It is an unpleasant task for me to have to write about homosexuality. What homosexuals do to each other and the way they use each other for the sake of lust and self-gratification are things that, according to St. Paul, should not even be mentioned among Christians. Certainly, when I was growing up such things were not mentioned anywhere, anytime in newspapers or on the radio. Talk about “homosexuality” and “lesbianism” was restricted to under-the-counter pornography sold in sleazy drug stores.

    Now our culture has declined to such an extent that these matters, often in great detail, are talked about constantly on the radio, on TV and in the press. One consequence of this is a massive desensitizing of our people. Things have gotten so bad that small children in primary school are taught about sexual matters and all forms of perversion, including bestiality. Much of this is done in the name of “AIDS prevention.”

    What we are witnessing is social engineering on a huge scale. Social change is being promoted by secularistic and atheistic groups in this country who want to drive Christianity and belief in God from all public life. The goal is the same as the persecution of believers by Lenin and Stalin in Russia, only the tactics are different. Those who oppose the pan-sexualization of American society are not put in concentration camps; rather, they are ridiculed, marginalized and called “right wing fanatics.”

    It seems to me that the secularizers in our midst, and they are very powerful—like Ted Turner, showed their true colors in their reaction to the “Promise Keepers” rally in Washington last fall. They went so far as to call the Promise Keepers a danger to America. For what? Because they were sorry for their sins and pledged themselves to be responsible in their duties towards their wives and children. Is that dangerous? It can only be dangerous to a controlling elite who see their power threatened by a renewal of religious conviction in America.

    The homosexual lifestyle and ideology, which is fundamentally anti-life and a cult of death, has invaded the Catholic Church. It is no secret that homosexual and pedophile priests since the Council have wrought much damage to the Mystical Body of Christ. That is evident from the many lawsuits from coast to coast that are costing dioceses, seminaries and religious orders millions of dollars. Dallas comes to mind—and we have not seen the end of it.

    The National Conference of Catholic Bishops is not immune. Last October the bishops’ Committee on Marriage and the Family released a document called, “Always Our Children”; it is described as a “Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers” (Origins, October 9, 1997). The document is a disgrace; it is thinly veiled advocacy for the homosexual lifestyle. It uses, not Catholic terminology for homosexual sins, but the verbal engineering of the homosexual lobby—words like “gay,” “lesbian,” and especially “homosexual orientation.” I counted fourteen occurrences of the latter expression. The implication of the word “orientation” is that it is God-given, just like the color of your eyes and the color of your skin, so one is not responsible for this “orientation.”

    Beyond all the errors, half-truths and misrepresentations in the document, what is most disturbing to me is the misuse of the Christian “love of God and neighbor” to get Catholic parents to accept homosexuality in their children, even teenagers! We are told that, “Generally, homosexual orientation is experienced as a given, not as something freely chosen,” and, “God does not love someone any less simply because he or she is homosexual.”

    If you would like a more detailed critique of the document write to: Women for Faith & Family, P.O. Box 8326, St. Louis, Missouri 63132.

Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor

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