The Catholic Position on LGBTQ

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The Charge

The secular world has gotten so mixed up that it not only preaches lunacy, but it calls it hateful and bigoted when anyone doesn’t explicitly endorse it.

So, when the Catholic Church continues to state the truth – the truth that men are men, that women are women, and that human beings were not designed for homosexual acts – she is called hateful and bigoted and out-of-date and all kinds of other things.

It’s as though there were something unloving about thinking that two plus two equals four, or something narrow-minded about saying that chewing on rocks and drinking bleach is unhealthy.

The gay rights community has done a great job trying to tie the contemporary sexual madness to the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. And the only reason they’ve been so successful is that we have failed to keep before our minds the distinction between person and action.

It’s that distinction that all morality depends on.

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Distinction between Person and Action

Our legal system, and our moral system, depends upon two fundamental principles, two basic truths.

The first principle is – that all persons are equal. That basic insight is in our constitution, and our whole society is built upon it. The evils of slavery, the horrors of the Nazi regime, and the abomination of abortion all come from selectively forgetting this principle, and acting as though some persons are not equal in value with everyone else.

But the second principle is this – not all actions are equal. The only way we can have rule of law in the first place is if some actions are ruled out. If we didn’t recognize that all actions are not equal, we’d have to say that robbing the poor is just as good as giving to the poor – that killing an innocent stranger is just as good as saving an innocent stranger from drowning.

It’s because all persons are equal, even though not all their actions are equal, that we are able to love the sinners even as we hate the sin.

A person is not identical to their action. That’s what made it possible for God to love us even while we were still sinners, and it’s what makes it possible for us to love certain people even as we lament what they do.

In fact, often enough, we show that we love a person by lamenting about the horrible self-harm their actions entail.

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Not like the civil rights movement

Once we see that all persons are equal, and that not all actions are equal, we can see that any comparison between the civil rights movement and LBGTQ+ activism is absolute nonsense.

The purpose of the civil rights movement was to show that all persons are equal. Which, as we’ve said, is true. That’s why in itself the battle against racism was a righteous cause. But the purpose of the  LGBTQ+ folks is to show that all actions, especially all sexual actions, are equal. And that’s not true. Not all actions are equal. Not all actions are good.

Cutting up a child’s body for no reason isn’t good. Pretending to be something you’re not isn’t good. Acting against the complementarity of man and woman isn’t good.

All persons are equal. Not all behaviors or lifestyle choices are equal.

That’s why the civil rights movement was righteous. And it’s why the LGBTQ+ movement isn’t.

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Connection between Action and Character

So we have to make a distinction between persons and their actions. But we also have to acknowledge a connection between actions and character, because, of course, actions do shape our character. They even form our identities.

This is particularly true in the area of sexuality.

My identity is tied to my closest relationships, and my relationships and my role in life are deeply connect to how I live my sexuality

I am a father and a husband. That’s not just something I do, it really is, fundamentally, who I am. And it results from how I have chosen to live out my sexuality.

Which means if I live my sexuality badly, it will compromise and corrupt my deepest identity and character.

If I were to leave my wife for another woman, to betray her and betray our children like that – I can’t even imagine what that would do to the structure of who I am. I don’t know how I would think of myself – how I would even imagine my identity – after that.

This is why LGBTQ people are so desperate to have society affirm their sexual choices – because they know that their disordered sexuality is corrupting their character and compromising their identities – and they want someone to tell them that it’s okay.

But, actually, it’s not okay. They are damaging themselves at a very deep level. Action and character are connected, especially at the level of our sexuality. Who we become is an expression of how we choose to live.

So yes, we have to distinguish between person and action. That’s why we can truly say that LGBTQ people are valuable, have dignity, and are worthy of love – despite their misguided decisions.

But we also have to acknowledge the connection between action and character. Which means we should be alarmed, we should be concerned, when the people we care about do things that twist and warp the person God has made them to be.

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Love expressed in Moral Concern

Love is never simple, no matter how many stupid clichés circulate about it in popular culture. As every parent knows, love is complicated, multifaceted, and challenging.

It’s not just praise or compliments. It’s not just corrections or warnings. And it’s never, ever indifference.

Love is to will the good of the other.

That means affirming the good that’s already there. It means affirming the truth that everyone – no matter what – is made in God’s image, is loved by God to the point of death, and is destined for eternal glory.

It also means lamenting and discouraging any attacks on the other person’s good. If someone is damaging their own goodness as a man or a woman, we show our love by being concerned about it. A mother loves her child by telling him not to eat paint chips. She doesn’t love her child by encouraging him to eat paint chips, or saying “whatever makes you happy!”

And loving someone means encouraging them towards the good. It means when someone is ready to give up on their own goodness, their own happiness, or their own salvation, we are there for them. Telling them that God loves them, showing them that we delight in them, and making it clear that we will never, ever give up on them.

That’s what love does. That’s how we love those who are hurt, those who are lost, those whom Christ came to heal.