I do not in any sense believe that I am better than someone else just because the set of temptations I have and those I succumb to are different from someone else’s. How can I hate someone else for his sins or his temptations? I have so many of my own.The debate in this country over this and other controversial issues is such that it is difficult not to feel personally insulted when we are seen not just as on the wrong side of the issue, but truly as "haters" and worse, as being called to hate by our own religion. It is difficult not to join in the vitriol that surrounds and passes for reasoned debate. Staying in a place of prayer is one way to avoid volleying back the negativity that is sometimes flung our way. It is also an excellent way to focus on what really matters--the human person as having innate dignity.
The quote that begins the article is apt:
...the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years.
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”
3 comments:
being the mother of a gay daughter myself has been a trial in one respect that people are mean to my child. it hurts when people are cruel to my daughter verbally. i have been the source of verbal attack in the past because of people's hatred.
i do not condone homosexuality, but, at the same time, brooke is my daughter. she is my flesh and blood. and when someone attacks her, they attack me. it hurts. it really does. i love her with all my heart. and she knows it. i'd do almost anything for my child.
did not the Holy Father state that we do not condone homosexuality, but as regards the person, we are to respect their dignity as a human being? i believe he did. something to that effect.
I think that we need to concentrate on loving the *person*, no matter who they happen to be, because we ALL have sinned. This hatred, which crosses the aisle on both sides, has to stop. One thing Catholicism teaches is that all human beings have an inate, God-given dignity that no one can take away. We need to respect that.
absolutely true! some people forget that even the hardest of sinners can change! do they think it is impossible for God to change a soul? well, its not! my daughter identifies herself as a Catholic. she is obviously not a practicing Catholic, but don't you think there is hope for her? i do. no one can say there is not! because with God, ALL things are possible! our Holy Father has seen the dignity of the human beings soul. he is a wise man! he really is!
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