Correspondence
Correspondence The Vatican & Israel Vancouver, B.C. To the Editors: Fine article on Jerusalem in your December 19 issue-but what I believe begs for a solid treatment is the Vatican's persistent...
...19) really adequate...
...Father Vacek, like the homosexuals he writes about, is living in fantasy land on this count...
...I assume that he rejects both Scripture and Tradition in favor of his own private convictions...
...To the Editors: The author of the Dec...
...P. KROLIKOWSKI, S.J...
...Father Vacek treats the subject seriously but without the usual panic...
...The facts of biology buttress the contention that heterosexuality is prescrip-tively natural and normal and that homosexuality is prescriptively unnatural and abnormal...
...At various points in our long history these latter sources have been used to defend slavery, demand observance of the Saturday Sabbath, resist use of civil courts, prevent autopsies, forbid being a soldier, condemn evolution, burn heretics, restrict scriptural studies, subordinate women, and so forth...
...To the Editors: I extend a simple thank you to both Commonweal and the author for the most reasonable and enlightening article I have seen on homosexuality: "A Christian Homosexuality...
...My Protestant sisters and brothers remind me frequently of the sin-corrupted character of reason...
...EDWARD VACEK, S.J.emmas Christian homosexuals face...
...A Christian Fornicator...
...I am neither of Irish descent nor Catholic...
...Currently the same is being done with regard to the morality of homosexual activity...
...In the meantime, I personally take every public opportunity to "recognize" the State of Israel...
...Would not every Christian be called to a similar vocation...
...Should a murderer refrain from taking a life when his strong inclination is to do so...
...In spite of the subtitle, "in the light of Scripture, authority, and reason," reason held the upper hand throughout, facilely manipulating the two sacred sources...
...It is encouraging to see such a comprehensive discussion of these issues anywhere in the American media...
...Perhaps the subtitle could read, ". . .in the light of Scripture, authority, reason, and faith,'' the last resource having been left untapped by Father Vacek...
...In this connection I agree with Gow that we cannot go from biology to an "ought," but that the "ought" should take account of biology...
...The author states "the major question is whether they (homosexuals) should be bound to act as heterosexuals...
...Presumably, when they assume complete control of the situation both sin and hell will become dead issues and since their authority is so great God will have no alternative but to concur...
...REV...
...Clearly, it would be a mistake to argue from biological fact to "what' ought to be," that is, from "is" to "ought...
...Nonetheless, I rely on a Catholic hope that reason can be grace-filled and so is not as exclaustrated from faith as some of my critics seem to imply...
...One thing that has disturbed me about this situation has been the American media coverage, which, for the most part, has unquestion-ingly accepted the British government version of its involvement in Northern Ireland...
...To the Editors: "A Christian Homosexuality...
...Commonweal could now provide a real service to its readership by printing an authentically Christian statement about homosexuality which would take seriously such pertinent Christian mysteries as Original Sin, the Cross, Grace, and the specialness of marriage...
...Arlington Heights, III...
...Clauss's comments point to one of the fundamental debates raging in moral theology today...
...To the Editors: Fine article on Jerusalem in your December 19 issue-but what I believe begs for a solid treatment is the Vatican's persistent refusal to recognize the State of Israel...
...MARCIA SIMONSON Homosexuality: an exchange Coventry, R.I...
...HAVEN BRADFORD GOW Mount Rainier, Md...
...I confess to being a "traditional" Catholic in the heavy use I make of reason...
...First, the article contributed no especially Christian perspective on homosexuality but was simply an endorsement of contemporary secular thinking on the issue...
...REV...
...His point is rather that Scripture and authority furnish no light...
...Here only a few words, If homosexual activity is immoral, then no amount of "good reasons," scripture or tradition is going to make it right...
...Today people are questioning Clauss's assumption...
...asks whether "a homosexual orientation and consequent homosexual activity (Continued on page 157)Correspondence (Continued from page 130) [are] merely [components] [of] a different life-style, or is there something inherently wrong with it...
...These changes seem to imply that we need freshly look at the dilemmas Christian homosexuals face...
...The call to chastity-celibacy for a gay person must come from much different motives and there are those who feel so called...
...In some significant ways we understand sexuality, social history and vocation differently, if not better, than our forebears...
...I have read the Bible from cover to cover on at least two different occasions and have not found anything in it to support the validity of sexual relations except in the case of men and women married to each other...
...Should a sadistic rapist be required to engage in sex with a consenting partner...
...5. I sense some contradictions in Vacek's discussion of gay spirituality...
...M. L. TOOHEY Chicago, III...
...I propose that the scriptures and tradition weigh heavily against homosexual activity, but I do not think that these sources necessarily close the question...
...Those who mistakenly contend that homosexuality is natural and normal fail to make significant and much needed distinctions: The distinctions between descriptive and prescriptive normality, between (what Emerson termed) "the law for man" and "the law for thing," between human beings and mere animals...
...5], I ask myself, can we look forward to future articles in Commonweal with titles such as "A Christian Rapist...
...Nugent's comment that we should take our cue from an "image of God" theology is one that I welcome...
...A homosexual orientation is-let's be honest-nothing other than self-hatred, and seeking personal growth through intrinsically deficient means is contradictory...
...How can our church/ pope offer adequate mediation in Near East problems when we juridically deny the existence of one of the parties: Israel...
...If the latter then homosexual people, celibates and others who do not propagate can hardly be faulted for not bearing children...
...He neutralizes what is essentially a grim, morbid, and superficial lifestyle...
...The author of this article acknowledges that both Scripture and Tradition condemn active homosexuality...
...6. It is difficult to imagine that only some homosexual people are called to a personal vocation of genital non-activity because they do not wish to act contrary to certain explicit statements of Scripture and tradition...
...Reflecting upon the article in its entirety, it would remind one of a discussion held by a group of thirteen-year-old boys arguing as to what cowboy was the fastest draw in the West: many arguments but no conclusions...
...Is the rationale that we (officially) are waiting for the peace treaty that will confirm Israel in international law (National Catholic Reporter, Dec...
...REV...
...I find the argument about homosexual acts being "deficient" because they are not open to generation as strong as similar arguments against contraceptive heterosexual intercourse, and I suspect that part of the reason many are uncomfortable about any change in church doctrine in this area is precisely because it would force us to re-evaluate our attitudes on homosexual actions...
...On the one hand he says that heterosexuals relate to the world through their heterosexual identity which affects their spirituality and on the other hand that gay spirituality is basically like that of heterosexuals...
...We can prove that rape and murder are wrong...
...To the Editors: I'm sorry you added the heading, "In the light of Scripture, authority, & reason," to Father Vacek's article, "A Christian Homosexuality...
...What is difficult to understand, is why Christ failed to practice a similar type of charity in dealing with the matter of sin...
...Very little of the Irish nationalists' version of Britain's involvement in their country has managed to seep through the barricade of British propaganda...
...JAMES R. ROBERTS Media on the carpet Los Angeles, Cal...
...It is becoming increasingly clear that those who consider themselves Catholics but who consistently preach doctrines that are contrary to the teachings of the pope, never allude to sin or hell...
...In my view, according to other Vatican recognitions of states it is not...
...And those of us who have also read George Steiner on Anthony Blunt in The New Yorker come away wondering just how much light the clerics of (t)reason have to offer us in our concern to understand as well as love all people...
...3. Does the task of propagating the human race fall upon each and every member or upon the race as a whole...
...JOHN A. KILEY Chicago, III...
...I am glad for the agreement...
...To the Editors: I have just read Jack Holland's article, "The Men on the Blanket" [Nov...
...A Christian Dope Peddler...
...A Christian Adulterer...
...For example: Male and female sex organs complement each other, the bodies of a man and a woman seem designed for union with one another...
...I doubt, however, that the image of a celibate Jesus or a bodiless God can provide direct help in deciding about the morality of either homosexual or heterosexual activity...
...5] was a cheat and a disappointment...
...I was aware when I wrote the essay that I would be hit from the right and the left...
...For Christians the image of God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ who as we know was neither married nor produced biological offspring...
...Apparently, the author has overlooked this fact...
...We Christians must feel that we are very charitable for demonstrating such great love that we can now support all these various sins...
...To the Editors: As I read the title of "A Christian Homosexuality...
...Thank you...
...Thirdly, Father Vacek's tone in writing about homosexuality approaches too closely the secular media's conception of homosexuality as an attractive arrangement between attractive people...
...A Christian Murderer...
...Homosexuality ". . . in the light of Scripture, authority and reason'' is by definition a psychological deficiency...
...The entire article could have appeared in Psychology Today without changing a word...
...4. Does not the fact that some homosexual couples make love "more humanely," as Vacek states, because of better communication and empathy for the other's feelings say something about the traditional male-female psychic complementarity argument against such relationships...
...2. Is it correct to use the "complementarity" (biological-psychological) argument to interpret the idea of being created in God's image or is it not really the other way around: we use the idea of being created in the image of God to interpret the relationships among women and men and their offspring including homosexual people...
...REV...
...These images can tell us how we should act (lovingly, creatively, faithfully, etc...
...EDWARD VACEK, S.J...
...Secondly, although Father Vacek conceded that homosexuality is biologically deficient, he suggests that it is psychologically beneficial...
...In their own fashion, Nugent and others restate (perhaps more clearly...
...Accordingly, my conclusions are put forward tentatively...
...many of the same points I thought I was making...
...Only thus am I able to agree/ disagree with her actions/positions in the real world...
...Does not a homosexual orientation of a person also affect that person's world view, perceptions, and spirituality...
...I also hoped-a hope that many confirmed-that such an essay would dissipate the impression that the church is a repressive and unintelligible defender of a hostile attitude towards homosexuals...
...5 article, "A Christian Homosexuality...
...Can we do so in this matter...
...ROBERT NUGENT, SDS Co-director New Ways Ministry Olyphant, Pa...
...5]: 1. "Cure rates" of whatever percentage usually, if not always, refer to a change in behavior and not to that inner source of personal identity which many gay people experience from their sexual orientation...
...Following this line of reasoning, I might ask should an inveterate liar be required to tell the truth...
...How about some help on this...
...For the vast majority, however, other viable options seem necessary...
...JAMES J. CLAUSS The author replies: I am grateful for all the comments I have received, those above and those sent directly to me...
...REV...
...The final statement in the article concludes with "it will always be Christianly clear that we should love our homosexual sisters and brothers.'' The author should have stated as well that it would be equally Christianly clear that we should hate the sins committed by homosexuals in the same . way that we hate the sins committed by adulterers, murderers, thieves, etc...
...To the Editors: A few comments and some questions about Edward Vacek's excellent introduction to a complex topic ["A Christian Homosexuality...
...As a result the American public is rarely exposed to the issues which were raised in Holland's article: the legal system which is being used to convict terrorist suspects and the brutality to which suspects are subjected both during interrogation and in prison after they are convicted...
...The exact relation between reason and scripture-tradition-authority is, as everyone knows, complex and controverted...
...but certainly, the facts of biology lend much credence to the view that heterosexuality - and not homosexuality - is natural and normal (both pre-scriptively and descriptively...
...however, I have been studying Irish history and following the current political situation in Ireland for the past several years...
...Each of these practices came to be called into question...
...but not whether one or other form of sexual activity reflects God...
...REV...
Vol. 108 • March 1981 • No. 5
