Thursday, May 3, 2012

Young Man With Same Sex Attraction Bullied

The Indystar had a heart-wrenching front-page story about a young man at a local high school who has been bullied his whole life for "feminine behavior."  His mother had had enough and gave her son a stun gun, which he finally fired into the air at school as a warning.  Now the young man who used the stun gun is potentially going to be expelled because it is obviously illegal to have a stun gun in school.

Some will bring up this story and blame Catholics for speaking up about same-sex attraction and homosexual sex, and will say it is somehow the Church's fault that this young man is being bullied.

1) I would bet my last penny that those harassing this young man don't have the first clue what the Church or Bible says on homosexuality

2) Any Catholic's first response to a person like this young man who is openly and publicly struggling with same-sex attraction should be one and only one thing - love.  That I or any other Catholic would treat this young man as any different than any other human person is reprehensible and untrue.  A person who would in any way treat this person differently than any other human person would be forsaking their Catholic faith.

The Church notes: "The characteristic concern and good will exhibited by many clergy and religious in their pastoral care for homosexual persons is admirable, and, we hope, will not diminish. Such devoted ministers should have the confidence that they are faithfully following the will of the Lord"

3) A difference does need to be noted here between the Catholic Church and the various protestant religions.  The Church is the only Christian Faith that I've encountered that does NOT believe that homosexual attraction is a sin.  Even Joel Osteen, who strikes me as one of the more financially driven of the televangelists and most likely to water theology down to appeal to as many as possible, said on a Sunday morning news show that he believes that homosexual ATTRACTION (not just the action) is a sin.  This, to me, illustrates yet another example of why we need the Church to help us understand HOW to implement the Scriptures in our daily lives.

This is a horrible situation, and we have to strongly defend those in our midst who are being mistreated.  Bullying is such a horrible thing and must be condemned as strongly as humanly possible.  Also, it needs to be very clear that the Church can in no way be blamed for things like this and anyone who would pretend that the Church would in anyway condone such behavior, or that the Church's teaching in any way points to such behavior as somehow being appropriate shows a complete lack of understanding of what the Church actually does teach. 


Let's pray for this man, his family, and those who are bullying him.

13 comments:

  1. It absolutely kills me when I see/hear Christians saying, "God hates homosexuals".
    Seriously? The God I know doesn't hate.
    Thanks Fr.John, great lesson and reminder.

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  2. Then how about you address homosexuality in some way other than a blog post? The Catholic Church, although it may not directly condemn being gay, does not actually ever talk about it in any way, shape or form. How about you make one of your homilies about it? Oh, wait... that's mean you actually have to do what you teach.

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    1. This seems to be a very misinformed comment.

      You have no idea what I do in my ministry. Are you (falsely) accusing me of never having worked with people struggling with same sex attraction?

      Are you (falsely) accusing me of not teaching on the subject, because I can show you the 20 or so gay blogs that slandered my teaching on the subject in a class.

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  3. Fr. Hollowell,

    While I agree with your statements about Catholicism stating that Homosexual Attraction is not in of it self a sin. I just don't understand your premise for bring this up. The article stated nothing about Catholics or even Christianity. It talked about bullying, but never once stated that this was the fault of any sort of religion. Nor did the comments state anything about Catholics or Christianity except for one comment about turning the other cheek.

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    1. My premise is that I just got done talking about homosexuality and the Church in a blog post, then a second post about the Dan Savage attacking Christians post - so this is a very natural follow up because this bullying of homosexuals is EXACTLY what Savage was just screaming about. I didn't say anything in the article said anything about Christianity, but this is an attempt to get out in front of a story and address a question or accusation against Christianity before it is asked.

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  4. My daughter has been shouted at by the lgbt community at her public school simply because she is Catholic. She was so shocked by this because she has never treated anyone with the slightest disrespect. Now she knows the exact paragraph of the Catechism to quote to these "enlightened" young people to help them understand what the Church actually believes and teaches. I have so much respect for her attitude through this whole ordeal.

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  5. Great article, Fr. John. I agree that more protestants need to embrace the belief that homosexual attraction is not a sin. This is what I personally believe, because sheesh - if being tempted was a sin, we'd all be in big trouble! In fact, even Jesus wouldn't have been sinless! Keep up the good work at Ritter!
    B. McEwan

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  6. Please check out the website of Courage. Dcn. Steve Hodges of The Archdiocese of Indianapolis is the chaplain for the local chapter. http://couragerc.net/

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  7. If the Catholic church is only against homosexual actions and not attractions, why are non-active homosexuals not allowed to enter the seminary? Why were you against homosexuals being allowed in the military? Thanks for explaining.

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    1. you fail to make an important distinction that the Church does make

      1) those who have not acted on same sex attraction for a certain period of time (I think it is three years) ARE allowed to enter the seminary

      2) If you show up and identify yourself as "homosexual" than that IS problematic because it means that you think your same sex attraction IS something that comes from the core of who you are - otherwise you wouldn't identify yourself as such, so the Church would be concerned if you said "hey, I'm a homosexual who wants to be a priest" but not because the Church considers the attraction a sin.

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  8. The kid being bullied did NOT use the stun gun "on someone", he fired it into the air as a warning.

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    1. Thanks for the clarification, I have it corrected now in the original post.

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