“I am fully and finally done accommodating religious hatred towards queer lives.”
This statement opens the long tirade against religious people by Huffington Post writer Paul Raushenbush. He goes on to state that it is “pathetic” that it took the murder of 49 people for him to stop dialoguing with people who (in his opinion) think queer lives aren’t fully human.
He says he has tolerated dialogue on the issue for too long, “as if our lives are up for debate and as if the jury is still out on our humanity, our dignity, or our being made beautifully in God’s image.”
Funny that he should say that bit about being made in God’s image. Because his supposition that any major Christian religion denies that homosexual people are made in God’s image or are human is flat out wrong.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 2358, although homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered, homosexuals “Must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter.”
The Catechism explicitly states at the beginning of the section in Paragraph 2331 that, “God created man in his own image.”
So, regarding the biggest Christian religion in the world, his claim is the exact opposite of the actual doctrine.
The Episcopal Church also affirms that, “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church."
According to the Christian Reformed Church, “Persons of same-sex attraction should not be denied community acceptance solely because of their sexual orientation and should be wholeheartedly received by the church and given loving support and encouragement.”
And the list goes on. So, good news! The jury is in, and the verdict is that homosexuals are beautifully made in God’s image.
But, that’s not good enough for Raushenbush: “F*ck ‘love the sinner hate the sin’. All I hear in these conversations now is death… Prettified permission to kill others.”
Again, if Raushenbush were to look at the policies of the vast majority of Churches he’s complaining about, he wouldn’t have to put himself through all this. Also, that’s quite a leap of logic. I’m pretty sure that, if somebody loves the sinner, it’s not the same as permission to kill the sinner.
Raushenbush’s rant just doesn’t make sense. Like all too many emotionally-charged, post-Orlando statements, it doesn’t rely on logic or facts - but, simply on emotional appeal. It does not foster constructive dialogue or empathy. It is the negation of tolerance.