A reader writes…

I have a 16-year-old daughter who is anxious to learn more about apologetics and Church teaching on homosexuality before she leaves for college, where she’ll presumably run into people don’t share her faith and don’t accept its teachings. Also, she hasn’t asked for this, but I see signs that she’s got social doctrine mixed up with Tea Party social doctrine (“;Productive’ people who earn money have an all-but-absolute right to do what they want with it.”), so I’d love something to address that, too. She’s bright and reasonably well formed but short on time.

You are asking me about two of the issues where I am weakest in general knowledge. My habit is not to give moral advice to people about temptations to which I am not subject, so I have little to say about homosexuality beyond “Police state bureaucrats should stop using the might of the state to try to force people to approve of homosex, which is immoral.” I do think homosexuals have a heavy cross to bear and that those who seek to live according to Christ should be given every support in doing so and that Christians should not tie up heavy burdens and not lift a finger to help them. Beyond Gay is a good source for dealing with such matters faithfully and I would refer you to David Morrison, who has borne the cross faithfully.

As to the Church’s social teaching, I would recommend a) the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

I would also recommend an immersion in Chesterton, one of the sanest people who ever lived. A fine introduction to him is Dale Ahlquist’s The Apostle of Common Sense. The Tea Partiers aren’t all wrong, just as the OWSers aren’t all wrong. They have a pretty good bead on what’s wrong. What they don’t have is a clear idea of what’s right. The Church does. But because we tend to get our formation from TV and radio and not from the Church we tend to embrace our favorite tribe and defend it rather than listen to the Church. If your daughter wants to be really radical (which means “rooted”), the Church’s teaching is the place to look.