To expand on the immediately previous post, the assumption within Bishop Streib’s letter is that in order for gays and lesbians not to feel unwelcome in the Church the rest of us have to not just tolerate but wholeheartedly embrace them just the way they are without making them feel “uncomfortable” about their lifestyle choice. I’m sorry but that’s not the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
Jesus accepts the sinner just the way he is, but the Lord loves us too much to leave us that way and won’t “tolerate” or embrace our choice of sin.
I think the point of the log is to teach us to be humble and to see our own sins and to see our own miserable state. But that miserable state is certainly no reason to refuse to obey Christ and preach the Gospels to the four corners of the world. Our faith must be lived in a coherent manner. Where there is incoherency, the coherent must be true to Christ and act out of true love, the law of salvation of souls. This is certainly not a phobia but the contrary, courage.
“Yes, but the WOrd also tells us to take the log out of our own eye before we point out the speck in our brothers eye.
I think that says tolerate the p:comment_author_IP>192.168.1.1
2005-05-21 21:46:38
2005-05-22 01:46:38
We should never and can never tolerate sin. Christ’s admonition was not first one and then the other.
He’s telling us to recognize our own sin and resolve to repent. That takes an instant. There doesn’t need to be any time to “tolerate” sin.
Tolerance is a much abused word today…the lefties love to preach it and legalize it…but they have nothing but the opposite for those who see truth elsewhere. Toleration does not replace truth.
All sinners know that Jesus knows full well “where they’re at” but acceptance on the Lord’s part is conditoned on “repentance”.
Another fine line to make clear is that the Church is not a Church for sinners, but is the Church of “repentant” sinners.
Christ and His Church always offers the opportunity for the sinner to repent, but if the sinner persists freely in his choice of sin, then Christ and the Church does write them off.
This new “ministry” will host a potluck on June 7…the same day that an adult education series begins entitled, “Life in Christ: Catholic Moral Teaching.” That was slightly amusing to me after I scraped my chin up off of the ground when I finished reading Bishop Steib’s article and “Stephen’s Story.” My associate pastor is getting transferred to the Cathedral parish where I assume most of this will take place. He is from Nigeria and doesn’t hesitate to boldly proclaim TRUTH unapologetically. Giddy up! I believe my friend hit it on the head when he said, “Heads will roll…”
If the ministry to these folks is to save their souls – teaching the truth- then it will be a good ministry. Probably not popular with the people that Steib spoke to. But it begs the larger question as to what is the Diocese of Memphis doing to address the issue about the attitudes that many Catholics have about sex. Contraception reigns supreme amoung Memphis Catholics. One only need look at the number of children in each family. I know that only a very small minority use NFP and that the average family size barely breaks two or three. Resolve this attitude and the issue of homosexuality will be more clearly seen for what it is.