she grew older that it was something much more than that.
It's biological--and as difficult (and perhaps unnatural? I leave that question open) to fight as any other part of biology.
As for marriage between strictly between a man and a woman...I believed that, until I grew to know her better. I don't think I can deny her a life of happiness with the person of her choice, just because that person happens to be of the same gender.
On the other hand, my boyfriend (a Catholic, but an open-minded one) raised a good opposition to the open-marriage argument: If you permit 2 people of the same sex to enter a marriage, than what is there to prevent 3 people from wanting to get married? Where do we draw the line? Once we take away legal restrictions, the floodgates are potentially open.
Personally, I'd prefer to take my chances with the floodgates. I feel that we deny too many individuals something that is inheriently meaningful, necessarily, and personal.
It's a thorny issue, no matter how you look at it. I've been put-off by radicals on both sides--the hateful speech, thinly veiled as Christian preachings of Godhatefags.com on the one hand, and fanatically anti-Catholic grassroots leaders of some gayright movements on the other hand. It reminds me of racisism in the 60's--both the KKK and the Black Panther movements seemed too radicial, too narrow-minded in their opposite extremes. I hope we can find some compromise down the middle...
Anyway, if anyone is interested in that discussion, it can be found here:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/catholicism/770579.html?view=7722003#t7722003