The Chick Fil A Flap

[TrueFaith77]

I agree that those people holding those signs are wrong and hate-filled and confused and stupid and maybe even crazy, but their search for meaning is a human impulse I cannot ridicule.

However, I think they are not only the minority in this country, but also the minority among those who oppose same-sex marriage.

The majority is likely Protestant/Evangelical. The Protestant and Enlightenment God is not the God of the Bible and the one true Catholic Church. It is an intellectual disaster that so many people conflate them--especially the so-called New Atheists who think they are arguing against true faith, when they are entering into a null discourse.

Anyway, so one must understand that all these arguments about Leviticus and the Law do not pertain to true Christianity. The Law--such as restrictions against, say, eating shellfish--served two (or three purposes): 1. To define the culture of a diasporic community 2. To serve as a sacrifice to God in the covenant (3. Shellfish might have been unhealthy/dangerous at the time and it was just good advice--I'm not an expert on this point; I do not know). However, through Jesus Christ and the sacraments (e.g., communion), there is a new Covenant, a new Community, and Jesus has taken on all the old sacrifices into his Crucifixion. In this way, he simultaneously revolutionizes and fulfills the scriptures. He makes all things new. Most famously, this is represented by the blood covenant of circumcision. St. Paul (Roman) and St. Peter (Jewish) debated whether or not circumcision was required for entry into the Christianity. Paul won this debate with the first Pope; circumcision was not required because Jesus on the cross offered the blood of the new Covenant. Consequently, all of the old law was open to reinvestigation in the light of Jesus: to be determined within the hierarchical structure of the one true Catholic and Apostolic Church that Jesus himself founded. Therefore, there is no inherent hypocrisy in opposing gay marriage on Christian grounds while also happily eating shrimp.

So then why is homosexual sex a sin and gay marriage forbidden? To understand this, one must understand Biblical and Catholic conception of sexuality. Human sexuality, as we humans banished from the Garden experience it, is characterized by shame and concupiscence as a consequence of man's fallen nature. Marriage is a sacrament to contain and provide proper outlet (as expression of love) for fallen man’s sexuality. Unlike Puritanical strains of Christianity, sex is not inherently evil and it is not merely functional (for procreation) in Catholicism. However, gay sex and contraceptive sex (and sex out of wedlock) are sins because they lock out the possibility of procreation (or procreation outside of a relationship with God): which means they are done without hope, without faith in the future, without Love. In Catholicism, being gay is not a sin but gay sex is. However, sinners ought not be hated or demonized, but they should be encouraged away from sin, toward reconciliation, and, if not already baptized, evangelized. Consequently, many Catholics vote against same-sex civil marriage because you cannot actively encourage sin. Catholicism teaches compassion for the struggles of fallen man. It also, ideally, provides an outlet for fallen man. The Church assimilates gay people into the flock. History proves this: Just look at the gay men in the clergy, the lesbians among the sisters, the gay artists whose particularly affinities (and sensitivity and Difference) convey the spirit of the Church—and most radically offer in their aching beauty a tantalizing glimpse of Paradise, the chord of Desire that resonates in us all.