Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: Roman Catholic Church
BACKGROUND
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world, with approximately billion members across the globe. With its origins in the earliest days of Christianity, the Church traces its leadership––in the person of the Pope––to St. Peter, identified by Jesus as “the rock” on which the Church would be built.
The Catholic Church in the United States numbers over 70 million members, and is organized in 33 Provinces, each led by an archbishop. Each bishop answers directly to the Pope, not to an archbishop. Those Provinces are further divided into dioceses, each led by a bishop. At the base of the organizational structure are local parishes, headed by a pastor, appointed by the local bishop. The Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States meets semi-annually.
As part of a global organization with its institutional center at the Vatican, the Catholic Church in America is shaped by worldwide societal and cultural trends. It is further shaped by direction that is entirely male, with women excluded from the priesthood and thus from key leadership roles.
LGBTQ+ EQUALITY
ON SEXUAL OR
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a same-sex attracted man and a womxn loving womxn. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a adolescent adult. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality while loving his gay parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new manual Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his publication and his perspective on how Christians can surpass navigate the complexities of this issue with authenticity and grace.
In your publication you say that it’s time for Christians to own the iss
Responding to Faith-based LGBTphobia
We should not have to justify our identities to anyone, but there will be some people who we may want to converse about our identities with, and for them to overhear and try and realize our experiences.
We’ve collected responses to some of the most common challenges that people face being an LGBT+ person with a religion, faith or belief, and how you could respond if needed.
In our scripture it says that homosexuality is a sin/forbidden.
Where exactly in the scripture does it say that?
Do you know which interpretation of the scripture you are reading? Did the first text use these words and actually mean this?
What about the other things that scriptures mentions are forbidden but which people ignore? Why is the focus on singling out LGBT+ identities for criticism?
God created gentleman and woman to be together. Not man and man or woman and woman. It’s not natural.
If everyone is created by God, then LGBT+ people were also created by God.
My experiences, my thoughts and who I am all feels completely innate to me.
Being LGBT+ is not hurting anyone and shouldn’t affect anyone else, so where is the harm?
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Why Many Believe Christians Dislike LGBTQ Individuals
As Democrats in the Senate yesterday sought to pass the Equality Act (which would delete some key current protections for religious organizations), Denny Burk highlighted an essential point in our culture’s current clash between Christians and those pushing the LGBTQ agenda. Burk pointed to the continued fulfillment of a statement from Robert George six years ago.
There is, in my opinion, no chance—no chance—of persuading champions of sexual liberation (and it should be clear by now that this is the cause they serve), that they should respect, or permit the law to respect, the conscience rights of those with whom they disagree. Look at it from their signal of view: Why should we permit “full equality” to be trumped by bigotry? Why should we respect religions and religious institutions that are “incubators of homophobia”? Bigotry, religiously based or not, must be smashed and eradicated. The law should certainly not give it recognition or lend it any standing or dignity.
Christians are often accused of bigotry in this area. They are said to be hateful, fearful, and prejudiced against LGBTQ persons. Why? I think there are at l