Normalizing Homosexuality

I firmly believe that the homosexual movement is going to cause the greatest persecution of the Catholic Church in America that this country has ever seen.  As I have posted in the past, there can be no doubt that same sex marriage will become a federal law.  Just this week, we are told by the Huffington Post that:  "The Justice Department filed two petitions for writs of certiorari to the Supreme Court in challenges to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)."  Section 3 has to do with same sex couples receiving the same benefits as heterosexual married couples.  If this happens, then everyone must recognize same sex marriage as legitimate, as the law of the land.  It will be criminal to speak out in any way against homosexuality, and it's only a matter of time before the government will tell churches, specifically the Catholic Church, that they must marry homosexual couples or they will be closed down.  The government is already laying the groundwork for the accepted persecution of the Catholic Church in their attempts to force Catholics to support artificial birth control and sterilization.

I have posted this before, but I think it is worth posting again the quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerning homosexuality:

#2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. 

 Homosexual activists protesting outside of Holy
Name Cathedral in Chicago

In the past, all religious organizations could be counted on to speak out against homosexuality as a sin.  It wasn't that long ago - less than 30 years - when the vast majority of people agreed that homosexual acts, as the Catholic Church says, are "intrinsically disordered."  Even medical science considered homosexuality to be disordered.  The  American Psychiatric Association  declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973.  The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives followed in 1975.  Thereafter other major mental health organizations followed and it was finally declassified by the World Health Organization in 1990. The homosexual groups have been so successful in pushing their agenda that speaking out against homosexuality is equated with racism.  A large portion of society, at least elite society, labels those who speak out against homosexuality as bigots and homophobes. 

The sad fact is that those engaged in the homosexual lifestyle are condemning themselves to hell, and society is helping them in every way possible.  Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible in no uncertain terms:

Lev 18:22-23 "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."   

Lev 20:13 "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death."   

1 Cor 6:9 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals"   

1 Tim 1:9-10 "realizing the fact that (civil) law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers"  

Rom 1:26-27 "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."  

Even for those not concerned about the souls of those involved in homosexuality, they should at least be concerned about the effect of this deviant lifestyle on the physical and mental health of homosexuals.  Just a few statistics:

• One study reports 70% of homosexuals admitting to having sex only one time with over 50% of their partners.
• One study reports that the average homosexual has between 20 and 106 partners per year. The average heterosexual has 8 partners in a lifetime.
• Many homosexual sexual encounters occur while drunk, high on drugs, or in an orgy setting.
• Homosexuals account for 3-4% of all gonorrhea cases, 60% of all syphilis cases, and 17% of all hospital admissions (other than for STDs) in the United States. They make up only 1-2% of the population.
• Homosexuals live unhealthy lifestyles, and have historically accounted for the bulk of syphilis, gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, the "gay bowel syndrome" (which attacks the intestinal tract), tuberculosis and cytomegalovirus.
• 73% of psychiatrists say homosexuals are less happy than the average person, and of those psychiatrists, 70% say that the unhappiness is NOT due to social stigmatization.
• 25-33% of homosexuals and lesbians are alcoholics.
• Of homosexuals questioned in one study reports that 43% admit to 500 or more partners in a lifetime, 28% admit to 1000 or more in a lifetime, and of these people, 79% say that half of those partners are total strangers, and 70% of those sexual contacts are one night stands (or, as one homosexual admits in the film "The Castro", one minute stands). Also, it is a favorite past-time of many homosexuals to go to "cruisy areas" and have anonymous sex.
• 78% of homosexuals are affected by STDs.

• Homosexuals were responsible for spreading AIDS in the United States, and then raised up violent groups like Act Up and Ground Zero to complain about it. Even today, homosexuals account for well over 50% of the AIDS cases in the United States, which is quite a large number considering that they account for only 1-2% of the population.
• Homosexuals account for a disproportionate number of hepatitis cases: 70-80% in San Francisco, 29% in Denver, 66% in New York City, 56% in Toronto, 42% in Montreal, and 26% in Melbourne.
• 37% of homosexuals engage in sadomasochism, which accounts for many accidental deaths. In San Francisco, classes were held to teach homosexuals how to not kill their partners during sadomasochism.
• 41% of homosexuals say they have had sex with strangers in public restrooms, 60% say they have had sex with strangers in bathhouses, and 64% of these encounters have involved the use of illegal drugs.
• The median age of death of homosexuals is 42 (only 9% live past age 65). This drops to 39 if the cause of death is AIDS. The median age of death of a married heterosexual man is 75.
• The median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65). The median age of death of a married heterosexual woman is 79.
• Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered (usually by another homosexual) than the average person, 25 times more likely to commit suicide, and 19 times more likely to die in a traffic accident.
• 21% of lesbians die of murder, suicide or traffic accident, which is at a rate of 534 times higher than the number of white heterosexual females aged 25-44 who die of these things.
• Homosexuals commit more than 33% of all reported child molestations in the United States, which, assuming homosexuals make up 2% of the population, means that 1 in 20 homosexuals is a child molestor, while 1 in 490 heterosexuals is a child molestor.
• 73% of all homosexuals have had sex with boys under 19 years of age.
• Many homosexuals admit that they are pedophiles: "The love between men and boys is at the foundation of homosexuality".

A children's book promoting homosexuality
as natural and normal

Despite the above facts, our society is now pushing the homosexual lifestyle as just another "choice."  Here in New York City, they start "teaching" acceptance of homosexuality in Kindergarten, and continue through all grades.  The New York Times recently had a very interesting article about a group called Exodus International which, for years, worked in bringing people out of the homosexual lifestyle.  They have been, in effect, helping to save people from hell.  Well, now some of the leaders have begun to feel that they are just asking too much of homosexuals, that asking them to change is much more than we ask of anyone else.  We are told by our Saviour to preach the Kingdom of God, which includes bringing the message of repentance and salvation to sinners, and that includes homosexuals.  We can't turn our backs on them just because it seems difficult.

July 6, 2012 

Rift Forms in Movement as Belief in Gay ‘Cure’ Is Renounced 

By ERIK ECKHOLM

For more than three decades, Exodus International has been the leading force in the so-called ex-gay movement, which holds that homosexuals can be “cured” through Christian prayer and psychotherapy.

Exodus leaders claimed its network of ministries had helped tens of thousands rid themselves of unwanted homosexual urges. The notion that homosexuality is not inborn but a choice was seized on by conservative Christian groups who oppose legal protections for gay men and lesbians and same-sex marriage.

But the ex-gay movement has been convulsed as the leader of Exodus, in a series of public statements and a speech to the group’s annual meeting last week, renounced some of the movement’s core beliefs. Alan Chambers, 40, the president, declared that there was no cure for homosexuality and that “reparative therapy” offered false hopes to gays and could even be harmful. [It's harmful to lead people out of sin??]His statements have led to charges of heresy and a growing schism within the network.  

“For the last 37 years, Exodus has been a bright light, arguably the brightest one for those with same-sex attraction seeking an authentically Christian hope,” said Andrew Comiskey, founder and director of Desert Stream Ministries, based in Kansas City, Mo., one of 11 ministries that defected. His group left Exodus in May, Mr. Comiskey said in an e-mail, “due to leader Alan Chambers’s appeasement of practicing homosexuals who claim to be Christian” as well as his questioning of the reality of “sexual orientation change.”

In a phone interview Thursday from Orlando, Fla., where Exodus has its headquarters, Mr. Chambers amplified on the views that have stirred so much controversy. He said that virtually every “ex-gay” he has ever met still harbors homosexual cravings, himself included. Mr. Chambers, who left the gay life to marry and have two children, said that gay Christians like himself faced a lifelong spiritual struggle to avoid sin and should not be afraid to admit it. [What sin does not leave us with "cravings?" Is there an alcoholic who has stopped drinking who does not still crave alcohol, even years later? Is there an ex-drug user who does not still crave drugs? Are there former pedophiles who do not still need to fight those urges? What overeater does not fight gluttony? Homosexuality is no different than any other sin. Just because we still feel "urges", that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to overcome sin.]

He said Exodus could no longer condone reparative therapy, which blames homosexuality on emotional scars in childhood and claims to reshape the psyche. And in a theological departure that has caused the sharpest reaction from conservative pastors, Mr. Chambers said he believed that those who persist in homosexual behavior could still be saved by Christ and go to heaven. [Even as a Protestant, Mr. Chambers is going against church teaching.]

Only a few years ago, Mr. Chambers was featured in advertisements along with his wife, Leslie, saying, “Change is possible.” But now, he said in the interview, “Exodus needs to move beyond that slogan.”

“I believe that any sexual expression outside of heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful according to the Bible,” Mr. Chambers emphasized. “But we’ve been asking people with same-sex attractions to overcome something in a way that we don’t ask of anyone else,” he said, noting that Christians with other sins, whether heterosexual lust, pornography, pride or gluttony, do not receive the same blanket condemnations.   [They do in the Catholic church.  Anyone guilty of these sins and refusing to repent is on his way to hell just as surely as any practicing, unrepentant homosexual.]

Mr. Chambers’s comments come at a time of widening acceptance of homosexuality and denunciation of reparative therapy by professional societies that say it is based on faulty science and potentially harmful.  [Again, this is not happening in the Catholic Church, and despite opposition even within the church itself, it never will happen.]

A bill to outlaw “conversion therapy” for minors has passed the California Senate and is now before the State Assembly. Earlier this year, a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, apologized for publishing what he now calls an invalid study, which said many patients had largely or totally switched their sexual orientation.  [Our Masonic society is determined to help people destroy themselves in any way they can, and homosexuality is just one more way to do it.]

Defenders of the therapy say that it can bring deep changes in sexual orientation and that the attacks are politically motivated.

David H. Pickup, a therapist in Glendale, Calif., who specializes in the treatment, said restricting it would harm people who are unhappy with their homosexuality by “making them feel that no change is possible at all.”

Mr. Pickup, an officer of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, composed of like-minded therapists, said reparative therapy had achieved profound changes for thousands of people, including himself. The therapy, he said, had helped him confront emotional wounds and “my homosexual feelings began to dissipate and attractions for women grew.”

Some in the ex-gay world are more scathing about Mr. Chambers.

“I think Mr. Chambers is tired of his own personal struggles, so he’s making excuses for them by making sweeping generalizations about others,” said Gregg Quinlan, a conservative lobbyist in New Jersey and president of a support group called Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays.

The PCUSA is the Presbyterian church
which now allows openly gay ministers

Exodus International, with a budget of $1.5 million provided by donors and member churches, is on a stable footing, Mr. Chambers said. He said the shifts in theology had the support of the Exodus board and had been welcomed by many of the 150 churches that are members in North America, which increasingly have homosexuals in their congregations. More opposition has come from affiliated ministries specifically devoted to sex-related therapies, with 11 quitting Exodus so far while about 70 remain. 

In another sign of change, the vice chairman of the Exodus board, Dennis Jernigan, was forced to resign in June after he supported anti-sodomy laws in Jamaica. The board pledged to fight efforts anywhere to criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults. [What hope can there be for a society that has institutionalized sin?]

Robert Gagnon, an associate professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and author of books on homosexuality and the Bible, last week issued a public call for Mr. Chambers to resign. “My greatest concern has to do with Alan’s repeated assurances to homosexually active ‘gay Christians’ that they will be with him in heaven,” he said in an e-mail.

Gay rights advocates said they were encouraged by Mr. Chambers’s recent turn but remained wary of Exodus, which they feel has caused enormous harm.

“Exodus International played the key role in planting the message that people can go from gay to straight through religion and therapy,” said Wayne Besen, director of Truth Wins Out, a group that refutes what it considers misinformation about gays and lesbians. “And the notion that one can change is the centerpiece of the religious right’s argument for denying us rights.”

Many of the local ministries in Exodus continue to attack gays and lesbians, said David Roberts, editor of the Web site Ex-Gay Watch, and they often have close ties with reparative therapists. He speculated that Mr. Chambers was trying to steer the group in a moderate direction because “they were becoming pariahs” in a society that is more accepting of gay people. [I think this is absolutely correct.  Protestants did not accept artificial birth control until the 1930's.  Because they do not have the authority of Jesus Christ and his Vicar, the Holy Father, they tend to sway with the wind in whichever way society is going.  That is exactly what is happening with homosexuality.]

Mr. Chambers said he was simply trying to restore Exodus to its original purpose when it was founded in 1976: providing spiritual support for Christians who are struggling with homosexual attraction.

He said that he was happy in his marriage, with a “love and devotion much deeper than anything I experienced in gay life,” but that he knew this was not feasible for everyone. Many Christians with homosexual urges may have to strive for lives of celibacy.

But those who fail should not be severely judged, he said, adding, “We all struggle or fall in some way.”

I completely agree that we should be kind and compassionate to those who struggle with homosexuality, as I recently posted.   But that doesn't mean we should whitewash the fact that practicing homosexuals are involved in grave sin and their eternal souls are in jeopardy.

It will not be long before expressing the point of view that homosexuality is sinful will be against the law.  It already is in Canada, and that day is coming soon to America, as more and more Americans accept homosexuality as a normal, legitimate lifestyle, despite that nagging voice inside of us that says this is completely wrong.  We have come to accept the legal killing of our children, and we will accept the complete destruction of marriage and family in the same way. 

We all know the story of boiling water and the frog.  Put a frog in boiling water and he will immediately hop out. Put the frog in cool water and slowly turn up the heat, and you will be able to cook him to death and he won't even know what is happening.  This is what we see all around us.  People are being slowly boiled to death in sin.  For those of us who can still see what is happening, we have a duty to pray deeply about this and, as our Lady of Fatima told us, offer sacrifices and reparations:

"More souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh than for any other reason.  Pray, pray a great deal, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no-one to make sacrifices and pray for them."

St. Stephen praying for those who
stoned him to death

For the past 40 years we have seen the constant erosion of Christian values in our society and in the world in general, and the acceptance of sin as normal and natural.  Those who attempt to lead holy lives consecrated to God are looked upon as pariahs.  But we cannot let that stop us from continuing to pray for sinners and to resist the pull of the devil, who holds sway over the vast majority of humanity.  We need to pray as never before, especially with the coming persecution.  Just as our Lord prayed for those who crucified him on the cross, and just as St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, prayed for those who stoned him to death, so we must pray for those who persecute us. 

For those who struggle with homosexuality, you have been called to carry a very heavy cross.  But our Lord promises us that he will never give us more than we can bear:

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” - 1 Corinthians 10:13

Like everyone else struggling with sin, those burdened with the sin of homosexuality cannot bear this by themselves, but as soon as you take up your cross, our Lord will be right there to help you carry it.  As he has told us, "I will never leave you, never forsake you."  (Hebrews 13:5).  The world and Satan will attempt to pull you away from Christ and away from the Cross that will save you.  Just continue to cry out for help, and you will receive the help you need.  The Catholic church has a ministry for homosexuals that you can be sure will never forsake you.  It is called Courage.  Their website can be viewed here.  As the Courage website says:  "You don't have to climb this mountain alone."