More on SSA

Reader and writer Ron Belgau shares some of his own writing on the issue many of you were discussing yesterday:

My Alternative Lifestyle, from the ND magazine

Sodom and the City of God

Soulforce and the Catholic Church

Comments

[Nick Luketic]

May God bless Ron Belgau for eloquently articulating that temptation to sin has many forms. We may not share the same temptations but not one of us is free from some temptation. What is important is fidelity to Truth.

I pray that he continues to maintain fidelity to Truth and I pray that we too, continue working toward it in dealing with our own forms of temptation.

[Lawrence King]

Ron's articles are awesome!

As an orthodox Catholic, I consider the New Oxford Review to be orthodox in its theology but seriously compromised by its all-too-frequent lack of charity. I hope that Ron's article has a powerful effect on the NOR staff!

Three people I love dearly are gay. They aren't Catholic, and I would be amazed if they ever accepted Catholic teaching on sexuality. Yet: Today, they are on-the-fence regarding the question of whether Catholic teaching is hateful. My hope is to someday convince them that it's not hateful -- even if they still don't believe it's true!

As long as there are Catholics who snicker at anti-gay jokes, yet another stumbling block to our brothers and sisters remains. Another friend of mine comes to mind. He dislikes gay people but doesn't obey the rules of sexual morality himself. Could these traits be related? Perhaps God will leave him in his sin as long as he focuses on the motes in others' eyes?

I went to a Catholic high school, and also spent two of my thirteen college years at a Catholic college. I met almost no one who tried to be chaste. So I didn't either. Years later, I dedicated myself to obeying Catholic sexual teaching, even if I never met anyone else who was trying to do this. Suddenly -- by God's grace -- I ended up in a parish where there are many young people who follow the church's teaching!

These people, and people on the web like Ron, have shown me that I have allies in this fight. For this I thank them, and thank God.