Homosexuality is a blessing from God. So says Bishop Eugene Robinson of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.
The gay Bishop once again captured media attention when he was chosen by President Obama to deliver the Invocation at the celebration starting the inaugural festivities on Sunday, January 18, 2009.
Not having had an opportunity to interview his lordship, I can only speculate about the meaning of his pronouncement.
My faith has always taught and thought throughout the centuries of the Christian era that homosexuality is an unnatural expression of sexuality and is a very grave sin – what we Catholics call “mortal sin”.
The Apostle Paul two thousand years ago in a letter to the Romans at Chapter 1, verse 26, referred to it as a curse from Almighty God in punishment for unbelief.
Centuries before Paul, Leviticus at Chapter 18 verse 23, condemned homosexuality as an abomination: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.”
Therefore, I am puzzled about the bishop’s meaning.
Does he mean that having a feeling of physical attraction to a person of the same sex may become an opening of great blessing? If this is his meaning, I agree; for disorder does not arise from mere feelings. It is the result of a deliberate choice in which reason is fully engaged.
The Apostle Paul in several places speaks of resisting temptation. Therein may be the opportunity for blessings in spite of human weakness, which all flesh is heir to.
Heterosexuals too must overcome temptation, for the sexual appetite in a healthy person is ever alive to the attractions of the opposite sex. Herein is the blessing when one moves the imagination away from the fantasies; and reason focuses on the personality, the character, intelligence, beauty and goodness of the person.
Moreover, as one grows in maturity in an intimate relationship, one learns the great importance of building a lasting friendship with one’s wife or husband.
In the above sense, a homosexual relationship, without sexual expression, could be a blessing. Nevertheless, it cannot be a blessing if it involves sexual expression, except if it leads to repentance and a renouncing of the homosexual lifestyle. Judaeo–Christian thought has always been that the sex act should never deliberately exclude the primary purpose of the act. Deliberate exclusion of the first end of the sexual act, which is procreation, makes the intercourse immoral.
Therefore, to be credible Bishop Robinson should explain to his flock how he or his male partner can possibly conceive and bear a child.
The secondary purpose of the sexual act, which is to show love, may be expressed in millions of other ways, without the act of copulation. When one is kind, merciful, considerate, etc., to any other human being, it becomes a blessing both to him who gives and to her who receives.
It has always been a habit of most people I know well, to be respectful of all manner of human beings, including gays. However, there has always been an expression of resistance to a gay lifestyle that is aggressive, that seems dedicated to turning our children into homosexuals. There is a deep hatred for this – and against preying upon the youthful and the weak.
Although the scientific opinion that homosexuality is caused by a special hormone has been discredited, the debate about nature or nurture no doubt will rage on.
It is amazing how almost every human being continues to acknowledge the existence of goodness (and of God) by insisting in word and argument that what they do is morally right. We always seem to justify our actions by saying that they are good.
In my philosophical studies five decades ago, I learned that the human will/does not ever choose what it sees to be evil. It was true then; it was true at the beginning of human time with Adam and Eve; and it will remain true forever.
Bishop Robinson first attracted media attention a few years ago as the first self-proclaimed gay priest to be ordained bishop by the Episcopal Church of the United States. He later divorced his wife and married a man.
In this context, I would like to repeat my often stated position: what two consenting adults do in the privacy of a bedroom is God’s business. It is none of mine. Emphasis on “consenting’ and on “adult.”