Thanks to Bill Lindsey's blog Bilgrimage I was put on to this story today by New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni.
Bill Lindsey's comments on Frank Bruni's Column
It always takes me awhile to get up to speed. I guess I have been reading Frank Bruni's writing in the New York Times for a good while and ignorant of the fact that he is a gay man.
Bruni Talks About RC Hate and Sexual Ignorance Toward the GLBTQ Community - Link to Frank Bruni's Column
Because of his informative and timely piece today in the New York Times, I am adding Frank Bruni's blog to the blogs I follow.
I have some thoughts on why the Catholic Church is so violently opposed to gay marriage. The one that has been on my mind lately is that if gay marriage continues to be accepted by society, it will completely undermine and demolish the present sexual theology the church has advanced for years. That is, it is still grievously (mortal) sinful for any sexual thoughts to be entertained, or actions committed by even straight folks unless you are married. Dolan's model is two gay men can be friends, but no amorous looks, thoughts, or feelings. I guess for Dolan two gay guys could go watch the New York Yankees play baseball and maybe sit together. I like Sister Jeannine Gramick's characterization of this as: "It's like saying, 'You're a bird, but you can't fly.'"
There are other older reasons the Catholic Church has spoken so hatefully about guy people. I would refer anyone interested to look into Mark Jordan's work and one theory he advances. Jordan takes that piece "that the lady protests too much" and argues rather forcefully that the Catholic Church's real macho stand against anything gay was to mask and distract anyone from looking too closely at the Roman Catholic Priesthood. Bruni in today's column picks that argument up citing Rev. James Martin of America magazine estimating that his estimate of the population of gay priests is about thirty percent.
In my opinion, if Pope Francis wants to address the issues of the Vatican Gay Lobby, whatever that is; he could begin by taking steps to update the Roman Catholic Church's theology of sex and marriage.
Good comments -- 'protesting too much' is often a give away. Also western Christianity theology of sex is moribund, perhaps even bankrupt. But people are listening to the voices of their gay children. That's positive.
ReplyDeleteI like "moribund" and "bankrupt".
ReplyDeleteFor some reason God keeps making gay people. The big news in this hemisphere in the past couple of days is that Exodus International is going out of business, those folks into praying the gay away. They have departed from the scene with some grace, even an apology.
We still are awaiting the Supremes decisions on DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)and proposition 8 in California. These could come any day now.
First day of summer here and it is beautiful.