Father Longenecker corrects Father Martin's slippery language

Father Martin is a pro-gay, liberal priest, and he has a large following among intellectual liberal Catholics. Some of his messaging I can sign onto 100%, e.g., be kind to everybody, don't judge people solely by their faults, etc. Other people communicate these things better and less jargonistically, but ok.

However by conflating terms that mean different things, Father Martin justifies behavior which the church teaches is sinful. Father Dwight Longenecker deals adeptly with this tendency in this article, especially in dealing with his recent assertion "Being gay isn't a sin," which he uses to scold Franklin Graham. Excerpt:

I should say that this post is not a comment on homosexuality per se. I have no opinion on that matter other than the teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

What I would like to comment on is Fr Martin’s deceitful use of language.

First he says “Being gay is not a sin.” Yes. We all agree that experiencing same sex attraction is not a sin. I’m sure Franklin Graham also agrees with this. Fr Martin knows that we agree with him on this, but without saying so, he conflates “Being gay” with gay sexual activity. How do I know this? Because Fr Martin supports New Ways Ministry and one of their constant refrains is, “You can’t pretend to accept gay people if you do not accept the way they love.”

He knows “being gay” for the vast majority of his readers means “living gay.” He is quite content to use fuzzy language in order to blur the distinctions.

Second, he states the lie that God makes people gay. The genesis of the homosexual condition is, no doubt, complex and clearly many people who are attracted to people of the same sex truly believe they were born that way. While one ought to respect their feelings it is also true that their feelings do not match the facts.

This slipperiness is a major temptation for people who want the church to change 2,000+ years worth of tradition and teach that homosexual acts are not intrinsically wrong and not intrinsically disordered. The word gay is merely a jargonistic way to refer to someone who acts on homosexual desires. So they talk about people being born gay and "let's be loving toward gays" and skirt the issue of what said person does about their tendencies. If we bring up that people need to abstain from illicit sexual relations at this point we lose points in their minds because we brought up something unmentionable. We've taken the discussion into the gutter. We are the judgemental people who cannot be trusted to not be bigoted, so we can hardly teach catechism or religious education because who knows what might come out our mouths.

I have seen this over and over again among the little elites at the parish level who are at this point conditioned to not bring up any hot-button issue if it directly or indirectly touch sexual morality. Abortion, contraception, divorce suffer the same fate as homosexuality among the people dealing with religious formation and education. But anything political is 100% fair game, believe me. With regard to abortion: I remember a presentation about the 10 Commandments given by 8th graders. They were listing examples of sins which are a breach of the Fifth Commandment — "Thou shalt not murder," — and they mentioned bullying, littering and failing to recycle as ways to break this commandment, along with actually committing murder of another human. They did not mention abortion.

The refrain of New Ways which Father L. brings is is particularly problematic. "You can’t pretend to accept gay people if you do not accept the way they love." But the "way they love" is harmful, not just spiritually. I invite everyone to read about the spiritual and psychological dangers of homosexuality. I invite everyone who has a very, very strong stomach to read about the physical dangers — you have been warned. Saying that these acts are loving is neglecting an enormous impact from their behavior, i.e., the destruction of their own bodies, not to mention their souls.

Good for Father Longenecker for not being afraid to give Father Martin the moniker "Slippery Jim". It fits.