Homosexuality ‘worthy of death’?

by Michael Shackleton · March 16, 2009

St Paul states that lesbians and homosexuals are filthy and worthy of death (Romans 1:18-32). Yet today we have two bishops, an Anglican and a Catholic, demanding same-sex marriages! Please explain.

Homosexual acts between men or women have never been approved by the Church, not even from the earliest centuries. If any bishop decides for himself that they are acceptable, he flies in the face of the Church�s constant teaching to the contrary.

The Church�s point of view is that society owes its continued survival to the family, and the family must be founded on marriage, that is, on�a�permanent basis. Man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and they become one body (Gen:24) and the�couple must be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28).

Your question raises two issues. First: the sexual relationship between gay couples, which many consider to be pretty harmless to society as a whole.�Second: the institutionalisation of gay marriages, which the Church rejects as a direct threat to the good of society and the future of humanity.

The Church considers homosexual activity to be �intrinsically disordered� because it does not proceed from the natural complementarity of male and female and it is not open to the gift of life (Catechism 2357-59).

There is no disapproval of persons who are by nature or inclination simply homosexually inclined. The Church requires them to be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and not be be discriminated against.

In 2003, the Church�s objection to proposals by civil authorities to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons, was presented in a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Beginning with a strong reaffirmation of the Creator�s plan for man and woman and in the sacrament of marriage, the document insists that society owes its continued survival to the family, founded on marriage. To permit gay marriages would be to redefine marriage in such a way as to contradict the essential element of divinely willed heterosexual love and fruitfulness.

The�text declares that to place gay marriages on the same level as normal marriage�would mean�not only the approval of deviant behaviour and raising it to be a model for others to imitate, but also obscure basic values belonging to the common inheritance of humanity.

The Church sees itself as the defender of these values for the good of humanity and of society itself.