Cardinal Dolan: The Catholic church isn't anti-gay

[Jacob(smooth)]

The way I see this issue is if we treat each other equally with respect we won't have the problems we do. I believe having homosexual sex is immoral. Heck, I believe any sexual relationship outside of marriage is immoral. That's my belief, so why hate me for that. I also disagree politically with Democrats, but I don't hate them. If we as a country feel that homosexual couples and unmarried couples are being discriminated against by the tax system or other privilege granted to married couples, then we can give them that right. But for thousands of years marriage has been defined as a union between a man and a woman and has been held as sacred to many. We're now changing that meaning. That's like a college saying that they are changing the definition of fraternities and saying that they're now for men and women. Women already have sororities which have equal privileges. If we're going to grant the same rights, call it something else.

Respectfully, I disagree. Agreed that marriage in the USA has been synonymous with heterosexual monogamy, but it's hundreds of years not thousands. In the new Testament times it wasn't. In many parts of the world it still isn't. I agree that many people have strong views on what marriage should be, but they don't get to decide, no matter how firmly they hold those beliefs. The thing is, marriage is not Christianity's institution to defend! It predates Christianity. It exists outwith Christianity. Ergo Christianity has no moral authority to decide what gets to be defined as marriage.

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It is clearly mentioned in the Bible, in Leviticus 18:22 which says:

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

Jesus also says in Matthew 5:17:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."

The level of flexibility that the Church can have with respect to gay sex is defined in those 2 verses.

See its all one big misunderstanding. Leviticus is quite clear. Man should not lie with man kind as with woman kind because lieing is wrong! It's OK to do it with women, (of course your bum does not look big etc) but not with men.

I admit the wording could have been clearer...