Do Christians Hate Homosexuals?
Today, we live in a secular society, which is the main reason that homosexuality is becoming so prevalent. There has been a misconception that being devote Christian labels you as someone who is homophobic and/or discriminatory against gays and lesbians by wishing to protect the traditional marriage. This myth was brought to my attention by someone I know in an online conversation.
He asked me, (let’s call him John): “What are you feelings were on homosexuality? I think that Christians are the root cause for the hate and discrimination towards them. They taught against the practice of homosexuality which has caused today’s controversy.”
Whoa, what? Let me first explain what exactly it is that Catholics and most Christians believe what we believe on the matter, followed by the human rights aspect. Hear me out. From the Catholic catechism, which was the root for most Christian teachings:
“When God designed human beings in his brilliance, he created us man and women in need of each other’s different traits to enter into a relationship so as to give life to children in order to fulfill His plan. This is why the Church and cannot approve homosexual practices” [2358-2359]; the family is sacred in most Christianity religions, with objective goals of raising a family, something a homosexual couple cannot do without external sources. Every human being in existence has descended from the union of a man and a woman. A child will likely not be raised properly without a mother and a father; the child would feel something is missing.
John: “So does that mean if you’re homosexual you can’t be Catholic [and/or Christian]?”
The Church does acknowledge that it is natural for one to have homosexual feelings. There are many in the Catholic Church who have these feelings towards others, but abstain. God calls these people to abstinence. We do not discriminate against these people, in fact we welcome them with loving arms. However, when one acts upon those feelings, that is the sinful act. Love the sinner, hate the sin - that is a concept many Christians and people fail to comprehend.
John: “So you don’t actually hate homosexuals? Why are some people who claim to be Christian showing such hate, violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation?”
A true Christian and/or Catholic will never show any violence towards them, regardless of their sexual orientation. Disputing violently against homosexual couples in any manner is unacceptable as we have seen in the news.
John: “I don’t really believe in God or his teachings. So essentially you’re saying you guys believe it’s wrong and sinful to engage in homosexual relationships but it’s okay to be homosexual but not do act upon it?”
Yep.
John: “Alright, but your beliefs seem to me to be founded upon rubbish. I’m sorry, but if we can explain reproductive by means of observation and evidence, it would be arrogant and ignorant to chose to ignore reality - nature. Also, to me, the concept of sin seems more wrong than most sins imposed. Anyway, if you don’t like homosexuals because someone high up in a Church told you so without any evidence, then you sir, are a crazy person.”
I know what you’re thinking: theology isn’t great in an argument because if the other people don’t believe, the argument won’t be regarded as a rational one. I simply wanted to inform you how Christians, who believe that God created us all, think, so you may all hopefully understand that the hate and dispute against homosexuals isn’t originating from Christians, because a true Christian would never show hate. We don’t hate them. Also, I *never* said I disliked homosexual people. In fact, I would treat them exactly like any other human being. Don’t get me wrong - I just believe it is a sinful act. WAIT. Hear my justification.
First, understand what sin is. Sin is a concept of recognizing actions or thoughts that will lead one’s soul away from God, regardless of it being what humans would consider it being right or wrong. I, a Christian, believe that being a homosexual isn’t wrong at all. I acknowledge it being a natural phenomenon that happens to some of us. We can’t ignore that, because it’s the way that nature (something all Christians believe was created by God) is. Yes, God created homosexuals, and He calls them to abstinence. God told the prophets (as shown in the Bible) that engaging in same-sex sexual practices is against His plan of creation (which, in a nutshell, is: He created us to procreate & share in his goodness/glory in heaven & such ‘cuz he’s awesome) is counter to His plan, therefore it is a sin if one ignores His plan. When one acts upon these homosexual feelings and commit a sin against God and thus not following His plan, the sin occurs. Christians would then feel concerned for their souls; *no* show hatred would be shown towards them. We wouldn’t condemn them, I’d pray for them.
John: “You’re still blabbing out rubbish that has no means of evidence to support your statements.”
Listen, I’m not trying to argue against you because you’re right, I cannot support the Church’s statements - it’s a matter of faith that the information passed downed through the ages directly from God and the Prophets. We simply only acknowledge homosexual actions are being wrong towards *God* and endangers their soul. Other than that, it’s completely fine to be homosexual, however it’s thin ice they’re treading on because it can lead into more sin.
Please understand this concept that Christians believe in. Also understand that some ‘Christians’ have indeed distorted these words as a justification to discriminate against and be violent towards homosexual people, which I believe is absolutely unacceptable and makes me sick. All I’m trying to do is provide the information why we believe what we believe, so that you get an idea of *our* justification, regardless of how wacko you think it is. All I want is so that one wouldn’t automatically assume Christians hate homosexuals. That is a myth.
John: “Still, can’t you see how the bible is just a bunch of rubbish? I mean seriously, did God really flood the earth and destroy everyone but Noah’s family and put an animal of each species on that boat? Where’s the evidence that there even was a massive flood? And didn’t they say the earth was flat, but it was later proved that it wasn’t? How can you explain that? I’m pretty sure those old guys who wrote the Bible had no idea and didn’t anticipate anyone to study physics in the future so just made that claim. Surely you just believe this because your parents passed this down from to you to make you behave by following the Bible’s teachings.”
This ‘rubbish’ that the 2.1 billion Christians believe, it was not something simply passed down from my parents to me to make me behave correctly, but something that has been taught for thousands of years by the Church through its prophets and God to fulfill His plan. When Moses (not God) wrote of the events in the book of Genesis of what Noah had experienced, remember God only told Noah this, essentially: There’s a flood coming so take your family and make room for a bunch of animals. God did *not* tell Noah or Moses the world was flat or round or that the *whole* world that was flooded or not. Noah could only see for around him for about a 2.9 miles radius. So when Noah told his recollection of events and passed it through generations to Moses, he observed that everything around him was water and the world seemed flat, so he made assumptions; yes, he wasn’t a physicist.
Remember, God does have a sense of humour; he doesn’t just randomly tell us facts about our universe, he gave us our intelligent minds to figure things out ourselves, for he knew he would. That’s why there was such a disgruntlement over the world being flat or not with the Church back in the day, because it’s the way we’ve always perceived it and such.
Scientific evidence of the Ark? They found remnants of the Ark on the same mountain that the Bible said it landed on after the flood. Decomposed wood beam remnants thousands of years old and such.
Also, I believe I know the truth because God is the truth (John 14:6). If you can prove that God doesn’t exist and you know the truth of everything, I’ll gladly join your side of the fence. Just don’t attack my religion by claiming it’s simply far-fetched. Where’s your proof that it’s garbage?
John: “And that’s why this argument will never end. Okay, so back to homosexuals - you said that homosexuals can’t raise children properly? Zach Wahls turned out alright.”
Yes, I saw that clip a while ago - it wasn’t that surprising, for it is a similar concept to a single mom or father raising a child but with a nannie or grandparent helping, like in China’s cultures in some regards. So yes, here the boy grew up in a positive environment and was quite successful, which is awesome.
So yes, it is possible for two dads or two moms to raise a child to be someone successful and positive like Zach. I said it would be ‘more unlikely’ that the child would be raised properly. So let’s look at the case of Melinda Selmys. From my understanding, she grew up with two same-sex parents. As she did, she witnessed perverse and damaging things, distorting Melinda’s psychology to the point where she thought she was lesbian and had a relationship with another girl for many years (there were many other factors that were because of having gay parents). In adulthood after she had ‘escaped’ her parents’ influence and discovered that she was in fact not lesbian. Through psychological therapy she recovered her true sexual orientation and married a wonderful man and now have children. She is now a writer and recalls these events and how she worked through them in her book, Sexual Authenticity and has a blog. I’d recommend reading that book if you want her take on the subject.
John: “They must have done some pretty messed up stuff to here. However, I think cases like that would be very rare, and I believe that Zach’s case is quite common.”
Yes, the child can indeed be raised properly and be successful, but also consider the child usually will be somewhat confused of what their true sexual orientation is. There is a myth going around the internet saying that “gay parents will produce gay children”. It was made a myth because, for the most part, many of kids of gay couples think they are gay because they follow after their parent’s example. If, by nature, the kid is straight, (because apparently you’re born either straight or gay) and they may have been influenced to think they are gay, they must undergo psychological therapy in order to fix this, as seen in Melinda’s case. So you can see these complications can be one of the reasons why some would say this it’d be harder for homosexual couples to raise a child properly without confusing their child’s sexual orientation if they are (by nature) heterosexual. This also ties into one of the many reasons why Christian churches teach how important the traditional family is.
John: “Okay, sure it’s possible that having gay parents could affect your sexual orientation, but that doesn’t affect my views on why the couples should be discriminated against to simply get married. What if they don’t want to raise kids, but want to get married? Why the discrimination?”
There really isn’t any technical discrimination. As the law stands in many provinces in Canada, a man can marry a woman and a woman can marry a man, and that’s it. What the homosexuals are asking for are special rights, so no one is denying them of any established rights.
John: “C’mon man that’s bull crap. People should be able to marry who they love, and not allow the law to stand in their way.”
So what if a man loves a horse, and the horse has shown signs of affections back? What will happen if he fights for rights to marry his horse?
John: “That’s just ridiculous. Who would pass a law for that. That’ll never happen.”
That’s essentially what the majority of people said when the first homosexual people were looking to get married decades ago.
John: ”It’s the 21st century. Get with the program, times have been changing.” (Sends me link)
Yes, as people are moving farther and farther away from religion into our secular society, it is. However, can you see why one shouldn’t think Christians are the ones distributing all of the hate and the controversy?
John: “Wait, run the essentials by me again.”
Make sure you get a couple things straight. As a Catholic and Christian, one should believe it’s fine and natural to be homosexual and homosexuals who are Catholic are called to abstinence. We believe it’s simply a sin against God because it contradicts His plan. It would endanger their soul. I’m not homophobic. In fact, I like them equally as much as anyone as people. True Christians and Catholics should never hate or be violent towards homosexuals, all we can do is pray that God finds them. So that is why Christians do not hate homosexuals.
John: “That makes sense, I guess. So Christians just accept them for who they are as long as they don’t break God’s law by acting upon their homosexual feelings. I guess I can see why my original assumption that Christians hate homosexuals isn’t true.. but it’s still stupid how your Church base its teachings with no real evidence.”
Well, that’s what we call faith.
