4:00 – Two Hours of Delving Into
1)
Pope Francis Changes Church Teaching on Gay Priests?
2)
Fort Hood Shooter Declares Islam and America are at
War
3)
FOX News Anchor Lauren Green Blows it When
Interviewing Muslim Author
4)
Jackie Robinson and Trayvon Martin
The Pope says, "who am I to judge?" That question should be our question as well. Let's cease speaking dismissively about gays. Let's speak with greater respect. Al, you are guilty of a dismissive jocularity often (you're not hateful, I know that, but please at least think of making a better effort to enter into understanding of the lives of gays). Long time consistent listener here.
ReplyDeleteOne of Al's ways of speaking "dismissively" is to always describe gays as "struggling with" same-sex attraction. Lots of gays don't struggle with their sexuality. God made them gay! It's not a struggle for many gay Catholics. I know several and they don't struggle with their sexual attractions.
DeleteOn gays, it is The Pope's SILENCE -- what he didn't say -- that is the story here. It's possible that you're playing down something significant here.
ReplyDeleteHow can we say that there is complete continuity between the teaching of Benedict and the teaching of Francis on homosexuality. The content may be the same but the tone is dramatically different. That makes the teaching different because it makes the reception of the words very different. Come on, Al. Let's not ignore the obvious here. Francis is a lot different pope than we've had recently.
ReplyDeleteAl, as you said, this is nothing new from Pope Francis. Here is a blog post containing several quotes from Pope Benedict asserting the exact same thing about the dignity of a person with gay tendencies. The media apparently ignored Pope Benedict on this matter or was simply negligent.
ReplyDeletehttp://thecatholicvoyager.blogspot.com/2013/07/media-appears-unaware-that-pope-francis.html
There is also a good link from Fr. Jonathan Miller at the end of that blog post, also explaining how this is nothing new.
The substance may not be new, but the tone is. To keep repeating that it's nothing new is to fail to recognize what is new. I'm reminded of Cardinal Dolan's remarks that the Church needs to speak a different language or rhetoric when speaking to gay people.
DeleteThe Pope's statement that gays must be integrated into society has potential to move the Church away from its use of the awkward word "disordered" and may even point to something more substantial on the marriage question, in the far future.
Also note that the Pope spoke about divorce and remarriage as an issue he has others working on.