I. Intro—start with stories, first of convert I worked with as campus minister. Then, tell about my talk to those who suffer from SSA.
Here are the main points I would like to cover with you today:
1. What the Church has to say about homosexuality (vs. homosexual acts) vs. what society has to say about it.
2. The possible causes of it. (This is by a well-known Christian psych).
3. What constitutes it AND WHAT DOESN’T (note: with young people, I try ALWAYS to include this because some—since they are in the midst of psycho-sexual identification, they are scared they may be if they are affectionate or like the same sex properly).
4. Why it is wrong/disordered.
Sequey into distinctions made by Church.
II. Distinctions--
A. Homosexuality—not the essence of the person
- Those who are in Courage do not even call themselves homosexuals—it does not define them. Instead, they themselves say that they suffer from Same Sex Attraction…or the sufferer from homosexuality. They treat it like one might treat alcoholism, the only difference being that some people have been cured from SSA to become whole enough to enter marriage (recovering alcoholic is different).
- It is not a sin in and of itself but a disorder. Something wrong in being attracted to the same sex in such a way.
B. Homosexual acts—grave matter
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When it is acted upon, it is grave matter, just like grave matter for the heterosexual. Maybe distinguish between wrong and sin (culpability may be lessened according to the psyche, etc).
C .Homosexuality vs. the Homosexual agenda or “gay rights”
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The Church knows one ought always treat others with love. Making fun of people who struggle with this burden…why would you make fun of them. Would you make fun of an alcoholic trying her best to recover from the horrible addiction? Would you make fun of the anorexic who is struggling to approach food in a healthy way….Why, then, would you make fun of a person who is struggling with his/her approach to sexuality?
III. Causes—See my notes
IV. Why homosexual “marriage” in society is wrong (and why not allowing such unions is not discrimination).
A. Argument from History: Although societies have had some homosexual actions within it, never has any government/society tried to legalize it. CS Lewis calls it “chronological snobbery” that we know better than the ancients and medievalists.
B. Argument from Society’s Good: “The homosexual movement ultimately seeks not the protection of homosexuals from cruelty but the annihilation of natural boundaries.” (Maybe tell about the changing of birth certificates…until they realized predators wanting to violate women). When do such “rights” stop: Do we allow the North American Man-Boy Love Association which teaches men how to be pedophiles to exist?
C. Argument from Natural Law (ends/telos) Purpose is procreation, the propagation of the species. Sodomy is sterile. “A legislature can no more turn sodomitical unions into marriages than it can turn dogs into cats; it can only unravel the institution of marriage by sowing confusion about its purposes.” Analogy of a blind person—can’t receive a drivers’ license.
D. Argument from Scripture: “Sodomites, fornicators, etc. shall not enter heaven”: It is easier with our unrepented sins, for it is hard to tell the homosexual to live chastely.”
E. Argument from Beauty: Think about Phantom of the Opera or Hamlet…what would they be like if a man and man or woman and woman sang to each other. We naturally have a bad gut reaction. The male and female voice, emotions, physical qualities, etc. and their differences are beautiful.
F. Argument from Consequences: AIDES, unfaithful relationships, psychologically damaged children, contraceptive attitude toward children
G. Argument from Going toward another, different, not homo (same)
H. Argument from Imagination—or the language the body speaks “A smile means something friendly; a kiss means something—the reason it was so heinous for Judas to betray Jesus with a kiss is that a kiss means friendship/care/love, the opposite of betrayal. Conjugal sex means self-giving, making one flesh out of two. By contrast, when a man puts part of himself which represents new life into the cavity of another man which represents decay and expulsion, at the most basic levels he is saying, ‘Life, be swallowed in death.’” ( A homosexual performance artist once consumed human ashes on the stage; the meaning was obvious: “Death, I take you into me.”—This happened in Austin, TX)
I. Argument from the Theology of the Body
1. Just look at the body!! Rough, tough, buff (protect and provide); Hiding and inviting (welcome and nurture) “In the case of all other biological functions, only one body is required to do the job. A person can digest food by himself, using no other gullet than his own; he can walk by himself, see by himself, using no other legs/eyes but his own. The single exception is procreation. What this demonstrates is that among human beings the male and female sexual powers are radically incomplete, and designed for each other. If we were speaking of respiration, it would be as though the man had the diaphragm, the woman the lungs, and they had to come together to take a single breath. The union of opposites is the only possible realization of their procreative potential; unless they come together as a single organism, as one flesh, procreation does not occur.”
2. One flesh union
3. The total gift of self
4. Ephesians 5 parallel between Christ and the Church (giver/receiver)
5. Marriage is the best natural sign of the Triuned God—the foundational Truth of all! F, S, HS: equal yet complementary. They can form the first family!!
