A third way between gays and bigots

Michael Cook
19 August 2014
Reproduced with Permission
MercatorNet


In the last year, there has been a certain amount of push-back by Christians on the issue of homosexuality. The question is unavoidable as long as same-sex marriage is in the air. If homosexuality is a healthy, normal, morally upright lifestyle, then it is very difficult to win the argument over whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry.

Since Christian moral standards have traditionally been the biggest obstacle to widespread acceptance of homosexual behaviour, they have come in for quite a hammering. Cruel, bigoted, uncaring, unrealistic - these are just a few of the allegations.

However, Christians do have sound arguments, even if they have been expressed poorly in the past. On this issue, the Catholic Church presents the most cogent case . Its view is that homosexual acts are definitely immoral, but not people with same-sex attraction. They are called to the same heaven as everyone else, even if their path might be more difficult for some mysterious reason.

This might seem implausible, but if you are interested, this documentary from Blackstone Films , The Third Way , makes a good case. It's not perfect: the musical background is cheesily dramatic; the settings for many speakers are stereotypically religious. But the voices are authentic, convincing and coherent. The seven men and women who live with same-sex attraction don't argue that it is necessary to expunge it from their personality and to get married.

They simply accept the need to live a chaste life and they believe that the Catholic Church helps them to do this successfully and joyfully. So the film will probably be of greatest interest to Catholics. But the testimony of several former gays and lesbians is evidence that same-sex attraction need not lead to a same-sex lifestyle -- nor to same-sex marriage. Watch it.


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