Moral Choices for GLBT Christians.

Fr. Jake's been reading Other Voices Other Worlds: The Global Church Speaks Out on Homosexuality and has a summary of Bishop Charles Hefling's essay How Shall They Know. Read it.

Hefling suggests that current arguments for reconfiguring the norms regarding same sex relationships revolve around the theme of justice. It is in the name of justice that we insist that there should be no second class citizens in the kingdom of God. It is in the name of justice that we argue that if baptism gives us full membership in the Church, and qualifies us to receive the Eucharist, it should follow that all the baptized are also qualified for the blessings of ordination and marriage. Excluding a person because they are gay is unjust.

Hefling suggests that the justice argument alone is not necessarily wrong, but is insufficient. Although justice is one of the cardinal virtues, it is not one of the theological virtues (not the primary concern of the Gospel). The argument for justice by itself is not enough to refute the objection that Christians are held to a higher standard than that imposed by civil laws; it does not counter the objection to sin."

Hefling suggests that the biblical laws have always required that distinctions be made. Even if one views it as an instruction manual, there is no guide as to how the instructions are to be applied. That task has traditionally been left to the Church, using "natural reason," or, as Hefling puts it, "judgment based on the most serious and intelligent deliberations Christians could bring to bear..." He then summarizes this point:

God is not at odds with our best moral judgment. The human capacity to know the good is not only a capacity that he has created but also, what is more, a likeness and a taking part in his eternal Word, the true light that enlightens every man and woman.