Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Last week, Mr. Jeff Ellis expressed his concern about the intolerance of someone who doesn't support gay marriage. He also affirmed the hypocrisy of rejecting homosexual "love" in the name of God.

As a Catholic who accepts fully the Church's teaching on homosexuality, and therefore as one in the cross-hairs of the "intolerance" charge, I would like to clarify a few issues.

Yes, I am intolerant of what my Church has always defined as sinful behavior, both in other people but especially in myself. But to reject a certain behavior or thought as sinful and therefore as wrong is not the same as rejecting a person. In fact, my Church also requires that I love my neighbor no matter what he or she does.

Sometimes, loving someone means telling them that something they are doing is harmful to themselves. To deny the harm of sinful behavior, such as alcoholism, drug abuse or theft, is actually harmful to the person and as such, is the opposite of love. If I truly respect and love my neighbor, I will try and muster the courage to proclaim the truth in order to save him in this life and the next.

As Christians, we are commanded to love the sinner but hate the sin. Some people reject such a statement as hypocritical or delusional. But it is the truth. We may fall short of the ideal, but nevertheless whenever I hear an official in the Catholic Church condemn homosexual behavior, in the next breath he affirms the dignity of the homosexual person and reaffirms our duty to treat them with respect and love.

One cannot simply label homosexual sex as "love" and then expect Christians to accept it because God is love. That is a false syllogism. One could apply the same faulty logic to incest, bestiality, pedophilia, or any number of abhorrent sins.

For love to be genuine and true, it needs to be in accord with God's will. No matter how homosexual apologists may try to slice it, scripture, tradition, natural law, biology, and human experience all point to the essential wrongness of homosexual sex. To deny this moral fact in the supposed interest of honoring someone's subjective view of "love" is an act of violence against God and His will.

This may be an intolerant statement, but is it any more intolerant than those would label all traditional Christians as intolerant for disagreeing with them on the issue of homosexuality? Let's avoid using such crude, blunt terms and discuss the issue in its full moral, historical, and human context.

Trey Hoffman

Peachtree City, Ga.