9 out of 10 press outlets get it wrong
The BBC, reporting on a clash between the All Poland Youth Group and a group of homosexual marchers in the Polish city of Krakow, gets it wrong yet again.
Background: A —gay tolerance— march on Krakow, Poland was attacked by some members of the youth group who threw rocks and eggs at the marchers.
Now, in the first place, that sort of violence, regardless of the reason, is absolutely wrong. Some youth group members (a very small part of the group) who took part in such violence should be arrested and prosecuted.
However, the BBC goes on to claim: —Homophobia is not uncommon in this staunchly Catholic country.—
Ummm, no!
The BBC’s report is not at all descriptive of what is going on, nor is it a fair or just statement. It’s painting an entire country as gripped by fear and aversion. It’s like saying all members of any group are something. I think that’s called stereotyping or racism. Can we say, racism is not uncommon among BBC reporters? Hmmmm…
No, the Poles are not homophobic. Homophobia is exactly that —“ a term used to describe a phobia. As we read in the phobia wiki:
A phobia (from the Greek φόβος “fear”), is a strong, persistent fear of situations, objects, activities, or persons.
No, the Catholic youth in Poland, who marched peacefully, were only standing in the forefront of a battle that is raging. They stood up for their faith and for the truth. For that, everyone in the entire country has been labeled by the BBC.
The Christian faithful, who adhere to the teachings of the Church on homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion, capitol punishment, war, and any number of other issues, are receiving what we will soon experience more and more: negative stereotypes and eventually outright persecution.
The teachings of the Roman Church, the PNCC, Orthodoxy, and any other orthodox Christian group are almost completely at odds with secular culture; a culture that believes that everyone has a right.
The real point is that no one has a right. There are no rights other than those given by God as interpreted through His Church.
The ‘gay’ culture is not a right. It is disordered and defective. Euthanasia is not a right nor is abortion. It is disordered, defective, and murder.
Certainly, homosexuality is a burden that some must bear. It is a heavy burden indeed. The Church is to love all people and support them in facing the burdens —“ the crosses they have been asked to bear. No one is to be —put out—. However, no one has a right to do as he or she pleases.
All that is required is that people come forward in truth and pledge to live the life Christ calls us to live. It is rarely the life we would like to live, yet its rewards are eternal.
See the entire BBC article: Clashes erupt at Poland gay march
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Shortly after he became Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said in an interview that homosexuality is unnatural.
According to surveys, nine out of 10 Poles agree with him.
hi there,
I read your post with a little interest. Here’ss simepl comment:-
You say:
“Certainly, homosexuality is a burden that some must bear. It is a heavy burden indeed. The Church is to love all people and support them in facing the burdens – the crosses they have been asked to bear. No one is to be “put outâ€. However, no one has a right to do as he or she pleases.”
Yet you imply that it’s not alright for people to be honest and say they’re gay. Interesting, as without honesty, there is no personal integrity.
Anyone, gay straight or whatever can live in a moral vacuum. That’s just human nature. Plenty of stright people do live as alley cats, tu use the colloquial phrase, so where’s your condemnation of them? Or is it easier to pick on a group which is either protesting or enjoying the ability to gather in public, an ability often denied, simply because you consider them all to fit into a stereotype?
I find it rathe roffensive that someone would assume that simply because I am gay that I therefore have no morals. It’s a weird thing to think, yet I encounter that all the time. Far too many people who want to think themselves religious take no notice of the challenge given in the scriptures – be honest, go the lord and do his will, not someone else’s, no matter who they are.
Shalom,
D
It is unclear as to how I am advocating that people not be who they are. As a matter of fact becoming who we truly are is the Christian message.
In each of us is a person of perfection, the child of God with His name and His will written on our hearts. At the same time there is the person we are each day. There is a gulf between the present person and the ideal.
Owning up to who we are, coming to repentance, and working for change is what we need to be about. It is the way we bridge the gap. It is the way we strive to be the child God has called us to be and the way we accept and use the cross we have been given to carry in a sacrificial way.
You are absolutely correct; sin covers a broad spectrum of thoughts, words, and deeds. You are also correct in stating that many people choose to live in an ongoing rejection of morality. I know a lot of them – including me.
All of us live in some state of rejection (sin). We make choices because they feel right to us, bring us pleasure, or just because. Unfortunately we fail to check those choices against a standard set of God given principals.
You have chosen to label yourself as gay. That is a rejection of truth. There is no ‘gay’.
You may be a homosexual or have homosexual tendencies. Instead you have fallen for the fallacy of the gay label – a label that carries a political and social agenda outside the moral order and natural law. I would prefer to think of you as a person rather than as an agenda. Like an alcoholic or drug addict you choose a label that you believe mitigates or hides the damage you are doing to yourself and your soul. You fail to acknowledge the problem.
Also, it might be helpful if you read some more of what I have written before you state that I am a one issue person. You will readily note that I frequently challenge people to set aside many types of sins (e.g., heterosexual cohabitation outside marriage, objectification of men and women).
Dean,
I accept you as a brother in Christ. I too sin and need to work out my salvation in fear and trembling. I fall and get up again.
I am thankful that the Church rejects no one, especially the fallen.
The Church does not expect anyone to live in a state of denial. What it does ask for is that its members do their very best to live according to Christ’s teachings as handed down to us. We ask people to live it outwardly and inwardly and to face the reality that our wants, needs, and desires are nothing in comparison with what God wants, needs, and desires.
The Church stands ready to welcome you and me even when we sin. However, the responsibility is ours. We are required to be aware of who we truly are and live up to God’s expectation of us.
The gifts of penance and the Holy Eucharist along with prayer, the reading of scripture, and the example of the saints and martyrs are especially strong in helping us combat our weakness.
The Church has the Word, the Lord, the sacraments and the requirement that we acknowledge that we can only be free if we live and see by faith.
I wish you peace as well. The peace found in Jesus Christ.
Howdy there,
Interesting reply.
You saind
“You may be a homosexual or have homosexual tendencies. Instead you have fallen for the fallacy of the gay label – a label that carries a political and social agenda outside the moral order and natural law. I would prefer to think of you as a person rather than as an agenda. Like an alcoholic or drug addict you choose a label that you believe mitigates or hides the damage you are doing to yourself and your soul. You fail to acknowledge the problem.”
Righto there, now there’s an assumption and a half. Did I carefully detail how I was fitting into a label, category or the like? Ummm, no. You did that. That’s a big part of the problem, in that it’s a very notmal human thing to do. Otherwise we’d spend all our time tyhinking and not actually being able to do anything!
Is someone who is gay automatically promiscuous, wears drag, goes to dance parties, takes drugs and hates religion? Ummm, also no. That’s a protrayal, not a reality. It’s an easy protrayal to make, just as it’s easy to make clergy out to be narrow and doctrinaire because that’s how they often appear piblically. However, this is just a perception, and is not true for everyone.
The church is telling people to live in denial by telling them that homosexuallity is vile and disordered, or whatever other childish term may be alpplied, therefore creating a personal tension. This tension is thus, do I acknowlege myself honestly and face the harshness of the church criticising me and holding me up as a bad example, or do I keep my mouth shut and take on the problems caused by dishonesty?
I tried the dishonesty – it’s wrong.
Am I going to confess a simple fact of bieng gay? Of course not. Confession and pennance is for things done wrong, not a fact. Would I go to pennance and say “I’m left-handed” or “I get really angry at people when they’re annoying me” Also no, that’s just some of the components of our human nature. Acknowleging them as fact is a big step towards what we should be aiming for – personal integrity and being able to understand all our good and not so good points. But not hiding any of them because of what people think, I hasten to add.
Moving back to your points, you were concluding by sayng:
“The Church stands ready to welcome you and me even when we sin. However, the responsibility is ours. We are required to be aware of who we truly are and live up to God’s expectation of us.”
If you mean that I would be expected to pretend or change or deny my nature, then tha’ts wrong. If I say that I’d like to do something, but don’t actually do it, then what’s the problem? It’s much healthier than pretending that I don’t want and thus creating all sorts of personal problems. Lies and pretending never work.
I’m perfectly happy to go to church and join in with other of faith in paray – however, think of this situation…….there are many parishes where I would never set foot in the door simply because I know I would be preached at, disapproved of, looked down on and so many things. While this is not what I”d be there for, I am human – I can’t exist independantly of those around me. If they’re getting in between me and the almighty, then I don’t need them. If that means I can’t go or have to travel somewhere else, then so be it. Sometimes it just has to be done.
Dean,
The term ‘gay’ does carry a lot of baggage. It is a term defined in militancy and is, as I noted, a political term. If you told me, I’m conservative, liberal, libertarian, communist, or a feminist the use of the label would bring with it the requisite baggage, rightly or wrongly. By using a term like gay you allow others to do the defining for you.
Personally, I would rather know you as Dean. I would rather know you as a philosopher, engineer, accountant, family member, fellow believer, good cook etc.
Sexuality is one component of a person’s life, and an important one at that. Outside of marriage it is still a component, it’s just not exercised. Is that easy – no, especially in light of the hyper-sexualization of society.
As to confession, there is no requirement to confess one’s sexuality. I wouldn’t go to confession and say – hey father, guess what, I’m hetero. Being homosexual is not confessable. You and I would be in the same boat however if we exercised our sexuality in any manner outside the bonds of marriage.
And, yes, I would confess getting “really angry at people when they’re annoying me.†I would confess my lack of charity and my inability to turn the other cheek.
The Young Fogey in a post called Quotation stated the following:
If you or I sin (of course we do) then I would expect that we would learn from that sin, repent of it, and try our best to not do it again. Sin is a constant struggle.
I wish you well in all struggles and ask that you pray for me as well.