Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

More Thoughts On The New Pope

Guardian of Church Orthodoxy (washingtonpost.com): “[Ratzinger] publicly cautioned Europe against admitting Turkey to the European Union and wrote a letter to bishops around the world justifying that stand on the grounds that the continent is essentially Christian in nature.”

This was a mistake on his part. While most of Europe may be populated by Christians, the European Union is not a religious organization. It’s a political organization and, as such, it’s critical that all Europeans, regardless of their religion, feel welcome.

[More from the Post's article] “The Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition [to gay marriage] clearly and publicly and to vote against it,” said the document issued by [Ratzinger's] office. “To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.”

Regular readers willl no doubt recall that I’m strongly in favor of gay people having the same legal rights available to straight people. I don’t believe homosexuality is a moral issue. I believe — and current scientific evidence supports this belief — that homosexuality is a normal and unchosen variation of human sexual identity.

There was a time, really not so long ago, when lots of people in the Catholic Church, including high-ranking clerics, believed that people of color were somehow “less human” than white people. They believed it was morally justifiable to withhold some basic rights from black and brown-skinned people because of their race. Even slavery might be morally justifiable! Happily, those days are pretty much past.

I think the situation with homosexuality is very similar in many ways. When people like Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) and the late John Paul II condemn homosexuality as immoral I think they’re basing that idea on ancient people’s fears. Before science helped us understand that homosexuality is normal, people feared it because it was different. Add to that a perhaps inborn distrust of sexuality that doesn’t lead to reproduction and you’ve got a potent force against acceptance of homosexuality.

Ultimately, though, more and more people are coming to understand that it’s not about SIN. It’s about biology.

I have faith that eventually the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church will also come to this realization.