What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

And honestly, I do believe God shows great mercy for gay folks who act on their attraction, whether catholic or not.

Why do you believe this?  Because of this:

It must be extremely difficult to have to live a celibate life and to never get to feel the closeness of a life partner.

But people wouldn't have to live life like that if your ilk didn't tell people it was immoral.  Conflating homosexuality with child molestation is a really bad trick, too.  That is disingenuous, dishonest, and just plain vile.  How moral is that? Well they still don't have to live life like that. It's their decision, as it should be. It is not right to force it on anyone. If you read my earlier posts, you will see that I was not comparing the 2. Merely commenting on a statement someone made about not acting on impulses.

I'm sure God understands that better than any of us

Then why would he make it objectively immoral? That is a good question and one that I cannot fully answer. I would say that since He created the concept of sex, He must know that using it outside the context of husband and wife can be harmful in some way.

and I think He is very merciful to these people.

Again: why do you think that? See above.

When speaking about objective actions, we can say whether and action is moral or immoral in and of itself. But we can never judge the state of another  person's soul.

Why; because you say so?  You're allowed to judge everything but someone's soul?  I don't think that's what it says in the Bible...

Well, it's what I personally believe. I do believe we can judge a particular action as being good or bad... we do it all the time when making day to day decisions and when trying to figure out how to talk to others or handle others, etc. Love the sinner not the sin is something Jesus taught.