The Vatican the other day (May 20th) reaffirmed it's stance on homosexuality by stating clearly that no homosexual person can attend a Catholic seminary 1. The Catholic Church has been fearless in her convictions regarding practical issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, etc, making unmistakable pronouncements of such divisive issues in a secular and relativistic world 2. It is times such as these that having a fixed and irreformable body of truth guards against the modern winds of doctrine and novel cultural morays.
The Biblical Case Against Homosexuality
From Nature.
By design, physical matter that God made He made "good"3. This is not an ontological goodness but considered good in the sense that they are all designed by God to perform specific functions in His universe 4. One of man's functions is given early in the creation account in Genesis, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it..."5. Thus, our mission is natural procreation between a man and woman (which is the only union that can procreate) 6. Homosexuality in effect cuts off our blueprint as humans and as such attracts the wrath of God.
From the Perversity of the Heart.
In many places in Scripture it is made clear that the craving for homosexuality springs from the perverse heart and debased mind of man. The story of Abraham and his dealings with the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah is well known 7.
"But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house, and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know (sexual intercourse) them." Lot went out if the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, "I beg you my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof."8
Having two daughters of my own this nightmare of a situation is almost too frightening for me to imagine. But the text is clear, the depravity of the Sodomites is wide spread in that every single man (of various ages) came to rape the guests of Lot. Yawheh considered this intention, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave", a heinous sin requiring retribution 9.
Homosexuality is an abomination according to the natural grammar of the text in Leviticus,
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination"10.
This understanding of homosexuality is continued on in the New Testament especially in the locus classicus, (Romans 1) where St. Paul gives us the psychological ailment behind homosexuality. Since the beginning, God has made Himself known in the created order but man represses this clear evidence and instead began to worship the created things rather than the Creator and thus fell into mass idolatry. Blinded in idolatry and unwilling to turn to the Triune God of history, God gave them up to their own devices, and they plunged deeper into darkness and sin, which translated into sexual deviance; woman exhanged the natural relation for the unnatural and men likewise now are consumed with passion for other men 11.
We have seen in this brief analysis of homosexuality in Sacred Scripture that it is contrary to the will of God since it goes against the natural course of procreation, it springs from the perversity of man's dark heart and as St. Paul holds, is due to the depraved and idolatrous mind of man that rejects God his creator 12.
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1. And by inference rejects homosexuals in any of her official positions, orders and/or events.
2. In comparison to say our Anglican brothers who are bemoaning the destructive liberalism, feminism, and homosexuality that has snuck into their orders.
3. The very elements are conisdered good (Gen 1:10), the various vegetations of the world (Gen 1:12), space and the objects contained therein are good (Gen 1:18), sea creatures are good (Gen 1:20), land animals of all types are good (Gen 1:25) then mankind set in this context of God's graciousness in creation is seen as "very good" (Gen 1:31). All this is of course in vivid contrast to Gnosticism and such heresies that consider matter inherently evil.
4. Simply consider the unimaginable phenomena that is required for our planet to contain life, such as the precise distance of the moon to regulate the waves of the ocean, the distance to the sun for life giving warmth, etc.
5. (Gen 1:28).
6. The power of this argument from nature is seen in the animal kingdom who has no theological or philosophical arguments for homosexual equality. Animals even by bare instinct procreate and understand the bonds of relationships in a male and female understanding. There are no homosexual animals.
7. (Gen 18 & 19).
8. (Ibid. 19:4-8). See further the almost identical disgusting story in (Judg 19:22).
9. (Ibid. 18:20).
10. (Lev 18:22). A few chapters later we are told that homosexuality is punishable by death (Ibid 20:13).
11. St. Paul carries his refutation of homosexual deviance in (1 Cor 6:9) where he makes plain that the homosexual cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, (cf. 1 Tim 1:10).
12. The modern arguments that would have the uneducated masses believing that homosexuality is "ok" from a Biblical stand point are simply wrong and cannot be supported by the historical and exegetical method of reading Scripture. These pundints usually distort the passages in question beyond any recognition or cast doubts on the normal lexical meanings of the words in the original languages. But such tactics is not needed. The meanings are clear given their natural sense in the flow of the pericope and in the immediate context.
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