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The Sinner by John Collier, 1904 |
The Ruth Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to
strengthening marriage and highlighting the devastating effect that broken
families have on children. They are in concert with the teaching of the
Catholic Church when it comes to marriage including the belief that marriage is
the union of one man and one woman. For this reason, the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC) has declared them a “hate group”. At no time has the Ruth
Institute ever advocated violence against anyone. There is no evidence that any
of their work has inspired violence. However, because the SPLC has labeled them
a “hate group” Vanco, a credit card processing company affiliated with Wells Fargo, has severed their ties with the Ruth Institute and
immediately, with no warning, stopped processing their online donations. You
can read the statement from the Ruth Institute here.
You can read good analyses here
and here.
There are many topics that could be explored in this situation. For
example, by what authority does the SPLC have the credibility to be the final
arbiter on what constitutes a hate group? Why can Vanco refuse to service customers with whom it disagrees while bakers, florists, photographers, and wedding
venue owners cannot?
While those are good questions, what struck me was a conversation I
observed online where an individual claimed that Vanco’s actions
were justified because the Ruth Institute followed the Catholic Church’s teaching that “homosexuals were intrinsically disordered”.
Stop right there! That is not what the Catholic Church teaches. The
Catholic Church does not label any person as intrinsically disordered. What the
Catholic Church says is that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. The full
statement from the Catechism is:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between
women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward
persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the
centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely
unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts
as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition
has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically
disordered."142 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 can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual
tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively
disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with
respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in
their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will
in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the
Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
What the Church states is that we are each made Imago Dei, in the Image of God. No human person is ever
intrinsically disordered. Actions can be disordered. People cannot. No person
is beyond redemption. No person is beyond God’s mercy. This includes sinners of
every stripe.
Has every Catholic approached homosexuals with mercy and compassion on
every occasion? Of course not. But the failures of individuals to live up to
the teaching of the Church do not redefine the teachings of the Church.
Perhaps one of the best discussions of how the Church should minister to those
with same-sex attractions was outlined in Cardinal Sarah’s recent editorial in
the Wall
Street Journal:
In her teaching about
homosexuality, the church guides her followers by distinguishing their
identities from their attractions and actions. First there are the people
themselves, who are always good because they are children of God. Then there
are same-sex attractions, which are not sinful if not willed or acted upon but
are nevertheless at odds with human nature. And finally there are same-sex relations,
which are gravely sinful and harmful to the well-being of those who partake in
them. People who identify as members of the LGBT community are owed this truth
in charity, especially from clergy who speak on behalf of the church about this
complex and difficult topic.
It is my prayer that the
world will finally heed the voices of Christians who experience same-sex
attractions and who have discovered peace and joy by living the truth of the
Gospel. I have been blessed by my encounters with them, and their witness moves
me deeply. I wrote the foreword to one such testimony, Daniel Mattson’s book, “Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay: How I
Reclaimed My Sexual Reality and Found Peace,” with the hope of making his and
similar voices better heard.
We are each made by God in the Image of God. We cannot be
“intrinsically disordered”.
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