Let's clear something up here....

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm
Okay, just because it drives me crazy that people assume that people who are not avidly pro homosexuality are bigoted, closed-minded individuals, I have the actual teaching of the Catholic Church from the catechism. This is what I believe. Not that gays are going to hell. Not that gays are bad. Not that gays are less than human. I'm not a bigot, I'm not a "homophobe".
The link above leads to the Catechism's teaching on sexuality as a whole, and I'd suggest that, if you want to argue, you read that before you do. It explains everything on sexuality, which may help clarify any questions about the nature of this teaching.
Anyway, here's the teaching on homosexuality.

Chastity and homosexuality

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,¹⁴¹ tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."¹⁴² They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

I want you all to pay particularly close attention to line 2358. In regards to homosexuals, it says that "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."
It makes sure to explicitly state that homosexuals are not to be treated as less than anyone else. Because they're humans too.

Just thought I should clear that up. I'm no theologian, but I decided to find the actual teaching, and thought that I should share it.
Because contrary to popular belief, the Catholic teaching is not one of bigotry towards homosexuals. It's one of love. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

There's a funny picture on Facebook. It has Jesus sitting on a rock, surrounded by his disciples, and he says to them "Here's a thought. Why don't you all love your neighbors as yourselves?" A disciple asks "But what if they're gay or worship other gods?" To which Jesus replies "Did I f*&$ing stutter?"
Yes, not the most reverent or biblically accurate, but it puts a good point across. Jesus said "Love your neighbor." That means everyone. Including people who are gay, including people who are bisexual, including people who partake in anything that God consider sinful.

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark, 12:31.

There. Found the actual quote, with the bible verse. Under religious view on Facebook, I have Roman Catholic, and this verse is my description.
Too many people see the calling a Christian as one of hardship and sacrifice alone. Yes, there is hardship and sacrifice, but there's more to it than that. There's a great security in God, a great peace, a great happiness, a great love. And I wouldn't be saying this if I hadn't felt it for myself. Yes, it can be hard, but when it comes down to it, God will make you happy. Honestly, if you just let Him into your life, He works wonders. Trust me. I know.

But delving deeply into my christian faith is a topic for another post, perhaps on my other blog. I'm not sure whether that would count as a BFUO. Probably not.

Anyway, it's getting late and I've got class tomorrow. Yay....

Thanks for listening, blog. And thank you for reading, whomever may see this. It makes me happy that someone can hear me screaming.

Until next time,
T-WAC

The first of many....

The homosexuality debate is a huge issue. It doesn't take a genius to see that. It's everywhere.
This will be the first of many posts on the issue of homosexuality and/or gay marriage.
Okay, let's start with my view.
Everything I said about buttering everything up so I wouldn't offend people from the last post? Yeah, I was feeling exceptionally nice that day. I didn't start this blog so that I could be nice, I started it because I would be called closed-minded, stupid, old fashioned, and a host of other nasties for shooting off my mouth in public. The majority of my opinions are not popular at all. So here I am, stating exactly how I feel, so I can get it out and be tolerant of the majority, whose views differ from mine, without feeling the need to state how I feel. So, if you're gonna be offended, please, be offended, by all means. This is for my benefit, not for yours. This is, in a sense, my angry blog, where I shoot off my mouth about issues too mature in content for my other blog (walrusinyourshirt.blogspot.com). Of course, my posting on that blog's been rather dark lately, but I'm getting better. I should be posting normally (for me, anyways) soon.
Way off on a random tangent there.
Back on topic.
I am not for homosexuality or gay marriage.
Before you start accusing me, allow me to elaborate. I have a friend who is trying to figure out whether she is lesbian or bisexual. I have friends who are bisexual. One of my best friends on the planet is bisexual, and I didn't even know about it until about a month ago. I've known her for five years. And I will tell you, I see no difference between them and my heterosexual friends. There is no difference. They are people too. I will never look at the aforementioned best friend any differently because of what she told me because, regardless of sexual orientation, she's still one of my best friends, and I still love her just as much. That does not, however, mean that I agree with what she, or any of them, choose to do.
My father, who works in the psychiatric field, once told me a few examples of affirmations to keep the psychiatric health up and train against cognitive distortions. One of these is "I am not my actions." Your actions do not define who you are. They are what you do. What you do does not make you a bad person. I can love these people and treat them as equals, despite the fact that they are doing something that I believe is wrong. I'm not anti-gay. Anti-gay implies that I am against the people. I'm not against the people. I'm just not for homosexuality.
There are many reasons why. I'll get into them in detail on different posts, since if I tried to fit them into one post, it would spend eternity under revision as a draft.
The basic gyst is this: both the bible, and the catechism of the Catholic Church both say that homosexuality is wrong. And yes, I know there's an argument against that, which uses bible verses. It's been circulating on facebook for some time now, and most, if not all, of my friends, are very strongly pro-homosexuality. I will address that argument in a later post.
My views on this issue are largely faith-based. That means, for all you intellectuals out there, that I believe it without any proof. I believe it because a Jewish guy two-thousand years ago was executed for telling the people in charge that they were wrong, and then came back three days later. I believe it because someone laid down the rules for a group of cavemen wandering aimlessly in the desert, and these cavemen, though they frequently disobeyed, always came back to them. I believe it because some Roman whose hobby was killing the followers of said Jewish guy got knocked off of his horse and then became one of the greatest preachers of the new controversial movement known as christianity. I don't have any proof for this. I just believe it. Because, in my heart, I know that it's right.
I do have some logical arguments against homosexuality. However, when it comes down to it, my beliefs are based on faith. That's the topic for another post, though.

The original subject of this post, the initial reason I started writing it, was because I became more than a little ticked off at something a friend of mine said.
Okay, so Barack Obama officially supports gay marriage now. He's willing to let the states make their own laws (thank God), but he supports gay marriage.
That doesn't irk me. It's a free country, you can believe what you want, say what you want, whatever.
What irked me, was the response, which was posted on facebook.
"I'm glad he had the courage to stand up and say that."
It seems to me that, for every one person who tells you you're an idiot, there'll be two people backing you up.
To be honest, I think it takes more courage to be against gay marriage. Why? One word. Whenever someone says they aren't for homosexuality, one word is brought to mind.
Homophobe.
To stand up and say "I think homosexuality is wrong" is to be labeled a homophobe by the majority.
What does homophobe mean?
Dictionary.com defines it as fearing or hating homosexuals.
Now, look at how long it took me to define my views on homosexuality in one of the paragraphs above. I just went through a whole lot of work to make sure you know that I am NOT a homophobe.
If those who are not for homosexuality are automatically labelled by the majority as gay-hating, which is accompanied by judgemental, intolerant, and the like, it's obviously pretty intimidating to get up there and say, dude, I'm not for homosexuality. I'm afraid to tell some of my friends my views. And these are my friends I'm talking about. Not random people I talk to. My friends.
Honestly, there are people who are gonna say that you're, I don't know, stupid, supporting immorality, etc. if you say you're pro homosexuality. But I know that if you guys were to stand up in a public, nonreligious environment, such as a secular college or a school, you'd have several people ready to back you up the second someone told you that homosexuality was a sin. For me, if I stood up in my school's cafeteria and challenged someone who was stating that they were pro homosexuality, I would have a whole bunch of people yelling out their arguments at me and calling me homophobic. And I will say, I doubt that anyone who shared my point of view would stand up with me, for fear of being labelled similarly.
So I guess it does take courage to stand up and say that you're for gay marriage. But it takes more courage to say that you're against it.
That's what made me mad about what my friend said. Yeah, what Obama said took courage. But at this point, it seems that the majority is for gay marriage, and it would take much more courage to risk being labelled homophobe and state that you are against gay marriage.
That's just what I think anyway.

So, in conclusion, hate if you want to, I don't really care. Be tolerant, because my point of view is not mainstream at all.
And, overall, I'm not trying to argue with you. This blog is for my benefit, not yours. I wanna shoot my mouth off somewhere, and if you don't like that, I don't care.
This is what's called freedom of speech.
It's late and my brain is no longer functioning. I should probably stop typing now.
Until next time,
T-WAC

An introduction

Many of my opinions have alot of misconceptions about them. So, I figure, for a first post, I'll clear some of these up.

Just because I'm pro-life doesn't mean I'm against women, and I want them to be suppressed like they were back in the 1800s.
Just because I'm not pro-homosexuality doesn't mean that I'm homophobic. My friends are my friends, regardless, and I'll always love them no matter what.
Just because I'm christian doesn't mean that I think everyone else is going to hell. "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
Just because I'm pro-chastity doesn't mean I think sex, or sexual pleasure, is bad. Contrariwise, it's one of God's gifts to us. Quite honestly, the feeling of kissing is the one greatest thing I've ever felt in my 17 years of living.
Just because I believe these things extremely strongly doesn't mean that I going to think any less of you if you disagree. I'm not going to think less of you if you're gay, bisexual, or lesbian, if you've lost your virginity, if you're trying to lose your virginity, if you're athiest, if you secretly think I'm an old-fashioned freak who refuses to get with the times.
In brief, just because I have these opinions doesn't mean that I look down on people who sport views differing from mine.
Most people don't know what I actually believe. They assume they know what I believe, and then they argue with me on grounds of what they THINK I believe, and then they don't listen when I tell them that's not the case. It's so much easier to argue with someone when you attribute to them a faulty point of view, and then easily question it and disprove it. I will get into my real opinions in posts farther along.
I don't seek to tell you you're wrong. I just want you to understand how I see things.
Anyway, hope you enjoy. Or at least read with an open mind.
T-WAC