Homphobic bullying. (Main Forum)

by Leo Jack, Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 11:22 (1463 days ago)

The news that the NSW Catholic Education commission has adopted a policy which urges children to hate the sin but love the sinner as a way of countering homophobic bullying has implications which are little short of appalling. Catholic theology defines sin as a deliberate word, deed or ommission which violates the law of God. How then is a child guilty of sin simply because, in being faithful to themselves, they appear to be homosexual. Did they deliberately adopt those characteristics? Come off it. Even if they did, what is the sin?

The thinking behind that policy betrays an assumption that homosexuality is a deliberate sinful decision of a person, in this case a child! I think this is bad theology.
Furthermore, to use the word hate in the context of a person who is different in some ways requres a degree of sophistication from young people and children which I doubt they possess. That word is going to reinforce the idea that difference is sinful. I don't think that is what Jesus was on about.

Finally there is an assumption that homosexuality is abnormal. Is that something we find out from Revelation only, or is it something which science will ultimately explain for us. There is some doubt about the clarity of scriptures on the sinfulness of homosexuality. If we were playing poker, at this stage I'd see the Commission. What evidence does it have in either Scripture or science that homosexuality is not part of the normal spectrum of human sexuality?

Catholics were accused of denying science when they refused to accept Galileo's claims that the earth circles the sun. In fact, recent research has shown that the Church penalised Galileo because he refused to follow the rules of scientific method. He bagan to attack scripture when he still had no evidence to explain the stellar parallex. Churchmen at the time correctly urged him to present his claim as an hyupothesis until he could explain that problem. He failed to do so.

Currently the Church is faced with a similar dilemma. If it has no convincing evidence in scriptures or in science for its position on homosexuality,it is doing what Galileo did and declaring as certain something for which they it has no evidence.

Cardinal Murphy-O'connor in Westminster has had the courage to arrange for a regular Mass for the gay community in a church in Soho London. He is not presuming that gay people are sinners for just being gay.

Have a little compassion for gay children in our schools in NSW.