Letter To The Editor: Response To Mr. Moore

By Rev. Glenn Jones
Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church
Los Alamos
 
Ray Moore (“Gay Love”, 12/31/15) is correct in stating that the true Christian is to hate no one, but exhibits a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian interpretation of the Bible: the letters of Paul and the other authors of the New Testament are not in opposition to Jesus’ teachings, but rather are complementary to them.
 
Another fundamental misunderstanding that Moore (and many others) seems to hold is that all (or a great many) Christians “hate” homosexuals; that is absolutely incorrect. Roman Catholicism, for instance, exhorts its (1.2 billion) members to have compassion and understanding for these persons. But “to love” does not imply acceptance of every behavior, nor does the rejection of a certain behavior imply “hate”.
 
The greatest “love of neighbor” is to teach and lead others to the Good—to God. Sadly, however, it has become fairly common to “profile” all Christians as “haters” simply because of a rejection of a behavior.
 
To the Christian, God is Truth and the absolute authority—the Creator of all and the source of all good. As our Creator and Father, He knows what is the Good for us. Our obligation and trust, then, is love of, and obedience to, God first and foremost.
 
God, as all Good, denies us nothing that is good. Biblical scriptures are His communication of His Good to us. Yet (literally) from Genesis to Revelation—from beginning to end—active homosexuality is consistently and adamantly proscribed. It follows, then, that active homosexuality cannot be good for the human person and God’s design for us; if it were of the Good and be good, God in His love for us would not prohibit it. This is taught in love and in the hope of realization of this truth, not in hatred.
 
Mr. Moore states: “Jesus is not concerned with your sex life, but rather how you treat others.” This is quite wrong. These are very often inextricably linked, and this is one reason Jesus refers to sexual morals many times—not only upholding Old Testament sexual morality, but even expanding upon its precepts (see Matthew 5, 15 and Mark 7, for example).
 
The Urantia Book to which Moore refers and relies finds no authoritative appeal whatever for Christians. As far as Mr. Moore’s “providing services” goes, a person seeking the Good does not promote or condone its opposite; that is most likely the intent of those who prefer not to provide those specific services he mentions. They likely believe that the ultimately best service (and, indeed, love) they can provide is to not support a behavior they see as contrary to the Good. There is no need to denigrate them by accusing them of “hate”.
 
This back-and-forth in the Post will certainly not settle this often contentious issue; even Christians differ on it. But it would be nice if we did not reflexively accuse of “hate” everyone with whom we disagree.
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