Maybe so.
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, 60, a Brooklyn rabbi with a weekly radio show who is the official spokesman for the 850-member Rabbinical Alliance of America, told LifeSiteNews, “the fate of the Church might very well hang in the balance” at the upcoming Synod.
Levin was referring to the planned discussion at the Synod in Rome on the Church’s pastoral response to homosexual unions.
According to Levin, who said he was not speaking for the Rabbinical Alliance, “The Catholic Church is a real bulwark at the United Nations and internationally, the premier defender of family and pro-life values.” Orthodox Jews share those values and rely on the Catholic Church as an ally. Moreover, “As things go in the Christian community, they soon go in the Jewish community,” he said.
“Why discuss homosexual unions at all?” Levin asks. “What’s to discuss?” The rabbi said Scripture is clear on the immorality of homosexuality and “true compassion” demands that we call our neighbour out of their sin. - Source
What's to discuss? What's to talk?
I agree.
Everybody talks and doesn't tell the truth. It's a sin. You can't be married to the same sex. You can't have homo-sex. What's to discuss?
Levin worried that some Catholic leaders are falling prey to a “militant methodology” organized by radical homosexuals that has already forced public schools, governments, and professional bodies such as the American Psychological Association to accept homosexuality as normal. - ibid
That's what we keep telling people and they don't listen... 'militant methodology' - it's like an agenda, a political-sociological movement. Like The Homosexual Network - loosely organized, not so monolithic but highly promoted and propagandized - for acceptance and inclusion. It's happened already. The Church is the last opposition, the final confrontation. The final confrontation. But it's crumbling.
Levin is even appealing to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “served as Pope John Paul II’s spiritual and moral backbone. I would plead with him to step forward and preach the unadulterated truth.”
The truth, he added, is that homosexuality is wrong, and taking a so-called non-judgmental approach to it can only encourage its growth. - ibid
So-called gay-Catholics want to know how they fit in. You know how you fit in? You keep the commandments. You follow Christ. You deny your very self, and follow Christ. There can be no 'gay in Christ'. (Galatians 3:28) God made them male and female...
Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
The integrity of the person...
The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. - CCCWhat's to discuss? What's to talk?
How to get around it, maybe? Mashuga.
Yom Kippur starts in a an hour or so. Go pray.
oh such a great, great painting. Exuberance -
ReplyDeleteWhat's there to talk about? The fact that same sex marriage is now acceptable in society and anyone who opposes it is a bigot and a hater. Children are being taught from a young age that there is nothing wrong with same sex marriage, that it's equivalent to marriage between a man and a woman. People are being deceived and misled in society, and the Church needs to figure out how to deal with this. It's no longer just a subset of society pushing for this. It's everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWe need to talk about same sex marriage for the same reason we need to talk about Ebola. Because it is a plague threatening to destroy a whole lot of people. In the Jewish community, it's a very cut and dried issue. Homosexuality is wrong and anyone who disagrees is ostracized. I live in Brooklyn right next to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, and I know that orthodox Jews have a very Old Testament mindset - you either live your life according to Jewish beliefs or you're out. There is no discussion. They see no difference between the sin and the sinner.
Catholicism teaches that it is not a sin to be a homosexual, but it is a sin to commit homosexual acts. This makes no sense to the Jewish mind. Orthodox Jews would never be bothered with a ministry like Courage. They see no room for the mercy and compassion of such a ministry.
Catholicism reaches out with mercy and love to homosexuals. That is why we need to talk about it.
You are correct about the Catholic Church outreach and ministry which is exactly why I posted from the catechism on issues related to chastity and the human person.
DeleteYou are partly mistaken about Jewish outreach, not to mention the rabbinical use of hyperbole.
I have no intent to make an issue of this here today. However there are pro lgbtq synagogues and there are groups who help homosexuals live chastely - albeit with the intent to change sexual orientation. One group is in New Jersey, the spokesman for that group may actually contradict your impression:
"Jewish ethics require us to offer assistance to those who struggle with homosexuality and to understand how to help men and women with same-sex attractions. In today's society, it is important to offer solutions to problems; otherwise, one becomes part of the problem."
He points out that the Torah strongly forbids the act of homosexuality precisely because it recognizes the capacity of anyone to commit such an act. Although the Toranic prohibition relates to actions, not thoughts."
"We must repeatedly remind ourselves that, in the Torah, it is not the person, but the act that is abhorred. Moreover, even after the act, we have the obligation to promote teshuva and not censure by the family, leaders, and community." - Rabbi Rosenberg, JONAH
That's a 1999 publication - maybe things have changed - maybe not?
However, you are correct that Orthodox-Torah observant Jews do not deal with the issue - which as you point out, offenders are either in or they are out - however, there are underground groups online offering help in forums and privately.
Very seriously, for me, I consider Rabbi Levin's 'rant' to be hyperbole. For instance - his call that Benedict step in and say something - not going to happen. He no longer has the authority.
It's also a bit of hyperbole on some level to recall the ancient teaching. Yet it has to be acknowledged that our Scriptures do not dispense from the Old Testament any more than the New Testament prohibitions on homosexuality do (Paul's letters) - as Christ said in John 10 - "scripture cannot be nullified." This is asserted in the CDF's documents on homosexuality and marriage as well.
Rabbi Levin's voice is an important contribution to this pre-Synodal discussion.
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Amen CIB. It's easy for heterosexuals to tell a gay person to deny their very self, but they have the luxury of not having an intrinsic part of their selves dis-ordered to its proper end. I don't think temptations to lust and porn for a hetero is the same thing. I pray for God to save me from myself ... I just don't have the strength to carry this cross anymore.
ReplyDelete"I don't think temptations to lust and porn for a hetero is the same thing..."
DeleteWhat about for the authentically pedophilic? Those who did not choose the attraction, and do not have parades and society in their corner. If you're going to create a hierarchy of disordered sexuality burdens, homosexuality is not at the top of the list. In fact, I'm not even sure its second.
Not to worry - the Synod Fathers will definitely be discussing these issues - hopefully much more fruitfully than our arguments online, as well.
ReplyDeleteI like this quote from Chesterton:
ReplyDelete"We shall never return to social sanity until we begin at the beginning. We must start where all history starts, with a man and a woman, and a child, and with the province of liberty and property which these need for their full humanity. As it is (now) we begin where history ends. We judge everything by the particular muddle of the moment." -GKC
Praying for you doughboy!
ReplyDeleteI'm praying for him too. I have to stop posting on this topic.
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