Cut Off from Hope

Because it's such a personal matter, discussions about homosexuality often impose varying presumptions, depending on context. For one, I've never come across a gay activist who won't admit that sexuality is fluid for some people — that some people are "waverers." Relatedly, even if they hold out hope that homosexuality can be genetically determined, they'll usually concede that for some people it's environmentally determined. Yet, it is somehow unconscionable for these waverers to seek help to steady the waver on firmly heterosexual ground, and it is dark bigotry for an organization to offer such help.

This perspective seeps out into the sympathetic mainstream press. Just consider the menacing imagery of Jennifer Levitz's description of a Courage meeting in the Providence Journal:

Rain fell on a recent night as the monthly meeting of Courage began in the rectory next to St. Charles Borromeo, a grand, church in the shadow of the Cranston Street armory in Providence. ...

At St. Charles, a loud, angry-sounding prayer could be heard through the closed door of the room where Courage was meeting.

This segment of the topic separates quickly to fundamental worldview, and I've little interest in exploring the psychology of either side. However, this is the context into which the Catholic Medical Association's statement "Homosexuality and Hope" enters, and it's must-reading for anybody who takes an interest in the debate, whether one expects to agree or disagree with what the CMA has to say. (The bottom two-thirds of the html page are footnotes, so don't be discouraged by the slow-moving scrollbar.)

My developing suspicion, with respect to the origins of the orientation, is that it's largely environmental. However, inborn traits may affect that environment in undetectably subtle ways. For example, if it is true that lesbians' blinking response to noises is significantly closer to the male range than the female, it may be that parents and siblings picked up on this trait and reacted to it, either as obviously as encouraging sports activity or as vaguely as instinctive reactions to behavior or accidents.

According to the CMA, "treatment for unwanted same-sex attractions show that it is as successful as treatment for similar psychological problems: about 30% experience a freedom from symptoms and another 30% experience improvement." Nobody should have a problem with unhappy homosexuals' choosing their own path in this direction, and we who believe that the fullness of life can only be experienced through faithful devotion to a religion that precludes homosexuality's normalization ought to encourage those open to chastity to seek it.

This is not to say that we don't often react to homosexuality with an emphasis that goes beyond what is merited or helpful, and the CMA makes an important point that both sides of the debate have a tendency to forget, for this particular sin, from within Church doctrine:

There are certainly circumstances, such as psychological disorders and traumatic experiences, which can, at times, render this chastity more difficult and there are conditions which can seriously diminish an individual's responsibility for lapses in chastity. These circumstances and conditions, however, do not negate free will or eliminate the power of grace. While many men and women who experience same-sex attractions say that their sexual desire for those of their own sex was experienced as a "given" this in no way implies a genetic predetermination or an unchangeable condition. Some surrendered to same-sex attractions because they were told that they were born with this inclination and that it was impossible to change the pattern of one's sexual attraction. Such persons may feel it is futile and hopeless to resist same-sex desires and embrace a "gay identity". These same persons may then feel oppressed by the fact that society and religion, in particular the Catholic Church, do not accept the expression of these desires in homosexual acts. (emphasis added, internal citations removed)

All in all, it's a rough balance to hold, and the especial difficulty faced by those for whom it is life, rather than rhetoric, rightly earns an explicit call within Church teaching to accept homosexuals "with respect, compassion, and sensitivity." This, of course, has its reciprocal demand that gay Christians make effort to live up to the very same teachings.

C.S. Lewis was right, in my view, to declare sins of the body to be of less import than sins of the mind and spirit. Unfortunately, the former have a way of transforming into the latter, as we seek to justify them. Rephrasing the italicized phrase from the CMA to echo Lewis's theology, God understands our individual burdens and our shared humanity. But that doesn't mean that tripping ought to be rephrased as grace. Seeking to justify giving ourselves over to temptation is the starting point for ever-expanding corruption. A lapse becomes a routine, then disruption of the routine becomes a problem requiring remedy.

It's not an area of thought that would be pleasantly explored or discussed (and I have not done so extensively), but one can see this pattern borne out in the creation of Viagra. And as with many sexual matters, this ripple laps most powerfully among homosexuals:

Charles, who asked that his last name not be published, suffered from impotence during the months he spent addicted to crystal meth, and he took Viagra to compensate, he says.

The combination turned him into a veritable sex machine.

"That's part of what allowed me to be able to just concentrate on having sex with people," Charles says. "With the crystal I could stay up for three or four days and have sex with 30 to 40 guys easily."

Although I lack an inside view, one can certainly say that Charles represents an extreme, just as the two men whom I've known who bragged that, for one week at some point in their lives, they slept with a different woman each day are not representative of straight men. Still, it's a spectrum, and cutting it off too far toward the permissive end will push the extreme out. It is for this reason that we must push it back.

(Thanks to Lane Core for pointing out the CMA document.)