Trouble marrying justice and faith

By Sarah Tereniak
Collegian Reporter
August 30, 2006

For the first period of my life—13 or 14 years, to approximate—I followed the Roman Catholic faith religiously (no pun intended), believing fully in the Bible and its teachings. But as I matured and began paying more attention to the news, I came to realize that many of my personal beliefs conflicted with the moral standing of the Church. The controversies which rile me the most are the Church’s views of homosexuality and gay marriage.

The Vatican, along with other religious institutions, declares that marriage should be solely between a man and a woman. It lists many reasons for its beliefs; for one, it claims that the practice of same-sex marriage undermines conventional religious teachings of a proper marriage between a husband and wife. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith said in 2003 that “marriage exists solely between a man and woman…Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law.” In 2005, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo stated that gay marriage was “a crime which represents the destruction of the world.” This is little less than hate speech; how can we allow it to continue?

The Church turns to the Bible, the ultimate authority in matters of faith for the Roman Catholic community. Unfortunately, the Bible is being grossly abused; religious leaders, not only Roman Catholics, but those of other faiths, are misusing the Bible and are interpreting it far too literally in order to exercise their own beliefs, in my opinion. The Bible was penned by imperfect men over many centuries, and those men, such as monks, though writing through God’s inspiration, were ultimately able to write or edit whatever they wished. Many sections were also skewed or even lost through countless translations from one language to another. Although I doubt major sections of the Bible were ever altered in this manner, it’s a fact to consider: the Bible is perhaps not as perfect as some like to think and should not be treated as such.

I believe that the Bible should be used as a way of teaching God’s morality, not as a weapon to alienate Church members of “unnatural” sexualities. If God is truly all-knowing and all-loving, then no person on the face of the earth should feel abandoned by the Church. Leviticus 20:13 states, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” How could God condone this in His holy book? How could anyone in the present day, religious leaders in particular, support a message of such immeasurable hate? One may argue that this passage promotes murder, goes against the Commandments, and would never be interpreted literally in the present day, but the message that the passage promotes is nevertheless clear: reject homosexuality at all costs.

This is my hope for the New Year: to see the Church become more accepting of those who practice something other than heterosexuality. While I believe the Roman Catholic Church should support the idea of gay marriage, I also believe that the Church might need to take it one step at a time. It may take a while for the Vatican to depart from its orthodoxy and begin truly promoting a message of universal love, but it must happen now.

tereniaks1@lasalle.edu