A Layman's View

Honorius Bratton

Can A Homosexual be Christian?

Homosexuals are Christians, many of them. We speak not merely of children born into Christian families who are raised up assuming themselves to be nominal Christians. But among active, self-conscious, practicing Christians there are naturally many homosexuals. Like any other human being, the homosexual may take the self-conscious act to practice his faith, to seek regularly the forgiveness of God and neighbor for his sins; to receive the sustaining help, the comfort, the grace of the Christian community.

The question-and it is an agonizing one for many persons-is whether or not a homosexual may have sexual relations with another of his same sex and still be Christian, and still receive the forgiveness of the Church, still live in grace.

There are two sub-questions here. One, is the homosexual act a sin? And if so, how serious a sin? Every Christian sins and needs forgiveness for his sins. Yet how Christian can one be if he deliberately sins? This again, of course, may depend upon the seriousness of the sin. Many Catholic couples deliberately practice types of birth control which the Church declares to be sinful; many Protestants have deliberately continued to drink alcohol when their denominations have declared it sinful. In both cases, many of these people have known they were sinning, and they

sinned deliberately with the feeling that these were minor, childish sins for which they could easily be forgiven.

Another question is whether or not the homosexual act is actually a sin at all. Here the whole field of Christian ethics is in a state of flux. Many scholars are inclined to say that the only wholesome sex is within marriage -certainly this is the Catholic view -and that all extramarital sexual relations are sinful, no matter with whom or what kind. Some might feel that heterosexual relations are to be preferred, if one is to choose among sins, but that sin is sin. And the physical, the erotic sins are all minor sins because the flesh is weak, and one so often succumbs irrationally, under the stress of emotions which seem almost beyond his control.

There are others, still a very small minority, who ask if any sort of sexual behavior is in itself sinful. St. Paul writes in I Corinthians, 10:23: "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's and everything in it." And later in the paragraph, he says: "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

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