Mark Brumley, CEO of Ignatius Press, has written a piece, "Aren't You Ashamed?", for National Catholic Register. From the opening:
“Aren’t you ashamed of your Church? How can you be so bigoted to oppose marriage equality? Why do you persecute gay people?”
That’s how one supporter of redefining marriage put it to me. Another said about the same thing, only she claimed to be a Catholic. My response: I am not ashamed of the Catholic Church. If I am ashamed of Catholics, it is for my failure and others’ failure to live the whole gospel, truth and love. And I am ashamed when we Catholics are embarrassed by Catholic teaching.
Why is it bigoted to believe, as Jesus did, that marriage is a union of a man and a woman for life? If that’s bigotry, then I am a bigot for Jesus’ sake, I guess. People like to recall the story of the woman caught in adultery and rightly so. We should not be quick to judged. We should ultimately seek reconciliation. Why does that mean, though, we should support so-called same-sex marriage?
Yes, it can be awkward when family members differ with us. We have to find ways of remaining faithful to Jesus and loving to our family. That doesn’t allow us to compromise on the truth: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37).
The fact is, following Jesus can be very “divisive”.
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery.” Very divisive, Lord.
“You brood of vipers ...”. Very divisive.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ...” Divisive, again.
“Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of ...”
Well, you get the point.
Read the entire post on the Register's site.
In two different Gospels(Mark 8:28/Luke 9:26)we hear the danger of being ashamed of Jesus words. Is political correctness really worth putting our eternity in jepordy?
Sadly, many Catholics seem to have a certain willful false belief that when it comes to the teaching for the Bible and the Church, "love" trumps the reality of sin and the consequences of disobedience.
Posted by: Brian Piecuch | Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 12:15 PM
Thank you MB for a well-done, even-tempered statement of the Catholic teaching. It is not an easy, much less popular one, but it fits with the way life is in all its difficulties. Even if it is becoming less and less "acceptable" in a culture which wants to earnestly affirm diversity in every sense of the word. It would be far easier to simply acquiesce. But it would also be dishonest. Let him who has ears, hear.
Posted by: Joe | Monday, April 22, 2013 at 02:30 PM