Navel-Gazing

From AP via Earthlink; it's also in NYT. The actual document doesn't seem to be available yet.

Just a couple of random thoughts. First, a misstatement of fact:

On the subject of therapy to change same-sex attraction, the bishops said there is no scientific consensus on whether it can succeed.

Actually, there is: changing sexual orientation is, as far as we know, not possible. However, behavior can be changed so that gays can live as heterosexuals. Even the "ex-gay" wingnuts now admit that. They will be miserably unhappy heterosexuals, and will probably at some point break down and start chasing teenage boys or keeping secret trysts with gay hookers, but they'll be living as "straight." Of course, we've been doing that for a long, long time anyway -- it's just that no one demanded that we believe it.

Sam Sinnett, president of DignityUSA, an advocacy group for gay Catholics, said the document is damaging because it recommends that gays "stay emotionally and spiritually in the closet."

But there you have it: in spite of protestations that the Church values the human dignity of gays and lesbians, it can't seem to make doctrine follow suit. It's perfectly OK to be born gay, but try to pretend otherwise, just to avoid being sinful, won't you?

I have a serious problem with this because sexual identity is a significant part of one's identity overall. It's so deep that tampering with it is tantamount to tampering with the personality as a whole. Most societies consider that a violation of basic human dignity. Apparently the Church hierarchy has no problem with this. I guess they think that they're the only ones who should be allowed to torture people. (The part about not being open about your sexual orientation with the congregation or the world at large really frosts me. That is pure, unadulterated merda, and represents nothing so much as yet another attempt to punish gays by denying their inherent humanity.)

This is the kind of thing that can only come out of a completely self-referential system that is slowly being eroded by reality. I suppose it's a step forward in that the bishops have decided that same-sex orientation is not sinful in and of itself. It's only sinful if you try to make it part of your overall humanity.

I'm probably going to be accused of being anti-Catholic (of course, I've been accused of that already), but to be quite honest about it, I can't really comprehend why anyone expects me to take this level of bullshit seriously, particularly coming from an organization that has run through its complete inventory of moral authority. This whole exercise in navel-gazing only demonstrates once again that the Founders were absolutely correct in their distrust of organized Christianity: it is inherently opposed to the ideals of a free and democratic society.

This will, of course, translate into political activity. Are we now going to have priests denying communion to anyone who disagrees -- including political candidates? Are we going to have pastoral letters insisting that our elected representatives vote the Catholic line? Word of warning from this sissy -- you don't want to go there.

As John Aravosis points out, it only took the Church until 1992 or so to admit that Galileo was right. So, give them four hundred years. Maybe they'll come around.