{"id":701,"date":"2010-09-30T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/catholic-homophobia-is-immoral.html"},"modified":"2010-09-30T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T23:12:00","slug":"catholic-homophobia-is-immoral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/catholic-homophobia-is-immoral.html","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Homophobia Is Immoral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
I don\u2019t know why I keep reading the religion page of HuffPo.\u00a0 Maybe because I\u2019m a masochist.\u00a0 Maybe because it gives me such good fodder to write about.\n
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Phyllis Zagano is a researcher at Hofstra who wrote a HuffPo article<\/span><\/a> about a book called The Sexual Person<\/i> by two Catholics, Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler.\u00a0 Apparently the book is pro-gay and all the bishops in their dresses have already denounced it.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I usually don\u2019t get too agitated about intra-Catholic doctrinal dust-ups.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy there are some Catholic thinkers who are not homophobes, but I don\u2019t expect some kind of revolution.\u00a0 What got me going was Zagano\u2019s idiocy:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Gay marriage proponents want to redefine a word, marriage, and grab ahold of the hundreds of legal protections and financial incentives that are granted with a marriage license.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Why yes, Phyllis, gay people do want the protections of marriage. \u00a0 As for redefining the word, you could probably open up the bible that I\u2019m sure you carry around with you at all times and quite easily discover all the varying definitions for marriage in that book alone. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Here\u2019s some more of her cogent analysis:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Some thinkers, including several members of the Supreme Court, seem to reason that homosexuality is an inborn status.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Catholicism\u2013and, indeed most religions\u2013teach that while homosexuality exists, homosexual activity is a \u201cdisordered\u201d choice against the laws of nature.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
If homosexuality is indeed a status rooted in biology or genetics, then homosexuals, like left-handed people, act according to their nature. But if homosexuality is a choice rooted in behavior, then homosexuals act against nature.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Indeed most religions are homophobic.\u00a0 They worship a god that has an overwhelming obsession with what consenting adults do while naked.\u00a0 It\u2019s these obsessions that constantly remind me that their god is fiction.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Most reasonable people are beginning to accept that homosexuality is not a choice or a \u201cdisorder.\u201d\u00a0 It is natural because it occurs in nature.\u00a0 We may never know its exact origins and it doesn\u2019t matter. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
The fact is that it would not make a difference to Zagano and her Church.\u00a0 They don\u2019t care about actual morality.\u00a0 They have no need to consider the suffering they cause as a result of their teachings.\u00a0 If something contradicts their god\u2019s will, then it\u2019s immoral and should be imposed upon the rest of us.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Morality, unhinged from religious mythological literature, is about treating others with dignity.\u00a0 When I speak out about the dangers inherent in religion, it is precisely because they are behaving cruelly and, thus, immorally.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
I leave you with last year\u2019s Intelligence Squared Debate<\/i>\u00a0from the BBC on the question: \u00a0\u201cIs the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?\u201d featuring\u00a0Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdencombe on one side and Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry on the other. \u00a0The audience got to vote. \u00a0If you watch all five parts, there\u2019s a surprise ending:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know why I keep reading the religion page of HuffPo.\u00a0 Maybe because I\u2019m a masochist.\u00a0 Maybe because it gives me such good fodder to write about. Phyllis Zagano is a researcher at Hofstra who wrote a HuffPo article about a book called The Sexual Person by two Catholics, Todd A. Salzman and Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,16,27],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-catholicism","tag-homophobia","tag-morality"],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic Homophobia Is Immoral<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know why I keep reading the religion page of HuffPo.\u00a0 Maybe because I\u2019m a masochist.\u00a0 Maybe because it gives me such good fodder to write about.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/catholic-homophobia-is-immoral.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholic Homophobia Is Immoral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know why I keep reading the religion page of HuffPo.\u00a0 Maybe because I\u2019m a masochist.\u00a0 Maybe because it gives me such good fodder to write about.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/09\/catholic-homophobia-is-immoral.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-30T23:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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