I don't think relationships are sinful, and Church teaching doesn't say that they are. I think (and the Church teaches) that particular acts are sinful.While Seraphic's statement is objectively true, I am not at ease with it. What immediately comes to mind is an analogy to gay civil unions and marriages:
Gay civil unions are not inherently wrong, and in fact could be argued as good insofar as the state exists to serve its people, and those people need to be able to designate whoever they want for certain legal reasons. However, gay civil unions are being used merely as a stepping-stone to gay marriage, which is not for the good of the state or its people (cf. this article in the LA Times), for which reason I would be wary about supporting gay civil unions.
I will have to ponder this further. Comments on this are especially welcome.
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2 comments:
Hi Magdalene! Thanks for the link. To clarify, when I say same-sex relationships, I mean same-sex friendships. Apparently, that's not how everyone else understands it!
One of the ways in which the 21st century contrasts with the pre-Freud era is that loving relationships are immediately suspected of being innately sexual. For example, Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra were best friends and loved each other deeply--one might even say passionately. Deeply emotional female friendships were considered ordinary, even exemplary, in the 19th century. (Another literary example is the Canadian one of Anne of Green Gables and her pal Diana Barry.) But, post-Freud, people have sought to sexualize these relationships, asking if they ought to be considered lesbian, etc., etc.
I find this reductionist, misleading and rather sad.
Another example: Samuel Johnston, writing to his friend James Boswell in the 18th century,asked, "Does Lord Hailes love me? For I love him." Again, strong feelings of liking, admiration and enthusiasm for a person of the same sex were not immediately weighted for some kind of sexual desire or declaration of sexual "identity."
Well said, Seraphic! (And that clarification does make a world of difference.) And what an excellent point about how we sexualize everything today. I would love to see that part of our societal innocence reclaimed (I think we need those rock-solid same-sex friendships), but I can't imagine how that might come about...
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