I’m Not Going To Write About This Subject

After having written several editorials and letters-to-the-editor on a certain subject, I’m simply not going to write about it anymore.

After having written several editorials and letters-to-the-editor on a certain subject, I’m simply not going to write about it anymore. I got into trouble a few times when these items were published. In one case, an irate woman, who used to be the Catholic chaplain at a local high school, came into my office at my former place of employment and accused me of “spreading hate.” In another episode, an upset reader of our local newspaper wrote a letter-to-the-editor in which he accused me of “having my head up my *ss,” or words to that effect.

If these incidents weren’t enough to intimidate me into silence, I’ve read a few scary news items concerning pastors and other “haters” who were arrested or hauled before human rights tribunals for daring to point out that the Bible condemns the particular behaviour in question.

I feel a little victimized and misunderstood, however. I never said or implied that anyone should hate or otherwise abuse the people who live this particular lifestyle. All I did was point out Biblical and Church teaching on the matter and warn readers about the likely negative health consequences to spirit, mind and body. I think if I had said that prostitution was sinful, that prostitutes are often victims of violence, that they often contract venereal diseases, so they should give up prostitution and “go straight,” I wouldn’t have been accused of being a “hater.” My mistake was to criticize this other sexual lifestyle, which I won’t name.

When I was a teenager living in Toronto, every time practitioners or advocates of this lifestyle decided to promenade in any significant numbers on Yonge St., angry citizens pelted them with eggs. Now that’s hatred! That’s not what I’m advocating. I’ve never thrown an egg at anyone in my life. I don’t think these egg throwers were ever arrested. But, I don’t think the people who threw condoms in the direction of Pope John Paul II when he visited France were arrested either. It seems there are “haters” on both sides of this debate.

Again, it seems, that I’m on the unpopular side of an important issue. Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga even President Barack Obama would disagree with my stand, I’m sure. As much as I would like to be “on the side that’s winning,” I just can’t be untrue to my understanding of God’s law and the teachings of Holy Mother Church. The “progressives” believe that the state has the power to, and should, redefine marriage in order to be inclusive. I don’t mean to be objectionable, but I just can’t agree.

When I see a young man and a young woman come together in Holy Matrimony and then have children, I understand exactly what God’s plan for human sexuality is. I really don’t hate anyone. I simply can’t condone behaviour that I believe will ultimately hurt people and make them unhappy. There is a natural law that is far greater and far more permanent than any cultural fashion or human law. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”