"im Christian, Unless You Are Gay."

[Anomaly]

My wife and I looked at sexual orientation as an intregal part of who people are, but not the primary defining quality of the person. Regardless of who (or even if) you have sex with, you still have to treat my kids respectfully and not be having sex or have inordinate public display's of physical actraction in front of them, especially if you're visiting in my home, or we're visiting in your home.

We have our prefrences of how we hope our kids will be, I can respect others my have different preferences. When it comes to kids, we don't have to debate validity of preferences in front of them. I expect my kids to be kind, friendly, respectful, well mannered, and behave politely with family and company. I expect the same from family, friends, and company.

I think his issue was that his brother lost all contact with all his friends and all his family. Friends and family don't have to go to clubs with him. If they have huge issues with who he's 'seeing', that should be able to be accomodated in a lot of instances. How's your job, how's school, how's life, my job's great, had a great meal, saw so and so the other day, we're worried about Aunt May's arthritis...

I'm not going to debate how much sexual orientation is genetic or caused or chosen. How we behave with each other is always a choice under our control. I'd have problems with my cousin if she always was moving in or having a new romance every other week or couldn't come over with her husband without making out in the living room on a regular basis, even if I didn't have kids.

[cappie]

At the outset as a priest I must say I support the teaching of the church but in my pastoral activity I would be lying if I said I do not have doubts occasionally of the wisdom of some applications of the teaching, but this Sunday I am in good company with St Thomas because we can make positive use of our doubts. In no way should we simply ignore our doubts or sweep them under the carpet. We should examine them and let that examination help lead us to a deeper and stronger and more lasting faith.

Times of doubt do come and will come for all of us-as they came for Thomas. The Good News is that doubting can become positive and helpful. As growth can come through pain, so faith can come through doubt. Like Thomas, we are called to move through times of doubt to moments of decision. And if we have been honest in our doubts, our decisions of faith that come after will be more honest and firmer and more certain-the more committed we will be as we move along our journeys of faith. Faith is never based on a totally blind decision, but it is something reached by a process that moves beyond emotional connection. It is reached by reason and a search that often includes doubt.

My prayer is that each of us Christians may have the courage to face our doubts so that we may, at last, come to the decision of our faith-like the decision reached by Thomas. And that we may each reach anew the decision that Jesus is indeed the Risen Lord, and that this truth may be actively affirmed in our lives, renewing and transforming us into the Easter people God intends us to be.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='cappie' timestamp='1334462551' post='2418022']
At the outset as a priest I must say I support the teaching of the church but in my pastoral activity I would be lying if I said I do not have doubts occasionally of the wisdom of some applications of the teaching, but this Sunday I am in good company with St Thomas because we can make positive use of our doubts. In no way should we simply ignore our doubts or sweep them under the carpet. We should examine them and let that examination help lead us to a deeper and stronger and more lasting faith.

Times of doubt do come and will come for all of us-as they came for Thomas. The Good News is that doubting can become positive and helpful. As growth can come through pain, so faith can come through doubt. Like Thomas, we are called to move through times of doubt to moments of decision. And if we have been honest in our doubts, our decisions of faith that come after will be more honest and firmer and more certain-the more committed we will be as we move along our journeys of faith. Faith is never based on a totally blind decision, but it is something reached by a process that moves beyond emotional connection. It is reached by reason and a search that often includes doubt.

My prayer is that each of us Christians may have the courage to face our doubts so that we may, at last, come to the decision of our faith-like the decision reached by Thomas. And that we may each reach anew the decision that Jesus is indeed the Risen Lord, and that this truth may be actively affirmed in our lives, renewing and transforming us into the Easter people God intends us to be.
[/quote]

amesome post, Father!

[iheartjp2]

[quote name='cappie' timestamp='1334462551' post='2418022']
At the outset as a priest I must say I support the teaching of the church but in my pastoral activity I would be lying if I said I do not have doubts occasionally of the wisdom of some applications of the teaching, but this Sunday I am in good company with St Thomas because we can make positive use of our doubts. In no way should we simply ignore our doubts or sweep them under the carpet. We should examine them and let that examination help lead us to a deeper and stronger and more lasting faith.

Times of doubt do come and will come for all of us-as they came for Thomas. The Good News is that doubting can become positive and helpful. As growth can come through pain, so faith can come through doubt. Like Thomas, we are called to move through times of doubt to moments of decision. And if we have been honest in our doubts, our decisions of faith that come after will be more honest and firmer and more certain-the more committed we will be as we move along our journeys of faith. Faith is never based on a totally blind decision, but it is something reached by a process that moves beyond emotional connection. It is reached by reason and a search that often includes doubt.

My prayer is that each of us Christians may have the courage to face our doubts so that we may, at last, come to the decision of our faith-like the decision reached by Thomas. And that we may each reach anew the decision that Jesus is indeed the Risen Lord, and that this truth may be actively affirmed in our lives, renewing and transforming us into the Easter people God intends us to be.
[/quote]

This.

[cappie]

Just a followup to the original article mentioned in the first post: In late November, SDL went crazy viral. I’ve never received so much correspondence as I did in that aftermath, and in all honesty I had hoped to never receive that much again. So much of it was so heavy. So much of it I couldn’t ignore. And as much as I tried not to let it, so much of it really weighed me down.
So many wonderful emails came in. So many other emails came in, too.

Heavy emails. Thousands of heart-hurting stories were shared.

But what most people don’t realize is that other even heavier emails sometimes come in, too.

A handful of people threatened to kill themselves if I didn’t respond and befriend them. Adults posing as teenagers (I can only assume based on the wording of the emails) kept sending me sexually suggestive emails, trying to lure me into God knows what. Threats were made by religious fanatics. Digital threats were made by people on both sides. Rumors spread around the internet about my sexuality. Rumors spread around the internet about my intent, my honesty, and my genuineness. Trolls abounded.
And God… so much anger and hatred kept spilling into the comments.

The comments of a post about loving others.

Sigh.

Rest of post:[url="http://www.danoah.com/2012/04/i-need-to-disappear-for-a-little-while.html"]http://www.danoah.com/2012/04/i-need-to-disappear-for-a-little-while.html[/url]

[Archaeology cat]

Oh my!

[Basilisa Marie]

Wow. Just, wow. People are so hateful.

The articles remind me a bit of a conversation I had around Christmastime. My group of friends back home are a mix of lots of Christian flavors. One evening the other Catholic in our group told us that she was excited to finally be moving in with her boyfriend, though she was sure most of us thought it was a terribly immoral decision. My non-denominational friend then told her, "Well, objectively, yeah, of course. But subjectively, we're happy for you." I thought that was an interesting way to put it. Not perfect, but thought-provoking.